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PediaSpeech Blog

News, announcements, and feature articles of interest to our PediaSpeech families

building blocks for reading

Help Your Child Learn to Read: Phonological Awareness Games for Preschoolers- Isolation

By Kayla Bates Santoro | Nov 1, 2023

So far in this series, we have identified what Phonological Awareness is, why these skills are important, and what the areas of Phonological Awareness include (Rhyming, Blending, Segmenting, Isolation, Deletion, Substitution). In my two previous Phonological Awareness Games for Preschoolers posts, we have dug a little deeper into identifying specific games/materials you can utilize at…

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young girl smiling

What is Tongue Thrust and How Can it be Treated?

By Jennifer McCullough | Oct 24, 2023

As speech pathologists, we always get this question: What is tongue thrust, and how can it be treated? Tongue thrust is when the tongue protrudes past the teeth during speech, eating, or at rest. Although tongue thrust is a typical pattern/reflex in infancy, it can become a habit causing difficulty with eating, speech, and even…

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child reading

Help Your Child Learn to Read: Phonological Awareness Games for Preschoolers- Segmenting and Blending

By Kayla Bates Santoro | Oct 20, 2023

In my previous blog posts, I walked you guys through what Phonological Awareness is, why these skills are vitally important to the development of reading in children, and the five areas of Phonological Awareness that are vital to reading success. As a refresher, these skills include Rhyming, Segmentation, Blending, Isolation, Deletion, and Substitution. Today we…

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girl on playground

How To Teach the Basics of Motor Planning

By Maria O'Farrell | Oct 18, 2023

Have you ever tried to bring in all of your groceries at once, just to save another trip to the car?  This requires significant motor planning.  Motor planning, also known as praxis, is the ability to perform a new or skilled motor task, and is dependent upon adequate body awareness, tactile processing, ideation, initiation, timing,…

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child who is a picky eater

Does My Picky Kid Need Feeding Therapy?

By Jennifer McCullough | Oct 16, 2023

One of the basic jobs of a parent from the time their child is born is to make sure they are getting enough to eat. As a newborn this is based on amount of breast milk or formula they drink and we have a little more control of how much and when our babies eat.…

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phonological learning

Help Your Child Learn to Read: Phonological Awareness Games for Preschoolers- Rhyming

By Kayla Bates Santoro | Oct 13, 2023

In my previous blog post, Phonological Awareness Skills All Kids Need to Learn, I walked you guys through what Phonological Awareness is, why these skills are vitally important to the development of reading in children, and the five areas of Phonological Awareness that are vital to reading success. As a refresher, these skills include Rhyming,…

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Myofunctional Exercises Anyone can do at Home

By Julia Conley | Jun 6, 2023

Did you know exercise for your health is not only limited to your arms, core, and legs? Some activities can target your facial muscles and tongue, too. Just like workouts in the gym improve muscle strength and posture, Orofacial Myofunctional Therapy provides a workout for tongue and facial muscle strength for appropriate oral rest posture.…

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girl engaging in virtual speech therapy

Why Choose Online Speech Therapy?

By Carly Cumberlander | May 22, 2023

At the beginning of the 2020 Pandemic, everyone of course experienced fear of the unknown while we learned how our new day to day would be conducted. For us at Pediaspeech and other Speech and Occupational therapists, this looked like a scramble to figure out how to keep providing our services to the children that…

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girl holding building blocks

Phonological Awareness Skills All Kids Need to Learn

By Kayla Bates Santoro | Mar 8, 2023

As a Speech-Language Pathologist, I often see clients come into my office concerned about their child’s reading abilities. But what many people don’t know is that there are vital pre-reading skills (also called phonological awareness skills) that can be taught to set children up for future reading success! What is Phonological Awareness? Phonological Awareness is…

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