Social Skills

Does your child need help with social skills?

by Jackeline Gurdian, MS, OTR/L

It is key for a child to have positive relationships with peers to allow for maximal success in life. Academic skills are very important of course but without appropriate social skills, success is limited.

Social skills begin at birth but we often start to see and hear parents complain about delays when the child begins school.

Here are some examples of social skills that school aged children (4-5 years of age) should have:

·         Play group games appropriately (plays fair, takes turns, etc.)

·         Make close friends

·         Win or lose gracefully

·         Shows interest in others

·         Able to interact nonverbally (smiling, nodding, etc.)

·         Initiate and maintain conversations

·         Able to empathize with peers

·         Participate in pretend play

·         Able to stay on task for at least 5 minutes

·         Establish good eye contact with peers

Children learn from imitation and practice, so it is important to always show appropriate behaviors for your child to follow. For some children, social skills come naturally and others need a little help. If you feel your child needs a little or even a lot of help, please do not hesitate to contact us speakeatplay@gmail.com and we would be more than happy to find a social skills group that fits your child’s needs.

 

 

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Increasing Your Child's Vocabulary

Other Words your Toddler Needs To know…

 

By Karina Gonzalez, MS CCC-SLP

 

Do you know what words your child needs to have in his/her vocabulary? What I have discovered throughout the years as a speech-language pathologist is that parents are great at teaching children the names of objects. I see many toddlers that know the names of many animals, toys, body parts and even modes of transportation. This is great! However, these kids have a difficult time speaking in phrases. I find that they generally use 1 word to communicate and seem to resort towards gestures for everything else they need to say. In order for your child to combine words into phrases he needs to know many other words, not just nouns. So if you are currently working on increasing your child’s vocabulary be sure to include the following words in his/her repertoire.  

 

Spatial Terms:

• Up/down
• In/on
• Over/under
• Next to or beside
• On/off
• Between