Episode 50: Supporting Our Kids in Speech, Language, and Literacy

Detecting whether your child has a speech or language disorder can be confusing, and it is best to leave it up to the professionals to diagnose such a disorder. In this episode, Leanne Dall, a speech-language pathologist, shares some ways to detect signs that may point to the fact that your child is having difficulty with their speech and language abilities and ways to help them improve such skills. She also shares some ways to identify when it would make sense to get your child tested by a speech-language therapist so that they can receive the proper support.About our guest:Leanne Dall is a pediatric speech-language pathologist in Portland, Oregon. She is passionate about supporting children who are late talkers, difficult to understand, struggling to learn to read, and/or having difficulty understanding what they read. After witnessing the long-lasting impact of speech and language difficulties on academic and social development, Leanne is a strong advocate for early intervention. She has worked in public schools since 2014 and started her private practice Dallhouse Speech and Language in 2017.Show Notes: 4:27 The difference between speech and language"...Are they producing their sound correctly? maybe they have a stutter, they're having difficulty coordinating the words to get out [...] and the language is really the content..."5:27 Early flags to Identify if your child needs speech therapy"...Noticing that their child is having a hard time interacting with them or playing and is just kind of in their own world and needs some public interaction because that communication and those words are built on the interaction we have..."6:55 Helping your child to interact with others"When there are fewer words but strong social skills then we might work with parents and talk about strategies like, how to read books with your children..."8:00 Identifying root causes at early ages"Sometimes a child is just a late talker [...] then they need a push and so oftentimes these kids will appear to catch up by the time they're in kindergarten, the concern is that even though it might look like they caught up then they might have difficulty later down the line, so with reading or writing...8:47 Speech therapy at 3 and 4 years old"By the time they're 3 then they should be 75% understandable [...] and then at age 4 there is a huge jump that really you should be able to understand a 4-year-old a 100%..."11:50 Online speech therapy"...I found that a lot of the elementary school kids [..] that I work with, they did quite well because they could sit and really look at a computer..."14:02 Importance of learning language"Language is also the means that we use to become educated and also to communicate and build relationships with others so it's so central to all of our lives..."18:21 Sound and Sentence levels"...as kids get older [...] the idea is that they learn that words don't just have syllables or sentences don't just have words" 21:05 Parents perspective on speech therapy for their kids"...Moms asked me, Did I do this? Was it because my pregnancy was this way or did I not talk to my kid enough [...] like these difficulties are not anybody's fault, they come genetically..."24:08 Speech Pathology's network25:42 Trust your gut when thinking about looking for help"When you go to a speech therapist for an evaluation they don't just talk to your kid for a minute like we really spend hours knowing exactly what to look for..."Connect with Leanne:InstagramWebsiteCredits:Host: Jodi FriedGuest: Leanne DallEditor: Orlando Diaz