In this episode, I sit down with Rebecca Robbins, a pediatric speech-language pathologist who specializes in working with young children with autism, apraxia, and other conditions that impact communication.
You’ll find this conversation extremely helpful if you’re a parent of a toddler and you want to know how to interact with them in a way that helps them to build the speech and communication skills they need to thrive.
During this interview, we talk about:
✅How you can help your child develop essential skills such as “communicative intent”, so they can share their wants and needs.
✅Common signs of nonverbal communication that people often miss, and why noticing these signs is critical for your child’s development.
✅Signs and symptoms of diagnoses that impact both speech and language development in children, such as autism or apraxia of speech.
✅Tips for playing with your child in a way that facilitates language and cognitive growth.
✅How to push your child out of their comfort zone in a healthy way, so they can expand their skills and become more independent and connected.
✅How to use your child’s interests to make nonpreferred tasks (homework, cleaning, chores) more engaging.
✅How to increase your child’s ability to focus on a task (even if they are extremely active).
You can listen to the entire conversation here:
To connect with Rebecca Robbins, you can visit her website here, follow her on Instagram at @mindshaperslp or visit her Facebook page here.
Rebecca Robbins is a speech language pathologist who has spent the bulk of her career helping children, young adults, and families impacted by autism. She has worked in various settings over the course of her 16 year career including a private school for children with autism, Early Intervention & Preschool agency work, as well as a public school. She is now the proud owner of Mind ShaperSLP, LLC, where she provides 1:1 speech therapy, executive functioning and life skills coaching for individuals in their teens and twenties, hosts social skills language groups for ages 8-25, provides parent consultation services, as well as, online parent training programs. Her current online programs focus on teaching parents of nonverbal or minimally verbal children to use her proprietary hand cues protocol to teach their children to talk right in their own home. These programs include, Nonverbal No More, a lifetime membership and curriculum guiding parents step-by-step on how to set-up their own home speech program with their child and the Your Child Can Say Sounds Kits, which teach parents the basics of how to use her hand cues to teach their child to talk.
Rebecca has some special gifts for listeners of the Are They 18 Yet?™ Podcast, including 10% off two of her programs for parents.
Her “Nonverbal No More” parenting training helps parents facilitate speech and communication skills in children who are nonverbal, minimally verbal, or who are late talkers. You can get 10% off of “Nonverbal No More” here.
Her “Your Child Can Say Sounds Kits” program is also a great option for parents who want to help facilitate their child’s speech development because she walks through her cueing techniques for specific speech sounds. You can get 10% off the “Your Child Can Say Sounds Kits” here.
We also mentioned her free Motivation Maps that help parents use their child’s interests to make learning and completing non-preferred tasks more motivating and interesting for kids. You can sign up for the free Motivation Map here.
Finally, we also discussed the Pomodoro Technique in this episode. You can learn more about that technique here.
If you want a SIMPLE tool that will help you get through daily routines (like homework) with ease, WITHOUT bribery, arguments, or constant hand-holding, then checkout the Time Tracking Journal.
The Time Tracking Journal walks you through a strategy you can do in just 10-15 minutes a day that will help kids get tasks done effectively and efficiently, and critical thinking skills and self-confidence at the same time. You can learn how to get instant access here.