How academic language instruction shapes bilingual preschoolers’ Spanish and English growth, with practical guidance for home and school.
Communication Skills
Why Does My Child Repeat Lines From Shows or Conversations? Understanding Echolalia
A child repeats the question you just asked instead of answering it. Later, the same child quotes a line from a favorite show during dinner, play, or a stressful transition. Echolalia in children can sound puzzling from the outside, but repeated language is not automatically random, meaningless, or something adults Continue Reading
Researchers Test a New Way to Help Autistic Children Communicate
For a young autistic child, an AAC device can provide another way to communicate—but only if the system fits naturally into the interaction. New Nebraska research on visual scene display AAC asks whether familiar photographs can make communication support easier to weave into play instead of repeatedly pulling a child’s Continue Reading
Copy Your Baby’s Sounds Back: Why Timing May Matter More Than Talking More
A baby makes an “oooh,” squeals, or strings together a few playful sounds. What happens in the next few seconds may be more useful than filling the room with another minute of adult talk. Responding to baby babble can be as simple as copying the sound, smiling, and leaving enough Continue Reading
Audiobooks May Help Change How Hearing Is Tested in Young Children
A hearing test can tell whether a child detects a sound, but families often want to know something more practical: what happens when that sound becomes speech in a noisy classroom, car, or playground? New work involving audiobooks is pushing pediatric hearing assessment toward that harder question by studying how Continue Reading
A Child Who Talks at Home but Not at School Needs Less Pressure, Not More Questions
A child can tell elaborate stories at the dinner table and become unable to answer a familiar question once the classroom door closes. That contrast can confuse adults, but selective mutism communication is shaped by anxiety and setting; being able to speak comfortably at home does not mean a child Continue Reading
Illinois Expanded Autism Diagnosis Access—What Parents Should Expect From an SLP Evaluation
Illinois families may soon reach an autism diagnosis through a professional already involved in many toddlers’ early-intervention services. A speech-language autism evaluation can now provide an additional diagnostic pathway for eligible children under age three, but the new access should not be mistaken for a shorter checklist or a less Continue Reading
When a Child With Communication Needs Changes Schools: Protecting AAC, Therapy, and IEP Continuity
A communication support school transition can affect far more than a classroom assignment. For a child who uses AAC, receives speech-language services, or depends on communication accommodations, a school move can disrupt the tools and routines that make participation possible. Concerns around campus reassignment became especially visible after Texas education Continue Reading
ASL at Family Movie Night: How Signed Stories Can Support Shared Communication
ASL stories for children are becoming easier for families to find, and that matters because access is not only about seeing words on a screen. For many Deaf and hard-of-hearing children, signed storytelling can make a family movie feel more shared, more visual, and more emotionally available. Beginning July 20, Continue Reading
Gestures and Voice Tone May Help Children Understand More Than Words Alone
Gestures and language understanding are closely connected because children do not listen with their ears alone. They watch hands, faces, body movement, rhythm, pauses, and voice tone to figure out what adults mean. That matters especially for children who find spoken language difficult to process. When adults add clear visual Continue Reading