Your guide to activities and fun things to do with your preschoolers, toddlers and kids in san francisco, CA

SPEECH is Much More than Speech

by Michael Rohde

June 01, 2009

Today’s guest post comes from Tiphanie Kaufman, one of the Founders of SPEECH, Inc. I can happily and personally vouch for the effectiveness and talents of the staff at SPEECH, Inc. for my son Max has been learning from them for several months now.

There was a point where Max would pick up a word, repeat that word for a couple months on end, then suddenly drop it and start with a new word. Instead of adding to his vocabulary, he was substituting learned words for new ones. And he would use that one word for almost everything. When his twin sister started to lap him on learning new words, and it became painfully obvious that his speech skills were not advancing, we started talking to doctors. We were eventually led to SPEECH, Inc and we couldn’t be happier. Max’s vocabulary has grown tremendously since he started learning at SPEECH, Inc. He no longer replaces and substitutes words and instead is adding new words almost on a daily basis. Not only is Max learning how to learn, but he’s having fun doing it. At first, Max went kicking and screaming to the classroom. Now that he’s become acquainted with his teachers, he goes happily, with barely a wave and a look to his Dad; who’s left in the waiting room…

For the parents, SPEECH, Inc. offers regularly scheduled conferences to keep everyone up-to-date on goals, performance, and planning. Parents are also provided a quick status update on how that day’s lesson went as well, which also provides a quick learning lesson (at least for me) on how to better teach my kid how to learn. The entire process is invaluable.

As a parent, if you have any inkling that your child’s speech might be delayed, it’s never too early to start talking to doctors and medical professionals. Believe me, it’s better to have it looked into now before Kindergarten starts.

Enough of me… Here’s Tiphanie’s contribution:

The waiting room at SPEECH, Inc. gets more crowded as new children and parents find help with not only speech productions skills, but much, much more.

Speech Language Pathologist and entrepreneurs Tiphanie Kaufmann and Katie Pengilly started SPEECH, Inc. in the 1980’s in a quaint Victorian in San Francisco. They began with the dream of being in private practice for themselves and doing what they knew how to do best: happily, joyfully, artfully teaching children speech and language skills. The key is to keep children motivated by their own success, individualizing teaching and tracking progress carefully. This formula quickly served them well as the practice began to grow, and grow and grow. Soon, the little Victorian private practice turned into a large bustling business on Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco with 10 employees, an office manager and an office full of children who were learning and enjoying the process.

After many years in San Francisco the two ladies were asked by a group of Piedmont parents to open an East Bay office. This office is now three-years old and is staffed by four lovely Speech Language Pathologists. SPEECH, Inc. provides children with the tools they need to do well in school and move more easily through the social maze of the school years. Speech Pathologists no longer just remediate children’s speech production, they now are able to assist children in areas such as reading, auditory processing, and underpinning skills for success like memory and written language. A parent was recently overheard saying, “Picking up the phone and calling SPEECH, Inc. was the best thing I have ever done for my child.” Clients of the practice are taught new skills along with gaining the ability to learn new things with independence; this is teaching from the bottom up.

Right now, Tiphanie and Katie are focused on keeping up with new evidenced-based teaching practices, mentoring staff and speaking to educational groups and facilities in the Bay Area. SPEECH, Inc. continues to strive to keep up with research and techniques in Autistic Spectrum Disorders and social pragmatic work as well. The population that the practice serves is extremely varied. No day is ever the same and they like it like that.

Spring Cleaning the Crib

by Michael Rohde

April 27, 2009

Yes, you read the title correctly, today I am going to write about Spring Cleaning my children's cribs. You see, we have a hoarder. My little darling likes to put anything and everything into her crib because she absolutely needs it for her nap time and bed time. At first it was kind of cute. Then it became a problem.

Julia didn't become a hoarder overnight. She slowly worked her way up from a casual hoarder, to a hardcore hoarder, and then she recruited her brother into her Hoarder Gang. It started with her lamb, and then her two lambs, and then her two babies, and then she needed a book, and then she needed two books, after some time, she worked up to having a full library in her crib; along with her doodle pad, her tea set, a couple of toy cars, shoes, art work from school, and the list really could go on and on. After she was satisfied she had enough stuff in her crib, she started throwing stuff into her brother's crib, which was mostly stuff he really didn't want. And yes, she had to throw this stuff into the crib. The bars on the crib are too close together for most of the stuff to fit through, and she's still too short to pass items over the top rail, so she just kinda chucks stuff over the top. She's really quite good and I don't think she's ever needed a second try to get something up, over, and in. She also uses this same skill to put her dirty dishes in the kitchen sink, so it's not a completely wasted talent.

It was amazing she found room to sleep with all the stuff in her crib, but she managed. That was, when she did sleep. She's now reached the point where she does not take her afternoon naps. And she gets bored. Even with all the toys she has, it simply isn't enough to entertain her. So, what does she do? She throws all of it out of the crib and onto the floor: much to her brother's delight and he subsequently joins in. It makes such a racket and noise you'd think someone was smashing plates. We had to quickly put an end to this.

We adopted the same technique we perfected with ending the use of the bottle and the pacifiers: the kids went cold turkey. I know, I know. I've heard from many parents they don't like the idea of going cold turkey. Somehow they think it's cruel to the kid or something. The thing is, breaking in a new habit slowly takes a very long time and it's easy to fall back into the bad habits. That's why it's cold turkey all the way. It's always rough the first few days, but you know what, babies and kids have a remarkable ability to adjust to new things. Children thrive on a solid routine: whether it be feeding time, bed time, bath time, or play time; and this includes habits and behavior, which is all the more reason to go cold turkey. You see, if you break in new habits and patterns over time, you do not really establish a new routine right away and it takes that much longer for the child to realize that a new routine is in place. Going cold turkey puts the new routine in action right away, and the kids recognize and adapt to it very quickly.

My kid's cribs are now clutter free. They have one lamb and one blanket each. That's it. That's all you need to sleep. We've stopped the hoarding and the throwing, now to get her to take that nap… But that's a whole other story.

What Toddlers Don't Care About

by Graham Charles

January 06, 2009

The hackneyed cliche that toddlers sometimes enjoy -- even more than the present -- the box it came in no longer seems to hold once the kids reach about three years old. (Unless, that is, you got them some really boring presents.) But there are certainly some things that little kids don't seem to care about despite the near-insistence of parents that they ought to. The folks at Savvy  Read more...

Are you staying up late with your kids?

by Graham Charles

December 31, 2008

My nearly 3-year old daughter has only a very tenuous sense of time, at least in our adult sense. Even "bedtime" has only a vague meaning to her, despite our best efforts. She's all over celebrations, though. It took her about 15 seconds to figure out the meaning of Halloween (dressup, pumpkins) and Thanksgiving (family visits, candy), so I have no doubt that conceptually, "New Year's Eve"  Read more...

Medical Update: Don't Clean Those Ears!

by Graham Charles

September 04, 2008

Yet another pillar of my upbringing has toppled: there will be no more Q-tip ear-cleaning in our household. I was one of those odd kids (everyone teased us) who liked having my ears carefully cleaned. But that pastime will soon go the way of pre-teens without car seats if folks pay attention to the list of recommendations regarding earwax just released by the American Society of  Read more...

Summer Escapes for Parents on the cheap

by Mike Adamick

August 11, 2008

Summer is almost over, which means, for those with children in preschool, salvation is just around the corner. But if you're looking to kill some quality time without the kids during the summer months, Yahoo's Shine has a great article on doing so cheaply. From taking advantage of Ikea babysitters to grandma, the article looks at some genius ways to get away from the kids for a few hours, all  Read more...