Speech with Senta

♬♬Just one of them days ♬♫       ( cue 90s girl group )..... Ever have a day where you have ZERO ideas on how to entertain your kids?  Phew... I'm not alone. Now, let me clarify, I don't believe it is my job as the parent to keep my kids entertained 100% of the time. Part of development is them playing make believe, problem solving ( think puzzle s), and being OK having down time. But for those times when we need an activity, what is your go to? I have a few 'tried and true' activities in my mommy/SLP arsenal, as we all do. But what do we do when those are overused? We add pizzazz! Today, I'm not going to reinvent the wheel. No sir. Rather, I wanted to share a few regular, simple, everyday activities you probably already are doing with your little ones. The catch? We are adding some extra language skills aka ' pizazz ' to the punch! 1. Color . Yep. That's right? Not impressed? I know, but I said I wasn't going to reinvent the wheel.

" I feel tired" "I feel anxious" "My stomach has butterflies" "I just want to stay home" "I have a lot on my plate right now" Have you ever found yourself saying one of these things? I know I have ( maybe more now than   usual) . These are just a few of the way we, as individuals who can share our thoughts with words, express that we are feeling stressed . But... what about those who can't speak with their voice/words easily????? Many people can fall into this category: stroke survivors, those with neurodegenerative diseases, children..... But for today, let's focus on the latter: children . How does someone who can't speak or easily communicate their thoughts and feelings with words share that they are stressed? How does a child who may not quite understand what 'stress' is yet, share how she is feeling?