Water parks are fun and popular destinations for families during the summer season. In addition to being an inexpensive vacation and a relief from the summer heat, trips to the waterpark can be wonderful opportunities for language learning experiences! Included below are tips for working on specific language skills while spending time with your family!
Social Communication:

KidSpeak is taking a break from blogging as we’re holding our May Camp, getting ready for the summer semester and vacationing with our families. We will be back in June!

The answer to this question is YES and NO. Echolalia used functionally can help your child use and understand language; however, echolalia used non-functionally can have the adverse effect and can actually hinder your child’s progress.

An article was released by USA Today this week that gives a variety of statistics regarding parents’ views on vaccinations including those that trust their doctors’ advice versus those that trust celebrities’ advice over their doctors’. Within the article doctors express their opinions about alternative vaccination schedules and more.
http://yourlife.usatoday.com/parenting-family/story/2011/04/Most-parents...
~KidSpeak, LLC
www.kidspeakdallas.com

Easter is this weekend! All your hard work this month is about to pay off. Here are the three most important tips we can give you:

So the old school way to dye Easter eggs is fun and all but what is really in those funky dyes? And must we really have to deal with smelly vinegar and stains on our kids clothes? No thanks. How do we incorporate a familiar routine with a not so familiar routine? Water colors + Easter eggs! Your child will more likely be successful with making Easter eggs and you’ll more likely deal with less stress and less stinky mess with the fun alternative of water colors.

Just a few more weeks until Easter. The best tip we can give families when it comes to special occasions, special events, holidays and anything that your child will experience that it not ordinarily in their day to day routine is to PRACTICE! For example, an Easter egg hunt is not likely a part of your child’s daily, weekly or monthly routine so we need to MAKE IT A ROUTINE in order for your child to succeed during that family, community, school or church Easter egg hunt. How do we do this? PRACTICE!

It’s April and Easter is just around the corner! Easter is filled with family, friends, food and traditions. What do all these things have in common? Socialization! Easter and the weeks leading up to Easter provide us with wonderful natural language and social learning opportunities.
Let’s start preparing now for Easter! The more you prepare now, the more your child will participate the day of. The more your child participates and interact with others on Easter, the more positive memories they will have as well as the more positive relationships they will build.

Learn to Cook & Cook to Learn
One of the most language-rich and socially stimulating activities you can do is cook with your child! With St. Patrick’s Day, spring and Easter approaching, there are many fun things you can do in the kitchen, so why not let your children help out? Not only will they love it, but they will be engaging in a hands-on learning activity.