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Book Review and Giveaway: My Toddler Talks

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 Today it is my pleasure to review a book written by a NJ based, fellow SLP, Kimberly Scanlon of Scanlon Speech Therapy LLC entitled “My Toddler Talks“.

What it’s NOT! As Kimberly points out this book is definitely NOT a replacement for speech language therapy. If you are a parent and are concerned with your child’s speech language abilities you should certainly seek appropriate consultation with a qualified speech language pathologist.

What it is! A nice and functional collection of suggestions on how caregivers and related professionals can facilitate language development in children between 18-36 months of age (give or take).

What I like about this book: Quite a lot of things actually!

It’s written in simple language, which makes it automatically widely accessible to a great variety of readers.

The terminology used in the book is explained very effectively that even some of the more slightly esoteric terms such as  “self-talk” or “parallel  talk” become quickly understandable.

The suggestions Kimberly makes are very practical and task execution is very simple.  All the materials  such as bubbles, cubes, dolls, puppets, and so on can be easily found in most households with young children. No specialized and expensive materials/toys are needed.  The instructions are both specific enough (which is very helpful to many parents) and easy enough that the tasks and activities are not at all intimidating (no complex organization/planning required).

So what else do I like about this book?

Well, I like the “Do Not” List represented by a cute acronym “C-U-T-I-E” (no pun intended), which recommends to caregivers things to avoid when facilitating their child’s communication such as over usage of negatives as well as having unrealistic expectations regarding the speed of progress.

I like the fact that there are tracking charts which parents can use (and I am sure that some parents will definitely take advantage of that) to document change in their child’s vocabulary growth.

I also really like the clear explanations for the parents on how play relates to language development as well as general recommendations regarding teaching common first words.

But what I really love about this book is the “Trouble Shooting Section” which provides caregivers with helpful tips regarding what to do when the child is not imitating or following their lead.

This is exactly the type of functional text, which will be helpful to many of the parents of emergent communicators (children whose communication abilities are just beginning to emerge and who could use a bit of a “playful push” in the right direction).

But, its not just parents and caregivers who can benefit from strategies and suggestions provided in this book.  Graduate speech language pathology students, clinical fellows working in Early Intervention as well as other professionals in fields directly related to child development (e.g., psychologists, social workers, etc) can certainly benefit from “flipping” through this book.  It would be especially relevant for those professionals who are just starting their careers as well as those who are making a mid career switch (e.g, from working with adults or older elementary students to working with young children).

Keeping the above in mind, I will be giving away a copy of My Toddler Talks to 1 lucky winner, whose comment describes most eloquently of why they would  like this book and how they may benefit from reading it.

Giveaway Rules:

1. Comment below on why you would like a copy of this book (you may need to register first, if you haven’t done so before).

2. Publicly share the link to this blog post on Facebook to promote it.

I will chose the winner Sunday, January 27th by 10pm and will post their name on the blog and on Facebook.

US entries ONLY!

Congratulations to cniles! 

You have won the giveaway!

 

 

 

 

 

 

11 thoughts on “Book Review and Giveaway: My Toddler Talks

  1. […] have previously reviewed another book by Kimberly entitled “My Toddler Talks“, which discusses parental strategies to facilitate language abilities in toddlers. In […]

  2. this sounds like a GREAT resource for us SLPs to have to provide to parents when they ask that familiar ? “what can I do at home?”. Sounds great! I hope I win 🙂 thanks!!!

  3. Please make sure that all who commented share this link http://www.smartspeechtherapy.com/book-review-and-giveaway-my-toddler-talks/ publicly on Facebook. Its pinned to the top of the Smart Speech Therapy FB page.

  4. I am an SLP, who works in Early Intervention. I love it, two year olds are the best! I am always looking for new ideas and exciting ways to facilitate language development. A copy of this book may give me new ideas I can pass along to my client’s parents, and a book I recommend caregivers buy. The progress/tracking chart is a wonderful idea to include in this book as it gives the parents a place to record and visually see the growth in their children week to week, and a reminder for parents to keep working on those strategies so they can continue to see growth!

  5. Teaching a child with special needs is very facinating and it would even be more facinating and exciting if ideas from this book will be implemented. Thanks for this wonderful suggestion.

  6. In reading reviews and comments regarding this particular book, I am convinced that it is a MUST HAVE resource! I love having ‘parent friendly’ resources to share. Currently, I have more 18-36 month olds on my caseload than I have had for quite a few years. This population is a definition of pure joy and one of the many reasons I LOVE being an SLP! I am also blessed to be working with great parents that are seeking good information in order to enhance their child’s communication skills. Thanks for a great opportunity to add this resource to my “go to” repertoire!

  7. This book will be helpful for me as I work with these population. Always like to get new ideas and learn!!!

  8. This book would be a very great help for me since I am still on my OJT as a speech-language pathologist. Since I know that I have a lot of things to learn about my chosen field, it my utmost pleasure to use your book as my tool of reference in imparting my skills to others especially to children. This giveaway is a big help! Thank you.

  9. I am a speech therapist that works with children from birth to school aged and a large percentage of my population is preschool aged kids right now. I have been working for three years and as a young clinician Its always helpful to invest in materials and tools build a collection. In addition I feel this would be a great tool to reference when sharing helpful tints with my parents to help promote carryover and generalization of skills into everyday routines. Thanks for sharing this giveaway!

    1. I am sorry helpful hints not tints.

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