Early Morphemes in Child language development
If you’ve ever heard a young child say “I goed there” or “two dog,” you’ve witnessed the fascinating process of language development in action. These “errors” are actually signs that your child is learning how to use morphemes—the smallest units of meaning in language.
How Concussions Can Affect Cognitive Communication
After a concussion, it’s common to focus on headaches, dizziness, and fatigue—but many people overlook one of the most frustrating and long-lasting effects: cognitive communication difficulties. This term refers to how we use thinking skills to communicate clearly, efficiently, and appropriately. It includes things like organizing your thoughts, remembering what someone just said, staying on topic, and picking the right words for the situation. These skills are often impacted after even a mild traumatic brain injury (TBI), like a concussion, and can make everyday interactions more difficult than expected.
Supporting Early Literacy in Kindergarten
Kindergarten is an exciting time when children begin to lay the foundation for reading and writing. At this age, literacy development is closely tied to phonological awareness (the ability to hear and manipulate sounds in words) and phonics (understanding the connection between letters and sounds).
Communication and Fatigue After Stroke or Brain Injury
Fatigue after stroke or brain injury is common and often makes communication harder, especially for people with aphasia. But with the right strategies—like adjusting when conversations happen, simplifying how we speak, and recognizing signs of overload—we can make communication more manageable. These changes don’t require special tools, just consistency and patience. By supporting energy levels and using practical routines, families can create easier, more successful conversations every day.
Speech Intelligibility in Kids: What’s Typical and When to Seek Support
Speech intelligibility—the degree to which a child’s speech is understood by others—develops gradually over the early years of life. It’s an important part of language acquisition, as it directly affects a child's ability to be understood by parents, peers, teachers, and others. Most children start out with speech that only close family members can understand, but as they grow, their clarity improves.
Stuttering in Adults: Understanding Challenges, Finding Support
Stuttering is often thought of as a childhood experience, but many people continue to stutter into adulthood. For some, stuttering may have been lifelong, while others might notice changes in fluency as life circumstances shift. Adult stuttering can show up in different ways—repetitions of sounds, syllables, or words, prolonged pauses, or tension that makes speech feel stuck and effortful. These moments can impact communication at work, in relationships, and in everyday interactions. Importantly, stuttering is not a reflection of intelligence or capability, but it can still create barriers when listeners respond with impatience or misunderstanding.
Understanding and Supporting Difficulty with Transitions At all ages
Whether you’re parenting a preschooler or supporting an adult after a brain injury, understanding and supporting difficulty with transitions is essential to improving daily function and emotional well-being. By anticipating needs, using clear cues, and practicing flexibility, we can help individuals of all ages approach transitions with more confidence and less stress.
Managing the Environment: Communication After Brain Injury
With just a few intentional changes to the environment, we can reduce frustration and help people with aphasia or brain injury participate more fully in daily life. Communication doesn’t exist in a vacuum—it lives in real spaces, with real distractions. By reshaping those spaces to be more accessible, we open the door for deeper connection, better understanding, and more successful communication.
Tips for Writing After Aphasia and Brain Injury
Writing after aphasia and brain injury is often slow, but it’s not impossible. With the right combination of visual supports, assistive tools, and structured routines, people can regain confidence and rediscover the joy of written expression. Whether you’re working with a therapist or practicing at home, small, consistent steps can lead to real progress—and renewed independence.
Phonological Processes After Age 3
While many speech patterns fade in the toddler years, others can stick around a little longer as your child continues to refine their articulation and phonological system. These patterns—called phonological processes—are part of typical development but can affect how clearly your child is understood. The good news is, with awareness and gentle practice, families can support their child’s speech clarity at home and know when it’s time to seek guidance from a speech therapist.
Auditory Comprehension After Aphasia or Brain Injury
For many individuals living with aphasia or recovering from a brain injury, one of the most frustrating daily challenges isn’t just speaking—it’s understanding. Long conversations, fast-paced lectures, group discussions, or even TV news segments can feel overwhelming. This difficulty stems from a breakdown in auditory comprehension and information processing, where the brain struggles to keep up with the pace, complexity, or sheer volume of language input.
Phonological Processes That Typically Resolve by Age 3
Phonological processes are rules kids use to simplify speech when their speech systems are still developing. These processes are part of normal language development, but certain ones should begin to fade out by the time a child turns three. If they persist beyond that, it could be a sign that your child might benefit from speech therapy to support clearer communication.
Reading with Aphasia: Strategies to Support Comprehension
For many people living with aphasia, reading comprehension becomes a daily source of frustration. Aphasia doesn’t just affect speaking—it can make it hard to understand written language, too. This might mean struggling to follow a sentence, mix up similar-looking words, or forget the beginning of a paragraph by the time they get to the end. Understandably, this can lead to a loss of confidence and avoidance of reading altogether, even when it used to be a beloved activity.
Spatial Words and Prepositions for 1–2 Year Olds
Between 12 and 24 months, children typically begin to understand simple instructions involving spatial words (“Put the block in the box”) and start using a few of these words themselves. These early concepts may seem basic, but they are essential for everyday understanding, communication, and future academic skills.
Anomia: When Words Get Stuck for People with Aphasia
Anomia, or word-finding difficulty, is one of the most frustrating symptoms for people living with aphasia. It doesn’t mean they don’t know what they want to say—in fact, the thoughts are often fully formed. What’s missing is access to the right word. That gap between thought and speech can feel infuriating, especially when the conversation is fast-moving or emotionally important.
Understanding Late Talkers: What Families Need to Know
Late talkers may say very few words, rely more on gestures than speech, or not yet combine words by their second birthday. Often, they understand more than they can express, which can lead to meltdowns or frustration—especially when caregivers or peers don’t understand what they need.
MLU and Why It Matters for Kids with Language Delays
Children with language delays often have a low MLU, meaning their sentences are shorter and simpler than expected for their age. Understanding MLU helps parents and therapists track progress and decide what kinds of language strategies will be most useful.
strategies for Supporting a Loved One with Global Aphasia
One of the most common frustrations I hear from families is not knowing how to communicate at all, or feeling like every attempt fails. But communication doesn’t end with speech, and there are strategies that can make a meaningful difference.
