Playing With Purpose

 

Did you know that you have one of the keys to helping your child’s speech develop already in your home? That’s right! The toys your child has, hold the potential to help their speech and language skills grow and develop.

Through years of doing speech therapy with children, prior to working with an SLP, most parents thought speech and language development was a daunting and expensive task. This myth is why Playing With Purpose was born.

Through the Playing With Purpose work, Emily helps show parents and caregivers how they can take playtime and make it not only fun but beneficial.

She helps show parents simple, small tweaks that they can integrate into their everyday play with the toys that their children already love and enjoy.

The magic of Playing With Purpose is that we show you how to make small changes in the vocabulary you use and give you easy to implement strategies that help boost speech and language skills.

Playing With Purpose is a wonderful approach to follow for anyone who interacts or works with children on a daily basis. It’s designed for caregivers, teachers, speech-language pathologists, and parents that want to help children grow an improve their communication and play skills.

At Tandem Speech Therapy, we developed our signature Playing With Purpose blog series to help you find the magic in daily play.

Due to the popularity of the Playing With Purpose blog, we developed it into an easy to read book that you can have on hand in your home or office.

In addition to the book, and due to popular demand, we also launched our Playing With Purpose Coaching where Emily will provide you with your own, unique Playing With Purpose plan so that you can get the most speech and language development out of play time.

Lastly, because there is nothing that Emily loves more than working in ‘TANDEM’ with children to help their language skills improve, she offers comprehensive 1-1 therapy. Learn more about the speech therapy services Tandem Speech Therapy offers.

Playing with Purpose Blog Series

In my Playing With Purpose blog series, I explore how to convert play and everyday routines into activities that are both fun and beneficial for children. Play can create moments of learning for your child and moments of connection together.  With little tweaks to your interaction and the everyday routines you are already engaging in, you can increase opportunities for speech and language development in your child. The best part is it’s not a lot of extra work! As part of Playing With Purpose, I give you specific strategies to increase opportunities for speech and language development.

play with a purpose - speech therapy at home

Playing with Purpose Coaching

We are happy also to offer Playing With Purpose coaching at our office, on a phone call, or via video conferencing. During these sessions, I will provide focused instruction in Hanen and research-based speech therapy strategies for speech and language development. We will discuss the toys your child enjoys playing with and implement specific methods for increasing speech and language during play. I can also provide suggestions for toys and environmental shifts that may promote more learning in your home. Playing With Purpose coaching sessions are 1 hour in length. Contact us to schedule your first session today.

Some of our favorite and most popular Playing with Purpose Blog Posts

Playing With Purpose: Ball Popper

Playing With Purpose: Ball Popper

Five years ago, while working at a clinic here in Austin, I learned about ball poppers. A fantastic occupational therapist owns the clinic, and she purchased the cow ball popper to work on fine motor skills. I quickly learned that this was not an OT-only toy. I found...

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Playing With Purpose: Outdoor Play

Playing With Purpose: Outdoor Play

I am going to make a bold statement. Play is ESSENTIAL to the growth and development of your child. From a young age, play is your child's occupation. Play promotes creativity and problem-solving, develops resilience and grit, and builds social and cognitive skills...

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Playing With Purpose: Bubble Blowing

Playing With Purpose: Bubble Blowing

The blistering heat of summer is upon us in Austin, TX, leaving some of us stuck inside, but that doesn’t mean we can’t find some creative ways to have fun! Bubble blowing is a fun indoor or outdoor activity, and children of all ages love blowing bubbles. Bubbles are...

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Playing With Purpose: Grocery Shopping

Playing With Purpose: Grocery Shopping

You are a busy parent. Despite the growing number of delivery services, doing your own grocery shopping makes sense for you and your family. However, having to go to the grocery store with your children in tow can be challenging. Why not make a trip to the grocery...

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Playing With Purpose: Books

Playing With Purpose: Books

My inspiration for this week's blog post came when I was shopping at Target and found great books in their Dollar Spot. They are adaptations of popular children's stories. Each book comes with a variety of felt characters and items related to the story. The felt books...

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Playing With Purpose: Candy Land

Playing With Purpose: Candy Land

I use games all the time during my individual speech therapy sessions. They are a fantastic tool for speech, language, and social skill development in young children. Candy Land is a particular favorite of mine. I don't have a great memory, but I do remember the...

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Playing With Purpose: Bath Time

Playing With Purpose: Bath Time

One of the most effective ways to build language is during routines, especially routines that occur every day. That's why bath time is a great opportunity for you to connect with your child to build language. Bath time is a beloved activity for many children. It's...

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Playing With Purpose: Mr. Potato Head

Playing With Purpose: Mr. Potato Head

Mr. Potato Head is my all time favorite toy to use with preschoolers which is why I have chosen it for my first post in a series called Playing With Purpose (PWP). The PWP series will highlight a specific toy or activity you can use to build language skills during...

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Start Playing With Purpose

Learn how to purposefully and intentionally interact with your child during play and help them increase opportunities for speech and language development with our Playing with Purpose book!