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 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.
Playing with Purpose Coaching
Some of our favorite and most popular Playing with Purpose Blog Posts
Playing With Purpose: Water Play
Spring has sprung here in Austin, TX which means many opportunities to play and explore outside with my clients. A favorite activity of ours is water play. I love water play for its simplicity, the ease of getting started, and the fact that it's very engaging...
Get Started Playing With Purpose
In January, I wrote a guest post for my colleague Jill of Honest OT in Denver, CO. I shared some quick tips to get you started Playing With Purpose. Today, I am sharing those tips plus a bonus Hanen strategy so you can engage in more purposeful play with your...
Playing With Purpose: Farm Set
Moo. Baa. Oink. Quack. Imagine a well-loved farm set on the floor in front of your child. If you do not already have a farm set in your home or therapy toolkit, then I highly recommend getting one. My number one tip when adding a farm to your toy repertoire is to find...
PWP: Speech Sounds + Bonus Book Review
Children learn to say sounds correctly by listening and hearing the people around them speak. Speech sounds, sometimes called phonemes, are acquired and mastered at all different ages. For instance, the /p/ phoneme develops early for children, and we often hear it as...
PWP Using a Ball
You can use anything around you to stimulate and boost a child's speech and language skills. Sometimes the simplest, like a ball, is the most beloved. That is the basis for Playing With Purpose. I help you look at what you have and explore how you can adapt it or...
PWP: Family Meal Time
You may be a bit confused looking at the title of this post. I can imagine you're thinking, "I do not want my children playing while we are engaged in family meal time." At a young age, it is vital for our young ones to have time to play with their food,...
Playing With Purpose: Winter Break
We are quickly approaching the time of year that children love. Along with the holidays comes winter break. While a great time for family bonding, winter break can be a challenge for parents to find indoor activities for the whole family and sneak in some...
Playing With Purpose: Blocks
Blocks come in all shapes and size. There are cardboard blocks, wooden blocks, and colored blocks. You can make blocks from old Tupperware or turn an Amazon box into a block shape sorter. There are brands such as Lincoln Logs, Legos, and Topamino. Just like there are...
Playing With Purpose: Playdough
This week marks my 24th blog post and the 10th in my Playing With Purpose series. While I am proud of myself for undertaking this blog writing, I want to commend you (parents, caregivers, therapists, and readers) for your efforts to increase language opportunities for...
Playing With Purpose: Cars
There is no denying it, children love to play with cars. Many days, I walk into a family's home for therapy, and I see cars strewn about their play area. Cars are versatile and an excellent vehicle (ha ha ha) for speech and language development. You likely spend a...
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!