For the last year, I have been writing articles on various subjects relating to communication skills for Hilltown Families, a grassroots, online community for families in Western Massachusetts.
Kathy Puckett Archives • Hilltown Families
Community-Based Education Network
Time to Talk: 11 Apps to Support Children’s Language Skills
The activities we do when on vacation can be used to support vocabulary and language skills. When used together with your kids, apps can also be useful tools to stimulate communication and fostering language carryover. This month in "Time to Talk," speech-language pathologist Kathy Puckett shares 11 apps to use to support children's language skills during the summer time.
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Time to Talk: Helping Our Kids Explain
Helping Our Kids Explain One of the classic cliches of the parent-child relationship is the question and answer, “What did […]
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Time to Talk: Stress-Free Reading
In libraries all across America, therapy dogs are brought into libraries to provide children with a stress-free reading experience that helps them immeasurably. Often times western MA libraries host these programs, an effective way to support literacy through companionship for young readers. Read Kathy's most recent post in her monthly column, "Time to Talk: Supporting Children's Language Skills," and discover the value of these programs.
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Time to Talk: Understanding & Helping Children Who Stutter
This month in "Time to Talk: Supporting Children's Language Skills," Hilltown Families Contributing Writer and speech-language pathologist, Kathy Puckett, addresses stuttering. This useful post include tips, resources and videos for supporting parents and adults raising and working with child who stutter.
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Time to Talk: Mapping Out Childrens’ Behavior
Our behaviors are stitched together by a series of reactions...how we respond to things, how we process and then how we move on to another reaction. For children it is important to have some recognition of behavior and how reactions dovetail. This month in "Time to Talk: Supporting Children's Language Skills," Kathy lays out a fascinating column including social mapping and feeling meters and how they can be used as effective tools.
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Time to Talk: The Importance of Applying Reason & Scaling Problems
Overreacting is often a damning thing to left at your door. It's very rarely acceptable behavior to overreact to a problem. It hinders reason, problem solving and communications. This month in "Time to Talk: Supporting Children's Language Skills," Hilltown Families contributing writer and speech-language pathologist, Kathy Puckett, looks at barriers to learning and how children can adopt some techniques to overcome barriers such as overreacting. Read on for some excellent tips and insights.
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Time to Talk: Sounding out the New Year for Kids’ Development
As a speech-language pathologist, Hilltown Families contributing writer, Kathy Puckett, is a big believer is building a culture of reading for children at home! With the new year upon us with thoughts towards New Year's Resolutions, Kathy encourages our readers to resolve to carving out time to read more to on your children. Quality time spent reading together is universally acknowledged as being crucial to any level of child development while creating memories and bonds between parent and child. At the end of the day it all comes back to reading...
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Time to Talk: How Listening Removes Pressure to Perform
We're all fighting the same battle: the clock. So much to get done. Always. Even kids are facing it through things such as a challenging curriculum at kindergarten level, which chews up play-time. If we're not pushing, pushing, pushing, we're not achieving. What has suffered has been the ability to listen because, as you've guessed it, it takes time. But listening allows us to give ourselves over and relieve stress a little and work smarter. Kathy really outlines the power of listening this month in "Time to Talk," which you will really enjoy reading. Because we're all in the same boat, right?
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Time to Talk: Constructing The Two-Sided Conversation
Conversations with kids can be a mazy roller coaster of a ride. Sometimes the lack of perspective taking can turn the conversation very one-sided and block any real chance of a meaningful connection being made. This month in "time to Talk: Supporting Children's Language Skills," Kathy shares her approach to organized thinking... something we can all perhaps plug into!
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Time to Talk: Practice & Monitoring is Key to Speech Development
Creating an environment for your kid's speech development is key to their growth. Parents naturally want to help their child and therefore can sometimes assist a child too much in, for example, finishing a sentence. It's great to monitor your kid's speech and let them figure out the power of sound manipulation. In "Time to Talk" this month, Kathy lays out some great guidelines in keeping that balance to drive your kid's speech development.
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Time to Talk: Putting Words on Feelings
Children can experience a myraid feelings, often dealing with several emotions at once. Traditionally, there have been a paucity of outlets available for children to articulate their feelings and learn the language of emotion. In "Time to Talk" this month, Kathy uses her experience as a Speech-Language Pathologist to give tips on how we can set up a system of dialog for children to articulate and communicate their emotions, and therefore understand them more. Read on for suggestions of reading materials and apps to help you along the way.
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Time to Talk: Summer Language Stimulation
Summertime requires a lot of organization. Some kids flourish with the structure of schedules, while others enjoy that bit of looseness in planning in order for some creativity to bud and grow. It's never a bad thing to just take a time out and to do something a bit different on a consistent basis. It freshens things up and adds a constructive brand of spontaneity.
This month in "Time to Talk: Supporting Children's Language Skills," Hilltown Families Contributing Writer, speech-language pathologist Kahy Puckett has some great suggestions for introducing innovative language activities that require just a few minutes of commitment daily. Read on to learn how to harness this with some clever language activities that are completely manageable while maintaining a hectic schedule.
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Time to Talk: Applying the Puppy Blueprint in a Toddler’s World
Being a newcomer to the world requires a lot of guidance, development and mentorship. In this month's column, "Time to Talk: Supporting Children's Language Skills," Kathy looks and how she works with her new puppy, Cricket, and how handling her behavior takes the same kind of patience and caring she finds when working with young children.
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Time to Talk: Consensus Building Equates Better Planning
How to build sustainable summer plans? Having buy-in at the summer planning phase from your children leads to a smoother and more enriching experience for everyone. By letting your children into the decision-making process you empower them and give them part-ownership in family activities. This month in "Time to Talk: Supporting Children's Language Skills," Kathy encourages families to allow children to contribute to their summer plans so they feel invested in outings and trips. In return, you just might be rewarded with their engagement and sweeter summer memories!
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Language Play: Learning Isn’t Accomplished in a Straight Ascending Line
"We don't learn in a straight ascending line," writes Kathy this month in her column, "Time to Talk: Supporting Children's Language Skills." As the end of the school year looms on the horizon and emotions intensify with students, Kathy recommends trying to bring learning to a deep level with learned language skills in many setting beyond the therapy room. Patience and encouragement is key as kids move forward, slide back, and then move forward again.
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Language Play: Learning to Play an Instrument Support Language Skills
"We all know that early intervention is best, so from now on I’ll recommend music training to parents and caretakers as a way to jump start an attention to language for all young children," writes speech-language pathologist, Kathy Puckett, this month in her column, "Time to Talk: Supporting Children's Language Skills." -- "The big news is that hearing well is very important throughout our lives and there is a pleasurable, fun and researched way to exercise our hearing and auditory brain at any age." Read on...
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Language Play: Winter Activities & Talking with Your Kids Encourages Language Development
When kids stay active in the winter they are excited to talk about their many fun experiences. This month in "Time to Talk: Supporting Children's Language Skills," Kathy shares the importance of staying active and engaging in conversation with your children as ways to encourage language development when the temps drop and the snow falls...
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Language Play: Memory, Language and Learning
"Memory effects every aspect of our learning," writes Kathy this month in "Time to Talk: Supporting Children's Language Skills." "When working with children with memory difficulties, I tend to think about two aspects of long term memory: the information going in and getting stored, and the process of finding it and retrieving it so it can be used. Some things that help storage and recall include...
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Language Play: Caroling and Language Learning
Singing together with family, neighbors and friends is one way of enhancing children's language learning. Christmas carols are an obvious choice today of what to sing today! Check out what speech-language pathologist and Hilltown Families Contributing Writer, Kathy Puckett, recommends this month in "Time to Talk: Supporting Children's Language Skills."
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Language Play: Add Structure and Language to Your Thanksgiving Menu
Some children are fine with the upheaval that happens during holiday celebrations, but if your child tends to be a bit more sensitive, make sure you plan more than the meal. This month in "Time to Talk," Kathy give strategies and suggestions on how to add structure and language learning to holiday celebrations with a little planning...
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Language Play: Growing Independent Children
How to prompt your kids towards independence... This month in "Time to Talk," Kathy shares insight on ways to help developing kids grow towards independence...
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Language Play: Learning How to Learn
If students are taught HOW to learn, might they do better in school? This month in "Time to Talk," Hilltown Families Contributing Writer, Kathy Puckett writes about teaching kids HOW to learn and giving them a road map to school...
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Language Play: Fair Season Language Games
Did you know that American agricultural fairs originated in Western MA over 200 years ago, and that one of the main objectives of American agricultural fairs is to educate? This month in "Time to Talk," speech-language pathologist Kathy Puckett writes about agricultural fairs in Western MA and how a trip with young kids can support not only language skills but also math skills with games based on your visit together.
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Language Play: Strategies for Encouraging Independent Play in Summer Months
This month in "Time to Talk," Kathy shares strategies for encouraging independent play in summer months...
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Language Play: Transitions in the Summer
The Bridge to Summer None of us are great with change. The beginning of summer is a transition time for […]
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Language Play: Learning Communication with Silent Films
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Language Play: Supporting the Creativity of Writing
Writing Skills: Putting Language Down on Paper I’m not an expert on writing skills, but I often find myself working […]
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Language Play: 22 Apps that Increase Children’s Vocabulary
Apps that Increase Children’s Vocabulary I once had a teen client who had the most amazing ideas and insights. He […]
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Language Play: What Can a Parent Do to Encourage Good Narrative Skills?
Narratives: What did you do today? Have you ever tried to find out about your children’s daily experiences? Well, of […]
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Language Play: Stages of Language and Resources for Practice
Grammarsizes When kids are little, we enjoy the quirky ways they express their ideas. We hear them say funny, ungrammatical […]
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