Hi everyone,

There are still some times available here at CTA for you to schedule your child or children..Fast ForWord continues to be an incredibly successful program for kids to improve in the areas of Memory, Attention, Processing and Sequencing..all skills that are required for reading decoding and comprehension.

A new summer ‘Book Club’ has been added to the roster here. Students are bringing their summer reading requirements and we’re using them to improve reading and writing skills. Just think..no more frantic rush to finish those summer book reports the day before school!

Also in full swing is the Sound Reading Solutions program which increases your child’s decoding and reading fluency skills.

School will be back in session before you know it (only 8 more weeks!) so this is the best time to improve your child’s speech, language, reading and writing skills. Wouldn’t it be great if your child started his/her new school year with STRONGER skills than when they left in June?
Call today: 860-455-1334 to schedule an initial evaluation appointment and demonstration of programs offered here at Connecticut Therapy Associates. We can help!

Well, Winter, such as it was, has passed and we are now fully into a beautiful, warm Spring. We all know this will fly by and after a blink or two, the kids will have one more week of school and we’ll be thinking we didn’t plan for Summer yet! So here is your chance to get going on this early!

“Summer Spectacular” at Connecticut Therapy Associates is entering its 15th year and it would be great for your child or children to be part of it. Programs offered include the Fast ForWord Family of Products (improves language and reading by strengthening skills in memory, attention, processing and sequencing), Sound Reading Solutions (reading for fluency), Reading Assistant (reading for fluency and comprehension), and traditional Speech and Language Therapy for Articulation, Language Skills, Voice and Stuttering.

Call for more information today.  Connecticut Therapy Associates offers summer camp for your brain!

Now that your child is back in school and Fall schedules are in full swing, you may want to consider having your child’s speech and language skills evaluated before the first parent-teacher conferences in November. You can usually tell if your child is experiencing some difficulty early on in the new school year. Some ‘red flag’ examples are:  taking a long time to do homework that shouldn’t take a long time, not really wanting to go to school in the morning, complaining of stomach aches or headaches to avoid going to school, or not showing you assignments that are graded and sent home. These are just a few signs of the child who is not feeling successful. And it’s only October! Many times, these feelings of frustration can be due to a ‘glitch’ in speech and language development. If you look at speech and language as the foundation of all higher learning, like the foundation of a house, for example, and a few of the cement blocks are missing or not cemented in correctly, how can it be built upon successfully? Having your child’s speech and language evaluated will give you a better idea of his or her development in the following areas:  vocabulary, sound productions, early reading skills, auditory processing, phonological (sound) processing, grammar, syntax (the order of words in sentences, paragraphs and conversations),  and working memory. A speech and language pathololgist can also evaluate the status of your child’s voice, speaking fluency, language comprehension and language expression. If any one of these areas is underdeveloped, it could be a primary cause of your child’s difficulty with schoolwork.

Call today for more information and to discuss concerns and questions you may have regarding your child’s speech and language development. Waiting until the first parent-teacher conference will mean 25% of the school year will have already passed!

If you’re looking to make sure that your child continues to improve in speech, language, reading and writing skills over the summer, consider the programs offered here!  CTA’s summer therapy programs vary in length from 60 minutes once a week to 90 minutes five days per week. Children are seen individually and in small groups. Speech and language therapy programs are offered for the following:

Articulation ( sound production): learning to correctly produce sounds in the beginning, middle and ends of words, phrases, sentences and in conversational speech

Language:  establishing understanding and correct use of vocabulary, grammar, sequencing words, question formation and social language skills

Reading: improving sound-letter recognition, sight words and the cognitive (thinking) skills required for strong reading: memory, attention, processing and sequencing

 Writing: learning to take what we say and put it into written form; improving organization for written work and increasing sentence length and grammatical complexity          

Call today for an initial appointment to discuss which of our programs would best benefit your child over the summer months. Programs offered at CTA are just plain fun!

When we speak, fluency is the quality of saying words, phrases and sentences smoothly. Our voices go up at the end of a question and down when our statements end with a period. We begin with the first word of our sentence and glide through so our listener can fully engage in what we are saying rather than how we are saying it. Reading fluency is very much like fluency in speaking. Fluency is the ability to read text accurately and quickly. Fluent readers can recognize words automatically and understand their meaning at the same time. To help develop fluency, children should be encouraged to read aloud to you at home – and even re-read the same story several times. As a parent, you would be helping your child immensely if you read to him or her and have your child follow along as you read.

FAQ: When is the best time to read with my child?

In the real world of after school activities, sports, clubs and playdates, finding a relaxing, quiet time to read to your child can be tough. Perhaps the nicest time for everyone is each night for 10-15 minutes before bed. Think about it. Your child has had a long day (and so have you!). School is over, after school activities are done for the day,  and everyone has eaten dinner. Snuggle in your child’s bed for a close time – just the two of you. Choose a short, easy to read story. It’s a great time to end the day on a quieter, relaxed note.

FAQ: My child says he ‘hates’ to read. How can I turn around his attitude?

Children who say they ‘hate’ to read are typically kids who struggle with reading. Many of us take reading for granted because it is easy.  For a child who’s having difficulty learning to read, there can be three major ‘pitfall’ areas:

1) Decoding (knowing what letters make what sounds, then how the sounds combine to make words) 

2) Comprehension (understanding what all the words mean) 

3) Fluency (how smoothly the child can read – both aloud and to himself). So for the child who has declared that he ‘hates’ to read, have him start  off simply by listening to you read. Choose a book in which you’re sure he can read some of the words. Or name the pictures. Or tell you the color of something in one of the pictures. Let your child select a favorite book from early childhood, when reading was fun.

The key is to read to and with your child consistently. Every night for  10-15 minutes can usually be worked into the schedule. The more expression you use in your voice, the more your child will come to understand that being able to read fluently can take him or her to wonderful real or imagined places!

What is phonemic awareness? You hear the term used frequently during parent-teacher conferences when discussing your child’s progress in Pre-K, Kindergarten and First Grade.  You are told how important it is for the development of strong reading skills. But what IS phonemic awareness? Phonemic awareness refers to the child’s ability to hear, identify and manipulate, or ‘move around’,’ the sounds of spoken language.

Phonemic awareness refers to to the child’s understanding that words are made up of sequences or strings of phonemes (sounds). A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound that can make a difference in the meaning of words. Students with developed phonemic awareness skills can judge whether two words rhyme, for example, and are able to  isolate and substitute the beginning, middle and end sounds of a word.  For example, if you ask a child to name a word that rhymes with ‘cat,’ he/she will be able to isolate the ‘k’ sound with the ‘at’ ending, and substitute another sound such as ‘b’. This makes the rhyming word ‘bat.’ Children with underdeveloped phonemic awareness skills cannot figure out that to change ‘cat’ into a rhyming word they need to take off the ‘k’ sound and put in another while maintaining the ‘at’ ending for the rhyme.

Since phonemic awareness skills are part of the foundation  for reading, children who are underdeveloped in this area are not ready to learn skills that build on phonemic awareness  – skills such as reading, spelling and writing. So it’s very important to make sure children are off to a strong start with their phonemic awareness skills.

FAQ: How can I help my child with his phonemic awareness skills?

Response: It’s easier than you may think! Playing rhyming games in the car, for instance, is an effective way to strengthen phonemic awareness skills. Play a ’round robin’ game with everyone in the car..ask “What rhymes with ‘bat?’ and have the kids answer in a turn-taking fashion. In addition to working on phonemic awareness skills, you’re also working on: 1) turn taking  2) improving listening skills (no rhyming words can be repeated so everyone has to listen to each other’s responses)  3) vocabulary  AND it makes the trip in the car go by more quickly.

FAQ: My child can say the alphabet really fast but cannot seem to get what letters go with what sounds. Is this phonemic awareness?

Response: Saying the alphabet is using something we call ‘rote memory.’ It means that the child has been able to memorize 26 letter names that make up our alphabet. This may be useful for learning to alphabetize words, looking up words in the dictionary (when a computer isn’t available!), and singing the alphabet song in its entirety during circle time. It does not mean that the child has an understanding of the the sounds that letters make, identify words that have the same patterns of sounds (as in rhyming words), or ‘move the sounds around’ to make new words. So, while knowing all the letters in the alphabet is certainly a good skill, be careful not to assume that knowing the alphabet letter names automatically goes with the child’s ability to hear, identify and manipulate the sounds of letters.

If this sounds like your child, in Pre-K, Kindergarten or even in the later grades, call CTA for more information on programs that can help your child develop his/her phonemic awareness skills to begin moving forward for success in reading, spelling and writing!

Auditory processing is a term used to describe what happens when your brain recognizes and interprets the sounds around you. Sounds travel  through the middle ear canal and are changed to electrical impulses in the inner ear. This information is then sent onto the brain to be received and interpreted. The ‘disorder’ part of auditory processing disorder means that something is adversely affecting the processing or interpretation of the information.

Children with APD often cannot recognize subtle differences between sounds. Even though they hear the sounds loud and clear, the brain does not receive and interpret them the same way. If a child, for example, is not interpreting the ‘ch’ sound and is asked  to “Tell me how a chair and a couch are alike,” the child may interpret that as “Tell me how a hair and a cow are alike.”  Imagine the child’s frustration trying to figure this out!

FAQ: What causes auditory processing difficulty?

We don’t know what causes that ‘glitch’ between the sound waves of an auditory message turning into the electrical impulses to represent that message and where exactly it ‘gets lost’ on it’s neural pathway to interpretation by the brain. Scientists are not sure how all the of communication and sensory processes humans use work together – like memory and attention, for example. We do know that many children seem to “hear normally,” but may have difficulty using  those same sounds for speech and language.

In children, auditory processing difficulty may be associated with other conditions such as dyslexia (difficulty reading), attention deficit disorder, autism spectrum disorder, specific language impairment, pervasive developmental disorder or developmental delay.

FAQ: What are the symptoms of possible auditory processing difficulty?

Children with auditory processing difficulty typcially have normal hearing and intelligence. They have been observed to:

*Have trouble paying attention to and remembering information presented to them orally

*Have problems carrying out directions with multiple steps

*Have poor listening skills

*Need more time to process information

*Have low academic performance

*Have behavior problems

*Have language difficulty

*Have difficulty with reading, comprehension, spelling and vocabulary

If you are a parent, teacher or daycare provider who notices any of these characteristics in a/your child,  please call to discuss your concerns. CTA offers a variety of individualized programs that can get your child on a successful track for learning.

Here is the information you’ll need for having your child participate in CTA’s Fast ForWord Summer Program – and, yes, it IS spectacular!

1. The program begins on Tuesday, July 5th.

2. After the first week of 4 days, the program runs 5 days per week.

3. Choices for  program times: 60 minutes, 90 minutes, 120 minutes (2 hours).

4. Participants who spend more time on a daily basis will finish their programs sooner than those who spend less time daily

5. Your child will be monitored and coached 1:1 on his/her assigned computer.

6. Pre- and Post- testing is included with the program. Your child should receive an up-to-date language evaluation prior to beginning Fast ForWord. At the completion of the program, arrangements will be made for post-program evaluation.

7. In addition to the Fast ForWord program, reading instruction is also provided. Your child must attend the 2 hour session to have enough time for  the reading component.

8. There is no homework. Everything is done and completed here on a daily basis. While your child may feel tired at first, that feeling will evolve into a sense of accomplishment as the program continues.

9. The Fast ForWord programs use reinforcements for motivation. A weekly trip to the prize cabinet makes this program continue to be exciting and fun. It also gives the kids something to look forward to.

10. At the end of the summer your child will have stronger language and reading skills, be ready to get back to school, and most importantly, feel GOOD about themselves!

Call Connecticut Therapy Associates for more information. There are a limited number of spaces available,  so call now!

Fast ForWord has been designed using neuroscience principles. What does that mean?

Neuroscience, or brain research, has made incredible strides over the past 30 years.  Here are some facts that we now know:

1. The brain can increase its capacity to learn over a lifetime. ..which means you really CAN teach an old dog new tricks. It also means that weak language and reading skills definitely don’t have to stay weak throughout a child’s life.

2. Developing solid language skills at an early age is directly related to how your brain develops its ability to read.

3. How well a person can process sounds, or the smallest part of a word , such as ‘b’ in ‘bat’,  directly affects the ability to associate sounds with letters…and really KNOW them!

4. Certain conditions, such as positive reinforcement, encourage learning.

5. Neural circuits are continuously redefined through experiences and learning.

Is this one of those products you have to do forever?

No! Fast ForWord is designed to target what the brain needs in order to change.When using the recommended schedule you will see positive results in 6-12 weeks. Because the brain is strengthening these cognitive skills, the beneifts continue to last a lifetime.

Take some time and read over this information. Think about how your child may be struggling to keep up being expected to use skills that he/she doesn’t have. Think about an intensive summer program that could have your child returning to school with the necessary language and reading skills to be successful in the classroom. Are there side effects to this program? Yes. Your child’s self-esteem will go WAY up!

Your comments and questions are always welcome. The details for CTA’s Summer Spectacular will be outlined next Monday.  Enjoy the day!