Episode 2 - Talk to Me: "Little Words, Big Steps - Helping Kids Find Their Voice"

Anne Smolenski, M.S., CCC-SLP, currently works at CAHELP as a Program Specialist in Communication Disorders. She received her Bachelor of Science Degree in Speech Pathology and Audiology from California State University, Sacramento, and her Master of Science Degree in Clinical Speech-Language Pathology from Northern Arizona University. Anne has worked as a licensed speech-language pathologist (SLP) since 2019, specializing in preschool populations with a diverse range of communication needs.

In this episode of Fostering Futures, we sit down with Anne as she shares her passion for speech and language development and discusses effective strategies for fostering communication in children.

🔑 Highlights & Takeaways:

• Sibling Influence and Early Assessment: Discussing how younger siblings may model delays and why early assessment can make a difference.
• Practical Strategies to Build Communication: Anne introduces engaging, everyday strategies to support language growth, beginning with the power of book reading.
• Using the CARE Acronym During Story Time: Learn how to enhance book reading through Comments, Asking questions, Responding, and Extending conversation.
• Building Language Through Daily Routines: How simple conversations during meals, errands, or play can boost communication and social-emotional skills.
• Avoid the Word “Say”: A Powerful Shift: Anne explains why modeling language instead of prompting with “say” can make a big difference in natural communication.
• The Role of Caregivers in Therapy Outcomes: Insights into how caregiver involvement enhances speech therapy results and builds stronger child-caregiver connections.
• The Impact of Screen Time on Language Development: Candid conversation about screen use, its risks for young learners, and how to set healthy boundaries with tech.
• Using Screens Wisely: Audio Over Video: Tips for leveraging audio-only content and encouraging interaction instead of passive viewing.
• Final Thoughts: Face-to-Face Interaction Matters: Anne emphasizes the importance of comments over questions and offers examples of “self-talk” and “parallel talk.”
• Supporting Bilingual Families: Reassuring guidance for multilingual households, including tips on code-switching and choosing the right language to speak at home.

Listeners will leave with actionable insights for cultivating meaningful, everyday communication - starting with one simple truth: connection comes first.

Thanks for listening! Follow us on Facebook and Instagram | www.cahelp.org | podcast@cahelp.org

Transcript

0:01: Hey, Anne.

0:02: Hi.

0:03: So I'm really excited to have you here with us today.

0:06: We're going to be talking about speech and language development.

0:10: I know you have a lot of good strategies and things to offer our listeners, and we're going to get right into it.

0:15: But first, I want you to just introduce yourself to our listeners.

0:19: Tell us about your role here at CAHELP, and then just to get us started.

0:24: OK, sounds great.

0:25: Well, first of all, I'm so happy to be talking here with our listeners today about nurturing communication in children.

0:35: You know again, my name is Anne Smolenski and I'm a licensed speech language pathologist here at CAHELP.

0:43: I work for Desert Mountain Children's Center and my title is a Program Specialist for Communication Disorders.

0:51: And so with that, I think I really have a passion for communication and I'm so thankful in this role that I can work with families every day on fostering communication.

1:03: Awesome Anne! So, I know you and I have had a chance to talk a lot about this already, so I'm really, really excited for the listeners to hear some of the strategies you have.

1:13: I want you to tell us exactly how you got started in this area so folks can get an idea of your background and your experience.

1:21: Great question.

1:22: Well, I was actually born and raised in the high desert.

1:26: Both of my parents are elementary school teachers

1:29: And so growing up I always saw the education side of learning and development, but I also was really interested in the medical field.

1:39: And so in high school, I discovered speech language pathology and felt like it was a really great mix of two of my passions, learning education and the medical field.

1:50: So, since then, I've been on that route ever since.

1:54: So, I can't go another second without saying we do have a common bond.

1:59: Your mom was actually my daughter's teacher years ago when she was in elementary school.

2:04: I had to mention that.

2:05: OK, so we're just going to get right into this.

2:08: Can you kind of breakdown for us that term speech and language, just so our listeners have an idea of what that means?

2:16: I think… I'm so glad you asked this question because this is something that I think as a speech therapist I take for granted that not everyone knows the difference and they really are different.

2:28: So, first and foremost, speech refers to the sounds we make when talking, which includes articulation, fluency, how our words flow together, and voice. Our overall vocal quality.

2:43: So for example, if a toddler says baba for bottle, they're practicing their speech sounds, but their ability to understand that bottle means drink is a part of language.

2:57: Now, as language, we as speech therapists like to think of it as an umbrella.

3:03: And so underneath that umbrella of language comes receptive language, which is our understanding.

3:10: So an easy way I like to think of this is just following directions.

3:16: So if you were to say to your child, can you grab that shoe or point to the dog when you're looking at a book

3:23: That has to do with their receptive language or their understanding.

3:27: Now, expressive language refers to the words we use and how we use them.

3:33: Another really important of language underneath that umbrella is pragmatic language or social language.

3:41: And I really like how the American Speech and Hearing Association defines pragmatics.

3:47: And they see that it's the use of language for different purposes.

3:51: So greeting, demanding, protesting, requesting and changing our language based on the needs of a partner.

4:00: So, for example, a child at an elementary school will have to know you talk differently on a playground versus to your teacher during a lesson.

4:10: And finally, pragmatics includes following rules for interaction.

4:14: So how we share, take turns, and using gestures and body language.

4:20: So my kids weren't demanding, they were using pragmatic language.

4:24: And when they were little, that's a great way to think of it.

4:27: Athena, they were practicing their social language.

4:29: OK, I'll have to go back and apologize to both of them then.

4:32: So, OK, so I'm just going to go back and kind of think about what you said right now, because for parents listening that adorable mama, dada, all of that is practice.

4:43: I get it.

4:44: But you're saying that the ability to understand what you're going to receive when you say those words, that's actually language.

4:50: Exactly.

4:51: But practicing it is the speech part of it.

4:53: OK, awesome.

4:54: So gosh, I wouldn't have thought about it like that, Anne.

4:57: So can you give us maybe like some typical milestones?

5:03: Since we are talking about mama dada, what are some typical milestones for different ages for kiddos?

5:08: This is such a great segue because I think it's really important to understand typical milestones.

5:15: So then as caregivers, we know if there might be a red flag or something to lookout for.

5:20: So thinking of typical milestones, you know, starting with infants, these would be babies between 0 and 12 months old.

5:30: At three months old, babies will begin to COO and make vowel sounds like ah or oh.

5:37: They should alert to sound when they hear it and turn to a person who is talking.

5:43: OK.

5:44: By 7 to 9, seven to nine months, you may hear them babbling.

5:49: So saying words like mama or baba, they should look at you when you call their name, and they should stop just for a moment when you say no.

6:00: By their first birthday, many babies will say their first words like mama or ba, and they should be waving, pointing or giving you objects.

6:10: They should also try to copy sounds you make.

6:14: OK, so are these set in stone Anne, or is it?

6:18: Does it depend on the child?

6:20: I'm glad you asked this, Athena.

6:22: You know, as speech pathologists

6:23: We know that every child is unique, and they are going to develop at their own pace.

6:30: But in just a little bit, we'll talk about some major red flags to keep out for and for listeners

6:37: This would definitely be a time to seek out additional assessment.

6:41: OK, that's, I'm sure that's easier for someone to hear that it depends on the child, right?

6:47: Because parents don't want to compare their kids even to their own kids or to other kids that they know.

6:54: But you can't help but do that sometimes, right?

6:56: Especially when you've got two or three, four kids. One talked really early, maybe the other one took a little bit longer.

7:03: You worry as a parent.

7:05: So to know that there's some room in that, I think would set some folks' hearts at ease.

7:11: Absolutely, absolutely.

7:12: OK.

7:13: So, tell us what we can watch out for then, Anne. What are some things that maybe we would notice that we could call like a caution or a red flag when it comes to development?

7:24: I love that.

7:25: If you know, you know. First before we jump into that, I think it would be helpful for our listeners to also review some other ages.

7:35: So we've talked about babies, maybe we could talk about toddlers and older children because I think that's important, too.

7:43: So for toddlers, these would be kids between ages one and three years old.

7:49: By age two, toddlers should use and understand at least 50 different words.

7:56: Their speech may not always be clear at this point, but they should start combining two words together like want cookie or big truck.

8:07: You'll likely hear them using simple phrases and imitating the way adults talk.

8:13: For example, a 2-year-old might say go bye-bye when they're ready to leave the house.

8:19: Now for a preschooler, this would be children ages three to five years old.

8:24: Again, we're talking about typical development.

8:27: At around ages three and four, children will begin to form sentences like I want juice.

8:34: They should be able to answer simple questions.

8:36: So if you were to say what do you like to eat?

8:39: They should be able to give you an answer.

8:42: They'll also be learning grammar, so using plural words like the S in cats or using ING verbs like playing.

8:52: By age five, children should produce grammatically correct sentences, follow simple directions and rules to play games.

9:01: Their speech should be understandable at this point.

9:06: Now moving on to children who are age six and older.

9:10: This would be your school age child.

9:12: At this stage, children should be able to listen to and understand stories.

9:18: They'll take turns in conversation and be able to keep a conversation going.

9:23: Gotcha.

9:24: I'm glad you stopped me, Anne, because without seeing the rest of that picture right, getting some of those typical milestones, we could get ahead of ourselves and looking for what could be wrong without knowing what else could be right and what we're looking forward to.

9:38: OK, perfect.

9:39: So with more of that to think about.

9:42: I'm a mom, you know. I'm at home.

9:44: My kid is, let's say, three years old, and I know that there's something that I'm noticing, but I can't quite put my finger on it.

9:53: What could I look for?

9:55: This is such a good question.

9:57: Well, you know, I think even looking at milestones, I encounter families a lot.

10:02: Who would be in that situation, Athena, where they're concerned, but also knowing what is too high or wouldn't be age unexpected.

10:11: You know, sometimes I have families who are concerned that their two-year-old child isn't able to answer those questions as consistently yet, but that really, we wouldn't expect that until the toddler age.

10:24: So if you're a mom, you know, sitting at home or caregiver, any parent.

10:29: I really love what ASHA, the American Speech and Hearing Association, has to say on early identification and some red flags to look for.

10:39: So by age six months, if your baby isn't smiling or interacting with others, they're not babbling or making any type of sound, that would be a red flag.

10:52: By one year old, if they're only making a few sounds and they're not using gestures like waving hello or goodbye, even pointing to objects, that would also be a cause for concern.

11:06: By two years old, if the child is saying fewer than 50 words and they're having difficulty combining two words together into simple phrases like want cookie or big truck, that would also be cause for concern.

11:23: If you have a child at two years old who's only saying mama or car and not combining words together, I would also seek out an assessment.

11:33: Gotcha.

11:34: Finally, we have for a two to three-year old child, if you're also noticing that they're having trouble playing or talking with other children their age, also maybe having some difficulty asking you questions, again, that would be a time where I would seek out an assessment.

11:53: Gotcha, Anne, thank you.

11:54: So that's helpful just in the scheme of kind of birth to school age to give us some things to look out for.

12:03: So I have to ask. I know we've talked about some of this before and with the work that you do right now, the experience you have, do you have any thoughts on what might be causing some of those delays today?

12:16: That's a really good question.

12:18: You know, in some cases, Athena, we do see and the research supports that there is a genetic component to a language, speech and language delay or impairment.

12:29: So sometimes we see that if a sibling has difficulty with speech and language that their younger siblings might also have difficulty too.

12:39: Sometimes, Athena.

12:40: And the truth is we just don't know what causes speech and language difficulties.

12:46: I heard a metaphor once that I really like and use with caregivers who are worried and feeling like it was something that they have done to cause the language impairment.

12:56: And this metaphor said, you know, if you think about math, for some of us, it comes really easy.

13:02: For others, like myself, math was so hard.

13:06: Me too.

13:07: And yes.

13:08: And so if we think about that with speech and language, it's the same thing.

13:12: For some of us, it's really effortless and that language comes at those milestones we reviewed.

13:18: But for others, just like math, speech and language is something that we have to work a little harder at and might even need some extra help.

13:26: So you just made me think about something, Anne.

13:28: I, I knew that there could be a genetic component, right?

13:32: But let's say that your older child is the one that is exhibiting maybe some delays or some struggles with language and your younger one is starting to show some of those signs.

13:44: Is there, is there anything that says that it has to be genetics both times?

13:48: Or could it be modeling or mimicking, you know, an older sibling?

13:53: Oh, I love that question, Athena.

13:54: And I think it really depends, case-by-case. For kids, they like to imitate the people around them.

14:02: That is really normal.

14:03: And so I think as a parent, if you have an older child who's struggling with speech and language, I would seek out an assessment as soon as you notice something may not be right, because we don't want those younger siblings to be imitating those speech and language delays if they're there.

14:21: Gotcha.

14:22: OK, So, you take me right to a point where I was going to ask you is what

14:26: So what do we do?

14:27: You know, what do we do if we do start to notice some of these things?

14:30: What's our... What could be our first step?

14:32: Well, you know, Athena, I think that leads to a great point for caregivers.

14:37: If you do feel that there is a speech and language delay, I really recommend as a speech pathologist to seek out an assessment early on, especially when we consider early intervention.

14:51: It's so much better to seek out an assessment even if the answer is your child is exactly where we should be or where your child should be.

15:01: That's great and we'd so much rather have that answer than waiting and waiting and waiting and not getting an assessment.

15:10: But I also have some strategies today that we can also go over for our caregivers on maybe there's not a delay, but how do I support my child's communication?

15:19: That would be perfect.

15:20: So do you have… Do you have like some favorites that you can share with us?

15:24: You know, I definitely do, Athena, and I think the first that I'm really excited to talk about today is book reading, Reading aloud daily.

15:34: This is a really simple yet effective strategy to build communication.

15:41: Shared storybook reading is all about the interaction between you and your child, so even if your child isn't really interested in books, you can just follow their lead as they flip through the pages and even talk about the pictures that you see.

15:58: I love Dr. Celeste Roseberry-Mckibbin's acronym to help caregivers remember some skills to use when reading, which is CARE.

16:08: So the C stands for Comment, so you can comment on the picture.

16:13: Look at the girl riding her bike.

16:16: A in CARE stands for Ask questions.

16:20: Where do you think she's going on her bike?

16:23: R is Respond.

16:25: I think she's going to the park too.

16:28: So you're responding to whatever your child says, and E is Extend.

16:33: You can add words to what your child says.

16:35: So if they say blue bike, you can respond and say yes, the little girl has a blue bike.

16:43: There is a great national program called 1000 Books by Kindergarten.

16:49: It seems so lofty, but if you think about it, reading one book a night to your child would actually equal 1095 books read by three years old.

17:02: Wow.

17:02: This program also allows you to repeat books, so I think this is a great goal to obtain for parents.

17:10: And even though it seems lofty, 1000 books by Kindergarten, your public library is a great resource for this and even incorporating book reading into daily activities.

17:23: This is something that I always recommend, especially as a nighttime routine.

17:28: This makes it really achievable for parents when they can incorporate reading a single book.

17:35: We're all tired at the end of the day, but book reading is a way that we can also help your child at night to regulate, build connection, assist them in winding down and also build their communication.

17:48: I love this strategy.

17:50: I was one to read to my kids and they liked it.

17:53: And the thing that I think was most special for us was just the time together, but we talked to each other about the story.

18:02: I got to hear what they were thinking about, questions that they had, things they didn't understand.

18:08: It provided a lot in that little bit of time.

18:11: So I couldn't agree more with that one.

18:12: So that is probably my favorite of your favorite so far.

18:16: Do you have another one?

18:17: I love that, Athena.

18:19: Well, the second is encouraging conversation during everyday moments, which is just what you mentioned.

18:26: So using meals and play time and even errands to talk about what's happening is a perfect opportunity to build language for your children.

18:36: For example, if you're shopping in the grocery store with your child, instead of handing them a screen, which is so easy to do to keep their attention, you could use this as a language and learning opportunity.

18:49: So you could say, look at those big orange carrots.

18:52: Do you like carrots?

18:53: They're crunchy.

18:54: We're just talking about what we're seeing.

18:56: Again, this kind of back-and-forth interaction is not only beneficial for their communication, but also for their social emotional skills, cognitive development and your relationship with them as a caregiver.

19:10: OK.

19:11: So that one was kind of embedded in my favorite for the first one, right, this conversation.

19:16: But that is easy.

19:17: You know, that's easier to remember.

19:19: Some folks have a hard time with acronyms, even though a lot of what you've talked about in that acronym is natural.

19:25: But taking opportunities for that conversation in the car ride, the grocery store, getting ready for school or daycare, whatever it might be, I could see how you can incorporate that just in your everyday life.

19:38: Absolutely.

19:39: OK.

19:39: So that's got to be one that folks can feel doable, right?

19:42: They can do it.

19:43: OK.

19:44: Do you have another one for us?

19:45: I do, Athena. You know, and this really goes underneath that piece that we're talking about encouraging conversation during everyday moments.

19:56: There are three ways that I really love to build communication in these everyday moments.

20:04: The first one is actually hard, but it's not using the word say.

20:10: It is so hard for us as adults not to do this, but

20:14: It actually encourages kids when we remove that word, say, to use communication naturally.

20:22: So if you think of leaving a house with your child and you say, OK, say bye to grandma or you're at Costco.

20:30: My mom did this with me, and she'd say, say thank you when I got a sample.

20:35: You know, it's natural to do that.

20:36: But instead of using that word say, we're just going to model the words that we wish our children would say.

20:43: So what I like to do is if I'm in therapy, wanting the child to say bye to me or the caregiver, I'll just model, OK, bye, mom.

20:53: Really spacing out those words, making them interesting, but not using the word say.

20:58: So I am so guilty of that one.

21:01: I just did that the other night with a friend of mine, her daughter.

21:05: I was just on the phone with her daughter.

21:08: She's a baby and she's doing the babbling.

21:11: She knew when I stopped talking it was time for her babble, but we were trying to get her to say something.

21:17: Yeah, just because she says it so well for her age.

21:21: I'm so guilty.

21:22: I mean, that is going to be a hard one.

21:23: I think even for me right now, I'm going to have to remind myself of it.

21:27: It's hard, Athena, but what I also tell my caregivers is just choose five minutes of your day to practice

21:34: Not using the word say.

21:36: Maybe it's during mealtime, maybe it's during bath time.

21:40: So if you just focus on one moment, I know we are so busy as adults, but just focusing on one time to practice some of these strategies can help with long term growth.

21:52: So you're talking about long term growth.

21:56: And I know our organization, we're looking at, you know, how to give kids the best opportunity to get to where they want to be, where we know they can be.

22:06: In your work and you just mentioned therapy a little bit

22:08: What benefit or what effect have you seen, you know, these strategies have on some of the kids that you've worked with?

22:16: Oh, this is a great question, Athena.

22:19: You know, first and foremost, I think as adults, especially caregivers, we naturally want what's best for our kids.

22:27: And I love that quote by Maya Angelou that says when you know better, you do better.

22:33: And so I think sometimes as adults, we need someone just to say, you know what, you're doing a great job, but why don't you try it this way?

22:41: And so especially with speech therapy, because communication is embedded in everything we do, I really can see that when my caregivers are invested, when they're just practicing that back-and-forth interaction, that's when some great growth can happen because again, they're giving that child the attention and the connection that they need.

23:05: Got you.

23:05: So I have to push you a little bit, right?

23:10: I understand the interaction.

23:12: I see the need for it, but we had some challenges the last couple years with how we were able to provide interaction for kids, especially the ones starting school about right now.

23:25: You know, we were remote for a bit.

23:27: School was much different.

23:29: Devices were heavily relied on.

23:32: What do you think?

23:33: What are your thoughts on that and how we can support kids coming out of that era, you know, of interaction?

23:41: OK, Athena.

23:42: I probably could do a whole podcast episode on screen time.

23:48: I'm encountering it every day, daily as a speech pathologist.

23:53: But I think also as adults, we know that the pull or we know the pull that a screen has.

24:00: I am addicted to my screen myself, so I really want caregivers to know first of all, that when I'm going to present this research on screens

24:11: I also know that as adults, we have a million things on our plate

24:16: And so sometimes for survival, you're going to have to give your child a screen.

24:22: So I, I don't want anyone to feel judged.

24:25: But again, when you know better, you do better.

24:28: And so I also think it's important to present what the research says and what professionals in the medical field are recommending just so parents have that information the next time you want to provide your child the screen.

24:42: So it sounds like you're willing to do another episode, Anne, is what I heard.

24:48: So I might just take you up on that.

24:50: I appreciate you kind of prefacing that with saying you get it right.

24:57: Not only do we need the time sometimes, but I'm noticing that kids in this generation are just much better at picking up a device and using it.

25:11: There's things that I can't figure out that my son could easily figure out.

25:16: He was showing me how to do it, and I'm not one to use devices, you know, like that in my home with my kids.

25:22: He just was naturally better at it.

25:25: And I know I can't limit, you know, his exposure to all of it, but I appreciate the point that when you do know better, you should try to keep that in mind, you know, when you are having those interactions with your child.

25:39: So again, for a busy mom, busy caregiver, a grandma, if they're going to use a device and if they are going to implement that as a tool, what are some, I don't know, like some, some bumpers, you know, you can give us some, some healthy boundaries to stay within if we're going to use those.

26:00: It's such a great point, Athena.

26:02: Well, I think first of all, it's important to know that any passive watching, a prerecorded video, even educational videos on YouTube yield minimal benefits and, in some cases, can actually disrupt language learning, especially for children under two years old.

26:23: So the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry actually recommends no screens before 18 months old, and any type of screen use is not recommended for children ages two years or younger and they recommend sparing use before age six.

26:43: Now I daily in my practice as a speech therapist and talking to my caregivers about the use of screen time.

26:52: You know, I get a lot of parents who say, but Miss Anne, my child loves Miss Rachel, and they are talking so much because of Miss Rachel.

27:01: And I think Miss Rachel has some great strategies.

27:04: She actually models what we can do as adults.

27:08: So one of my favorite techniques, especially for kids who are who like those educational videos on YouTube, is actually turn the screen off.

27:18: In the CARE program here at CAHELP, we would play super simple songs on YouTube without the screen.

27:26: And so that is going back to, again, the importance of that back-and-forth interaction.

27:32: Turning the screen off allows kids to connect with us, see our facial expressions, see gestures.

27:38: So you can still have them listen to that song, but that interaction with you is really what is going to build at the most language in the most learning.

27:49: Awesome.

27:49: So that gives us some room to play with, right?

27:53: Exactly.

27:53: If we're trying to either minimize the screen time or still find ways to incorporate it.

27:59: OK, I appreciate that.

28:00: Anything else you want to add in there?

28:01: You know, one of the best books that I'd love to recommend on the use of screen time for anyone who's interested is called The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt.

28:14: And actually many principals here in the high desert high schools have read this book and have then implemented a no phone policy in high schools in the high desert after reading this book.

28:26: So another great resource for parents to read up on.

28:31: Awesome.

28:31: OK, I learned even more from you today than I have in our previous conversation.

28:37: So I want you to just think about not just Athena right now, but our listeners, if there's anything that you could give them just to kind of wrap us up, you know, that they could take away, learn from, try, just keep in mind so that they can go into speech and language with a new kind of understanding.

28:56: I love that.

28:57: Well, I think overall, it's so important that connection of face-to-face interaction.

29:07: And I think as adults, it's really easy for us to want to get that communication from our kids by quizzing them.

29:16: And so this would look like, you know, especially for a younger child, what color is this?

29:20: What do you see?

29:21: You know, what do you think?

29:23: And it's so natural for us to want to get that language out.

29:27: But really the research supports talking more using comments.

29:33: We call it self-talk and parallel talk in the speech world.

29:37: So I like to think of it as a ratio.

29:39: I'm going to give my child three comments for every one question that I ask this is really going to build and support their language.

29:48: OK, so can you give me an example of that?

29:50: What does that sound like?

29:51: Yes.

29:52: So let's say you're at... You're having dinner with your child and instead of holding up your fork and saying what is this or what color is your plate?

30:01: It's so natural for us to do that.

30:03: But if I'm going to do self-talk, I'm going to say, look, I'm eating my broccoli.

30:08: It is so crunchy.

30:11: And then after a few comments, maybe say, do you like your broccoli?

30:15: So you're just talking about what's happening, what your child is doing.

30:19: I see you're drinking from your cup.

30:22: All that water is really cold, you know.

30:25: So just giving them all of this robust language and then maybe adding a question in.

30:30: I can see.

30:30: So even just in that example, Anne, I can see how you're giving more words.

30:38: You're just doing it that way, right?

30:39: You're providing more of an example and then you're asking the question, which I would imagine supports that

30:45: Knowing 50 words before, what was it again? Before the age of two?

30:49: 50 words at two years.

30:50: Yeah, I could see how that would be super helpful.

30:52: Is modeling it that way. Awesome.

30:56: Any other pieces of, I don't know, wisdom that you want to offer parents, caregivers?

31:03: Well, I actually I have two more pieces, Athena, if our listeners would be interested, of course.

31:08: And some of these questions I get all the time.

31:12: So I wanted to let caregivers know my professional opinion on these questions.

31:18: As a speech pathologist, the first is for my bilingual families who are trying to navigate speech and language development for their children learning two languages.

31:30: And so the first piece of information that's important is to communicate with your child in the language that you're most comfortable with using.

31:39: So if you're natural and first language is Spanish, don't feel like you have to use English with your child because it's more beneficial for them to hear a fluent language than forcing yourself to communicate in a language that isn't natural for you.

31:55: The second piece of information for our bilingual listeners is that many bilingual children actually follow typical language milestones if they're learning two languages at the same time.

32:08: So some of my family's prefer that one caregiver in the household only talk in Spanish and the other caregiver only talk in English to build that language fluency.

32:22: Additionally, you're talking about bilingualism.

32:24: Your child may mix grammar rules in both languages from time to time.

32:30: They also might engage in something called code switching, where they use a word in a different language in the same sentence.

32:37: These are typical and normal for bilingual speakers, so it's not a cause for concern.

32:44: Bilingualism has many advantages, and so I definitely encourage my caregivers to communicate in a language that they're most comfortable in.

32:52: I'm so glad you mentioned that last part because I know in my family, we just have words that we know we use that we've always used, and we're not going to change them.

33:04: And I would hate for someone to feel like they're teaching their kids something wrong because of these special things that they have.

33:11: So I'll give you an example.

33:12: We have been calling my grandmother grammere for…but since before I was born, which actually is grandma and French, I think.

33:21: I don't know who started that.

33:23: No one remembers who started that.

33:26: But my mom, my aunts, they've never corrected us.

33:29: And when I say it, people look at me like, who are you talking about?

33:33: So I'm sure families have those things that they're just going to keep.

33:37: It makes them who they are, and they shouldn't feel like they're doing something wrong by keeping those things.

30.41: Exactly.

30:32: Perfect.

33:43: I love that example of Athena.

33:45: So I know I'm going to call my nephew who's two tonight and try some of the stuff that you just gave me.

33:54: I know it's going to be really hard for me to not say, say and that that need, especially as educators to want to quiz kids on how many words they have by asking them questions.

34:06: That's a tough one too, for the adult, but it's worth trying.

34:10: I'm definitely going to try it.

34:11: And I think I'm going to call my friend's baby back maybe and try some things with her moving forward.

34:18: This has been super informative.

34:20: Anne, I thank you very much for coming and sharing all of your expertise.

34:24: I feel like I'm going to get you to come back and do another episode with us.

34:28: You have more to share, I know.

34:30: But until then, thanks for stopping by and talking with us.

34:34: Thank you for having me.