Book Review and Giveaway: My Toddler Talks

 Today it is my pleasure to review a book written by a NJ based, fellow SLP, Kimberly Scanlon of Scanlon Speech Therapy LLC entitled “My Toddler Talks“.

What it’s NOT! As Kimberly points out this book is definitely NOT a replacement for speech language therapy. If you are a parent and are concerned with your child’s speech language abilities you should certainly seek appropriate consultation with a qualified speech language pathologist.

What it is! A nice and functional collection of suggestions on how caregivers and related professionals can facilitate language development in children between 18-36 months of age (give or take).

What I like about this book: Quite a lot of things actually!

It’s written in simple language, which makes it automatically widely accessible to a great variety of readers.

The terminology used in the book is explained very effectively that even some of the more slightly esoteric terms such as  “self-talk” or “parallel  talk” become quickly understandable.

The suggestions Kimberly makes are very practical and task execution is very simple.  All the materials  such as bubbles, cubes, dolls, puppets, and so on can be easily found in most households with young children. No specialized and expensive materials/toys are needed.  The instructions are both specific enough (which is very helpful to many parents) and easy enough that the tasks and activities are not at all intimidating (no complex organization/planning required).

So what else do I like about this book?

Well, I like the “Do Not” List represented by a cute acronym “C-U-T-I-E” (no pun intended), which recommends to caregivers things to avoid when facilitating their child’s communication such as over usage of negatives as well as having unrealistic expectations regarding the speed of progress.

I like the fact that there are tracking charts which parents can use (and I am sure that some parents will definitely take advantage of that) to document change in their child’s vocabulary growth.

I also really like the clear explanations for the parents on how play relates to language development as well as general recommendations regarding teaching common first words.

But what I really love about this book is the “Trouble Shooting Section” which provides caregivers with helpful tips regarding what to do when the child is not imitating or following their lead.

This is exactly the type of functional text, which will be helpful to many of the parents of emergent communicators (children whose communication abilities are just beginning to emerge and who could use a bit of a “playful push” in the right direction).

But, its not just parents and caregivers who can benefit from strategies and suggestions provided in this book.  Graduate speech language pathology students, clinical fellows working in Early Intervention as well as other professionals in fields directly related to child development (e.g., psychologists, social workers, etc) can certainly benefit from “flipping” through this book.  It would be especially relevant for those professionals who are just starting their careers as well as those who are making a mid career switch (e.g, from working with adults or older elementary students to working with young children).

Keeping the above in mind, I will be giving away a copy of My Toddler Talks to 1 lucky winner, whose comment describes most eloquently of why they would  like this book and how they may benefit from reading it.

Giveaway Rules:

1. Comment below on why you would like a copy of this book (you may need to register first, if you haven’t done so before).

2. Publicly share the link to this blog post on Facebook to promote it.

I will chose the winner Sunday, January 27th by 10pm and will post their name on the blog and on Facebook.

US entries ONLY!

Congratulations to cniles! 

You have won the giveaway!