Posted on by Jenny

My Toddler Talks: Review & Giveaway

This is a book review, y’all. The book was provided to me by the author but all opinions are my own!

As toddlers will do, Jonah has recently switched things up on me when it comes to speech. Remember that post I wrote a few weeks ago about us getting into our therapy groove? Yeah, 2.2 seconds after I hit publish, he decided to stop cooperating with me at home! I’m not. even. kidding. Not even a little. He is still doing great at his therapy sessions, but as soon as I strap him in his booster seat at home he kicks up a fuss. So, I got him a (free, thanks Sarah!!) little table to sit at like he does at speech – that worked for a day or two. But he still wasn’t having it once he realized what I was up to.

jonah at table
No,YOUR house is a giant mess in the background of this photo! Mine is always perfect.

He still loves to sit at to do his OWN thing, however, and I’m glad we have it! I also casually leave things on it that I want him to play with and that usually works {insert diabolical laugh}.

So, frustrated with this situation, I did what most moms do – turned to the internet (specifically Pinterest, DUH) for a solution. I follow the boards of an awesome organization called PediaStaff (you should too) and through their boards I found a great website that caused me to breathe a sigh of relief – Scanlon Speech Therapy. As I was devouring the contents of this site, I found that it is written by a Speech-Language Pathologist named Kim Scanlon who is herself the mother of a toddler – jackpot! I subscribed to her newsletter and printed out some of her free resources. Then, I checked out her book:

MyToddlerTalksHeader

My Toddler Talks: Strategies and Activities to Promote Your Child’s Language Development.

And of course I knew I had to have it!! So naturally, I emailed Kim and asked if I could review a copy. Cause THAT is how I roll. You see, part of the problem we moms face when we work with our kids at home on delays is: WHAT TO DO!! It’s hard to constantly come up with new activities. And since Jonah is a whole year younger than Sophie was when we started working together, it’s totally different, and I need some help coming up with things.

My Toddler Talks has a TON of play ideas for working with your toddler. Like, about 50 pages worth. And the best part is, they are all using toys you probably already have! Like? A BALL. A Mr. Potato Head. Toy trains. A toy farm. Bubbles!!! Yes! I have all those things! And Kim’s book told me just what to do with them to encourage speech in my kiddo. All the activities are simple, step-by-step, and easy for parents to facilitate. She also has a website JUST for toddler & baby speech in addition to her Scanlon Speech site. Check it out here!

potatohead2
Jonah meets one Mr. P. Head.

Of course, the book isn’t all about play – it also goes over the basics of how to talk to your toddler to encourage speech, and what activities and language are appropriate for their ages/stages of development. Very useful stuff for any parent. In fact, the book is really written for parents who want to encourage even very young toddlers on the path to speech development – not necessarily toddlers who are already behind (though of course that is the case with mine). So, I would really recommend it for any parent of an infant to three-year-old, delayed or not.

This is a great book and you should totally go buy it. And subscribe to Kim’s newsletter while you’re at it.

Because Kim is so aweeeeesome, she also offered a copy of My Toddler Talks to give away! Woop woop! Here’s how to enter:

1) Leave a comment on this post telling me why you want to win the book.

2) Optional: extra entry available for those who “like” Scanlon Speech on Facebook. Leave a separate comment to let me know that you do.

3) Optional: extra entry for subscribing to Kim’s newsletter. (Click here, enter your name and email address on the right.) It’s SO HELPFUL! You won’t regret it. Leave a separate comment here if you subscribed.

Remember to leave a separate comment for each entry! 

Giveaway ends Monday September 16th at 6 pm EST and a winner will be chosen at random.

Good luck! Thanks Kim, for letting me review your book and give one away!

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33 Replies to “My Toddler Talks: Review & Giveaway”

  2. Sounds like a great resource! With a 3 year old who just finished a year or therapy and a 14 month old who is showing signs of delay this would be a perfect book for our family!

  8. I would love to have the book for my three year old who is having some speech delays. I have two older boys and have not been down this road before, so I have no idea where to start!!

  10. I signed up for Scanlon Speech newsletter. Can’t wait to get the first one and see what info is in it!! Thank you!!

  11. My son is currently in 4 Kindergarten and has been working with a speech therapist since the beginning of the year. Since he only goes for 3 hours I would love to find additional ways to help him at home since I’m getting nervous that real Kindergarten is only a year away. This sounds great. Thanks for a chance to win!

  16. Sounds like an amazing book. I just checked out her website and I am going to read a few of the articles. My 2.5 year old son is very delayed in speech and right now the hardest part is getting him to want to learn and sit down and pay attention. He would rather be outside running around. Thanks!

  18. Jenny,
    I want to win this book because my toddler, Piper (who is nearly 2 years old) has some delays, and speech is at the top of the list. She has 3 words right now: “Hi,” “Daddy,” and “light.” It kills me because although we’re working weekly with a GREAT team of therapists, I’d hoped to have seen more progress with her speech by now. I feel like a failure as a parent, especially when I look back at her older sisters’ baby books—which remind me that they were speaking in 2-3 (sometimes even 4) word sentences at her age, and their vocabulary was 30-40 words, I think. Piper mostly just cries. She does some signing, but we’re using that as a temporary bridge to get her to start making more sounds and words.

    It’s frustrating not being able to communicate with her, not knowing what she wants, guessing wrong, listening to her cry (therapist has said the crying is part of the process b/c when she can’t tell us what she wants/needs/etc, crying is the only way she can express herself). I hate it. I hate living this way. It stresses me out. It stresses my 7 year-old twin girls out. They hate seeing her cry and then get upset with me for not doing something about it. All I can do is follow what the therapists have been coaching me to do…and one of the things is to LISTEN and not talk as MUCH to give her a chance to speak. We’ve also been instructed to not look at her when she cries, and only look back at her once she stops. SHe is stubborn and it’s really taking a toll on me. I just want her to be able to communicate ….

    Thank you for sharing all of this valuable information, I can’t wait to check out the other links and am about to subscribe to her newsletter.

    xoxo
    erin

  21. I’d love to win it for a friend of mine whose son has DiGeorge’s Syndrome. They are homeschooling to help him get caught up, and could use some help.

  23. Would LOOOOOVE to win this- we just took Guardianship of 2 little girls and the 2 year old is in speech therapy at daycare. I’m new to parenting in general so having a little one with a speech delay is ROUGH! Glad to find such a resource!!!!!

  24. What a great giveaway! I would love to win this book to help one of my 2-year-old twins is quite a bit slower in the speech department than the other one.

  26. I signed up for the newsletter too.

    PS, “No,YOUR house is a giant mess in the background of this photo! Mine is always perfect.” Favorite caption ever!

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