Patricia Teschner's Website

Language WebQuest

Hello Parents and Students!  

Introduction

Parents, are you interested in learning more about speech language problems?

Do you wonder if your child's language is developing, as it should be?

Are you wondering how you can help your child at home?

Are you looking for language activities to do at home with your child?

Let us guide you on this quest to learn about language.

Then you can guide your child on a quest to develop the best language skills possible.

Ready? Let this adventure begin.

Task

Your child is working on improving language skills and an important part of accomplishing this goal involves home practice and parent involvement.  This task will help you gain a greater understanding about language and language disorders.  In addition, it will provide you with the guidance to assist your child with language practice at home.  To accomplish this task, you will need to:

• Find out about communication milestones and a child's developing language skills. 

• Learn the definition of speech and language disorders.

• Get answers to your questions about language problems.

• Find out how Otitis Media (ear infections) may affect hearing and language development.

• Learn more about spoken language problems.

• Assist your child on their speech quest by completing various language activities and games.

Process

1.  Find out about communication milestones and a child’s developing language skills by reading Early Developmental Core, Social, and Communication Milestones or the Early Childhood Language Development Chart (0-6 yrs).

2. Learn the definition of speech and language disorders.

3.  Read questions and get factual answers about language problems from Kid Source OnLine.

4. Find out how Otitis Media (ear infections) may affect hearing and language development by reading Questions and Answers about Otitis Media, Hearing, and Language Development.

5.  Read more about spoken language problems.

6. Choose an activity or game that features your child's language goal and practice with your child.

Resources

Articles

http://www.preschoolfun.com/pages/Speech/developmentalmilestones.htm

http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content4/growth.chart/page1.html

http://www.kidsource.com/NICHCY/speech.html

http://www.kidsource.com/ASHA/child_language.html

http://www.kidsource.com/ASHA/otitis.html

http://www.kidsource.com/LDA/spoken_language.html

Interactive Language Activity Sites

Lots of Language Activities in an interactive game format: includes analogies, antonyms, synonyms, homonyms, homographs, categories, word pairs, rhymes, categories, grammar, guessing, wh-questions, comprehension, negatives, figurative language, idioms, etc.

http://www.quia.com/pages/havefun.html

Great Sequencing Activities

http://www.quia.com/pages/sequencingfun.html

Alphabet, phonics, words, sentences, stories, activities, holidays

http://www.starfall.com/

Suggestions for Home 

Home Therapy Ideas

http://www.nciOHIO.com/therapy.htm

Activities to Encourage Communication

http://aac.unl.edu/intervention/Encourage_Communication.html

Evaluation

Great job!  You have completed your quest and now its time to share feedback with us.  Do you have questions about the communication milestones?  Did you learn more about language development? Were your questions about language disorders answered? What games or activities did your child enjoy the most?  Were the activities successful in helping your child achieve home practice goals? 

We will know your quest has been accomplished when you provide your feedback to us through email. 

Please email comments and questions to us.   Pat Teschner (teschnerp@breckenridge.k12.mn.us) or Colleen Engebretson (engebretsonc@breckenridge.k12.mm.us)

Conclusion

Your quest has provided answers to your questions about language development.  We hope that you have learned more about language problems and disorders.  You, as parents, will help your child get the most out of language therapy by practicing at home using the suggested activities.  Your daily involvement will have a positive influence on your child’s language development.  So, continue to enjoy the quest for good speech and language!

SLP/Teacher Section

This WebQuest provides excellent resources on language development, disorders and activities for use in home or school. 

Suggested Uses:

*SLPs should explore the quest before sharing with parents and students. 

 *Use this quest to provide parents a framework to gain information and activity ideas.

*SLPs may use the article links as helpful resources for parents and teachers.