Parent Tips

Verbal routines are when the same words are repeatedly used in a predictable way in the same or similar activities.  

Helping children with emotion regulation early on is essential to their long term well-being. Children who regulate their emotions well are able to use different strategies to manage their emotions and thus are less likely to engage in behaviours that lead to negative consequences.

Despite being as smart and educated as other children of the same age, some children encounter persistent and impairing difficulties in particular aspects of learning. These difficulties may be identified to be a Specific Learning Disorder (SLD) which is neurological or inborn in nature.

Joint attention happens when children share a common focus on the same object, person, or event. It is a pivotal skill that emerges as early as the first year of life and is a must for communication, learning and relationship-building to occur.

Here we talk about five everyday (and easily purchased) toys and how you can use them to focus on developing and extending your child’s communication skills.

Visual perception is necessary for reading, writing, and movement. Without it, children may find daily tasks such as completing homework, solving puzzles, or getting dressed extremely stressful. It can lead to poor self-esteem and academic or social obstacles.

Interoception is our hidden “secret 8th sense”. In very simple terms, it is our sense that allows us to answer the question “How do I feel?” at any one moment. It does this by gathering information from our different body parts (joints, organs and muscles) and interpreting the information from these systems to determine how those body parts feel.

It is important to develop strategies to increase the behaviours you want to see in your child. By fostering positive behaviours, we help children develop a sense of pride in their accomplishments and to understand expectations and structure. This will in turn help decrease negative behaviours.

Sometimes discerning the difference between a ‘picky eater’ and a problem feeder can be difficult. Determining whether or not your child is a ‘picky eater’ isn’t easy.

Toe walking (or ‘idiopathic toe walking’) refers to when children predominantly walk on their tiptoes for no apparent reason after the age of three years.

Echolalia refers to speech that is repeated and can be split into two categories: immediate and delayed. Immediate echolalia is when something is repeated immediately or shortly after it is heard, whereas delayed echolalia, also referred to as scripting, is when something is repeated after a significant period of delay.

Communication temptations are a great technique to motivate your child to communicate and to enhance their language development. It means deliberately setting up the environment so your child is exposed to something unexpected or surprising, or where they need help from you.

Many parents have experienced their child having tantrums in public. These episodes can be more common in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Children throw tantrums for various reasons such as not getting what they want or for attention. In some cases, they have meltdowns due to sensory overload.

Are you looking for new ideas to support your preschooler’s development and have fun at home? Here are three simple activities that you can try. Great for a rainy day!

Parents often enter unknown territory when they are told or suspect that their child has a delay or disability. The following ideas may help parents to get some clarifications.

Speech Therapists will often talk about using and teaching core words when addressing how to help young children with speech and language delay. So, what do they mean?

Babies tend to start crawling on their hands and knees at around the age of seven-to-eleven months. Find out why crawling is a very important stage for your child’s development.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is an evidence-based talk therapy that is beneficial to people of all ages, including children and adolescents.

Many studies have shown the health benefits for children of getting adequate sleep including improved behaviour, memory, attention, learning and general overall good mental and physical health.

Children naturally use gestures and signs as it helps them to express themselves. When adults use gestures with them, that also helps them to learn the meanings of words.

Parents often have many questions about hand dominance. Hand dominance or hand preference refers to the consistent choice of using one hand over the other for a skilled activity.

Parents often have questions about their toddlers and preschoolers’ speech clarity. Here are the answers to some of the most common questions about articulation.

Time is an abstract concept as it is not something that we can see or touch. For young children, being told “It’s dinner in ten minutes” has little meaning!

Theory of Mind is the ability to understand the beliefs, intentions, desires and emotions of oneself or in others.

The SSB synchrony allows infants to eat and breathe without choking, as well as to interact and explore the environment. This is why babies can start eating right after birth and often explore objects with their mouths.

As time has passed, ABA has evolved beyond DTT and a good programme should involve instances of ’incidental teaching’, an approach that provides structured learning opportunities within the natural environment by using the child’s interests and natural motivation.

Children move from using only single words and then begin to put two words together. Expansion and extension are two ways for you to help your child develop their expressive language.

Learning to manage buttons can be a very difficult skill for children to master. However, there are many ways to make learning to do buttons fun for your child!

Some children have a tendency to overprotect or defend themselves. They respond to certain harmless sensations as if they were irritating, dangerous or even painful.

Psychologically, whether a child is experiencing distress or not, mindfulness practice is effective in strengthening children’s emotional well-being.

As a parent, you might wonder – “Why does my child only greet his friends at school but not those he sees at the park?” or “Why is my child only able to recognise poodles as dogs but not huskies or pugs?”.

There are many articles and books on how to toilet train your child. Learn about ‘habit training’, a technique that relies on schedules and routines for toilet training.

Reading stories can be a special part of the day as it is a wonderful way to encourage a positive relationship between you and your child and create special memories!

Everyone knows what a unique and challenging year it has been. Since the first closures following Chinese New Year, although many of our families have accessed our one-to-one services, many children have not yet returned to the Centre in person at all.

Many of us know that reading with children is important for their language development. But how should we be reading with our children to achieve exactly that?

Many parents ask us how to tackle their child’s behaviours. “My child started playing with his saliva; how can I stop that?” or “She’s pinching a lot more than before, what can I do?”

Children often struggle to try new foods and their different flavours and textures. When introducing new flavours and textures at home, it is important to do so slowly. The best way is through a process of systematic desensitisation.

No school, different routines and round-the-clock care; parents of children with learning differences are faced with their biggest challenge.

The communication pyramid is a favourite of speech and language therapists as a simple way to show how communication develops.

Almost all children go through feelings of separation anxiety during some time in their early childhood. In fact, having these feelings are completely normal and stem from their primal needs for safety.

Core strength is developed in the muscles of the stomach and back and provides stabilisation for the body during all body movements. There are many ways to help your child improve their core strength.

Settling in to preschool, kindergarten or even primary school can be difficult purely due to the separation from parents or family. Some children are simply distressed every time they separate from their parents, not just at times of schooling.

A consistent bedtime routine is a great way to ensure that your child gets enough sleep. Different routines suit different children so keep this in mind when you are trying anything new.

Selective Mutism is a rare anxiety-based disorder which can appear in early childhood. These children are able to speak fluently and normally in most situations but withdraw and remain silent in others.

Toys are the best way to practise language while having fun with your child. See below for five more toys to help to get your child talking!

Many children of all ages are motivated by music. Music can also be used as a strategy to improve a child’s sensory integration through programmes like Therapeutic Listening and the Listening Programme.

Transitioning from kindergarten to primary school marks the beginning of a new stage for your child. It is very important for parents to be mindful in this period.

People games are games that don’t require any toys. All you need is yourself, your child and, at times, a small prop. You essentially become ‘the toy’!

Have you ever felt that your child is “obsessed” with something and you do not know how to deal with it?

Some children have difficulties making friends because they do not understand the principles of cooperation and the balance in a give-and-take relationship.

Many everyday situations involve waiting. Here are some tips to make waiting easier for your child.

A great way to practise language is through songs. It is a fun and engaging activity which can involve the whole family.

Learning can be uninspiring for children when they are practising the same skills over an extended period of time, especially when using the same materials and doing things the same way.

Learning approaches are particularly important when tackling a complex skill such as handwriting. A multisensory approach to learning is a way of teaching that engages more than one sensory system at a time.

Art is more than just painting. Your child can practice their fine motor skills and build their language while having fun.

Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) is a term which covers a range of techniques that support spoken language.

The child is seated on the floor with their knees bent, feet positioned outside of their hips and their bottom on the floor. When in this position, the child’s legs will resemble the shape of the letter ‘W’.

Nowadays, children spend much of their time engaged with screens – tablets, phones, and computers. This means less time for outdoor play, from which children can benefit so much.

Children need to learn all kinds of words to be able to communicate, and verbs are necessary to help them to begin to build their first short sentences.

Board games are a really great way to take time away from electronic devices, have a break from homework or to play on a rainy day.

There are a lot of discussions on whether children should be given responsibilities at home. Some believe it helps and teaches them a lot of skills and others believe children should learn through play without any responsibilities or demands.

At CDC, occupational therapists often recommend weighted items for children. Weighted items have many benefits.

A visual schedule is a series of pictures showing a number of activities or tasks to be completed or have been completed for the day or the week, or step-by-step guidelines for an activity.

Adhering to routines and resistance to change are common among young children, especially children with autism spectrum disorder.

Gross-motor skills are those that enable us to move around our environment and engage in games and sport. Gross-motor skills are the basis from which children develop other skills such as fine-motor skills and self-help skills.

Antecedent-based interventions are a collection of proactive strategies that change the environment or the settings that have shown to trigger certain behaviours.

More Than Words – The Hanen Programme® is a family-focused, social-pragmatic intervention programme for young children with ASD. It is aimed to empower parents to become the primary facilitator of their child’s communication and language development.

Summer is the perfect time to get outside and get active with your children! Here are some suggestions for getting active this summer!

As the weather heats up and summer is approaching, there’s no better place to go than the pool or the beach. Did you know that you can embed language in to these two activities? It starts with what you might bring.

Most children like to imitate adults, so why not take this opportunity to bring your child to the kitchen and learn important skills through cooking. Creating dishes together can be a fun and rewarding experience for both of you.

Nowadays, people are getting more familiar with the principles of ABA, because of its popularity for children with autism spectrum disorder, however there are still misconceptions.

Helping your child improve the stability of these muscles will have a positive impact on their handwriting. Here are some activity ideas you can try with your child at home.

Play is an important part of child development which goes beyond working toward age-appropriate skills. Through engaging children in play in early years, children bond with their caregiver.

Sometimes it’s not easy to get children to try new food, especially for children with special educational needs. Some children are sensitive to certain kinds of texture and smell, or items that are new to them.

It is a well-known fact that talking to your child and exposing them to many different words helps them develop their language skills. However, this is not the be-all and end-all.

Music not only brings joy to children, it also benefits children’s cognitive development. Music can then be used to motivate children to engage in learning activities.

Emotion regulation is the ability to control one’s emotion so that the response to the environment is socially appropriate.

The idea is to supplement your verbal messages to your child by using an additional way to communicate.

It is important that children are exposed to a variety of fine-motor activities to help develop good hand strength.

Children build on their strengths and work on their weaknesses. This is one of the most important things to keep in mind when we are with the children.

Bubbles and rubber ducks are bath time favourites. Did you know that you could use these and many other toys to work on language?

Behaviours can be viewed as communication. There are reasons why children act the way they do, same goes for tantrums and misbehaviours.

Protecting your child’s voice from day-to-day is essential to help them prevent voice problems. Problems can appear as children straining to talk, getting tired easily when talking or changes in their voice quality.

A few books can help to guide families in exploring various emotions. These books explore that all feelings are okay, but it is what and how we deal with emotions that is important.

Filled with opportunities to request for, and talk about, favourite foods and drinks, snack time is wonderful for developing communication skills. This everyday activity is not only great for learning language but also helps facilitate parent-child bonding.

The style of parenting can make it either easier or harder for your children to master their emotional milestones.

Just a few minutes of sensory-rich activities every day can enhance your child’s development.

Prompts are supplemental teaching aids that you add to a situation to increase the likelihood of our children responding correctly.

Here are some ways you can use bubbles to help your child’s language development.

Crossing the midline is when we move our arm or leg across the middle of our body to perform a task.

Messy play and slime are two things that parents usually want to avoid. However, messy play offers numerous opportunities for learning.

Many everyday situations can be turned into language-rich learning experiences that can also facilitate the development of the bond between the child and the caregiver.

Fidget tools are used to help children improve their concentration and attention by providing them additional sensory input such as touch sensation.

Prioritise your schedule, take time to take care of yourself alongside your practice as parents. Build a positive and secure parent-child relationship, by talking and playing, your child before using any behavioural strategies.

Dysfluent speech can be common in toddlers and pre-schoolers. It is characterised by disruptions in the flow of speech, also called ‘stuttering’.

Some people may think that children will pick up the way to read and express emotions by themselves; and “teaching” about them is simply unnecessary.

Children start learning the moment they come into this world. All children develop and acquire new skills at different rates.

Each child learns and interacts with the world in different ways. Most toddlers begin to show preference for a particular learning style.

Common problems with children’s sleep include inconsistent sleep routines, difficulty falling asleep, nighttime and early morning awakening and restlessness.

Backward Chaining is a useful strategy to enable your child to learn new skills. It involves breaking down a task into simple steps (task analysis) and teaching them in reverse order.

Some children have 20/20 vision but they can still have problems with visual perception processing. It has nothing to do with their vision.

Children with language difficulties often struggle with auditory memory. They often have trouble remembering longer instructions, and may only remember parts of what they hear.

Phonological awareness is the understanding and manipulating the structural features in spoken words, namely rhymes, syllables and phonemes.

The choices for early childhood education in Hong Kong are extensive, as a visit to any of the increasingly popular kindergarten fairs makes clear.

Moving to a new environment such as a new classroom or a new school can be difficult for any child.

With a toy rotation system, toys are sorted and categorised into boxes.

Toilet training can often be a stressful time, but it is an important milestone for every child.

Children with delays or learning difficulties may require some special educational services in schools. This may include an Individualised educational plan (IEP).

Task analysis is the evidence-based practice of breaking a complex task down into smaller, more teachable steps.

Handwriting is one of the important skills necessary for academic success. Pre-writing skills are the building blocks of writing readiness.

Working memory refers to how we hold on to and work with information. It is key to our learning and ability to function successfully within our environment.

Taking your child to the supermarket is a fabulous opportunity for developing their language. You can turn any situation (e.g. going to the park, play-time etc) into a language-rich experience.

iPads and tablets have become readily available, with most households having access to one or more devices. Being portable and offering hours of entertainment, they are definitely a favourite amongst children.

Self-stimulation behaviours simply means any repetitive body or object movement. Often these present as staring at lights, moving fingers in front of the eyes, hand-flapping, rocking, and jumping.

A visual schedule communicates the sequence of an upcoming task or event through the use of photos, images and/or symbols.

Having a positive and effective relationship with your child’s teacher will lead to a better understanding of your child’s strengths and needs.

There are different ways to facilitate competitive games which gradually should help young children understand the concept of winning and losing later.

During early years development, children begin to learn maths ideas and try to internalise relationships between these ideas with the real world.

Attention is an essential tool for basic learning. Weak attention negatively affects the quality of learning in the classroom.

A token economy system is a way of recognising, promoting and rewarding behaviour. Children are given ‘tokens’ when they show a positive behaviour and this is exchanged for a bigger reward.

It is generally recommended that children have their hearing checked annually up until the early primary years.

The development of creativity in early years essentially guides children to develop problem-solving skills in later years.

Learning to take turns is one of the most crucial social skills in our daily life especially when we want to develop friendships, communicate with others and take part in games.

This article aims to help you identify signs that your child is ready to begin reading, as well as ways to encourage reading in your daily routine.

Some would say, one of the hardest things about having young children, is eating out in public. Parents are often concerned about their child’s behaviour in restaurants such as running around, talking loudly, or having a meltdown.

Developing good upper body strength is important for mobility, fine motor skills, and self- help skills.

Research shows that bilingualism itself doesn’t cause language delay. Children learning two languages may be slower to start talking, but research shows this is normal.

Ground rules are helpful for children to understand what the limits are and what behaviour is expected.

Here are some tips on how to make the most out of the upcoming holiday to enhance your child’s language.

Sensory processing is the organisation of sensory input received from the body and the environment for use in daily life.

Learn how to develop the best environment that will lay the foundations for literacy.

It is believed that even the youngest child can sense tension in the immediate environment and/or in caregiver(s).

A suitable backpack is very important for your children when they are ready for preschool.

Toddlers are not developmentally ready to ‘share’. The ability to share of course varies from child to child.

Many parents are concerned about how long their children are spending looking at the screen of an iPhone, iPad, computer or TV.

Going away for the festive season? It is always challenging travelling with young children.

All behaviour is a form of communication and enables your child to interact with his/her environment. It is important to remember that your child’s behaviour always serves a purpose

Scissor skills are often a frightening prospect for parents to encounter. Why should my child learn to cut with scissors? At what age should I expose my child to using scissors and scissor safety?

The following ideas suggest how to deal with a child’s undesirable behaviour, while allowing the parent/ carer not to be become too stressed.

Parent-professional meetings are wonderful opportunities to plan together, exchange advice and have constructive input into your child’s developmental/educational experience.

Children can become picky eaters for a number of reasons. Some children are born more sensitive to taste, smell and texture. However, picky eating habits are more likely to develop when children are being punished, bribed or rewarded for their eating behaviours.

Here are some tips on how Developmental and Psycho-educational Assessments differ

15 steps to help be a more effective parent and encouraging cooperation

Six signs of spoiling & effective discipline tips to avoid brat attacks

Signs that your child may be overly anxious

Signs of toilet-training readiness & training tips

Watch what your children watch! Four top tips & TV use.

Things to do with your child to avoid separation issues.

Remember earlier does not necessarily mean better. Don’t force your child to do an activity they are not interested in – you may do more harm than good.

When we comment on our child’s activities and experiences, we let them hear the language they need to learn.

Good visual-perceptual skills are important for many everyday skills such as reading, writing, and dressing. Here are top signs a processing problem.