Speech Unbound

06/05/2026

Sarah Says…The Marching People Game 🥁

Looking for a zero-toy way to build communication? Try a Marching People Game!
Start a simple, rhythmic march with your child ('ready, set…MARCH!'). Stop abruptly, hold the anticipation, and wait for them to make eye contact, vocalize, or move their body.

You are building structural language loops using nothing but your feet and your voice.

06/04/2026

06/04/2026

Mrs. Jhay-lah’s favorite people game to play is…

The zoom-zoom song 😂🚀🤩

06/03/2026

Q: My child ignores their toys but loves when I chase them or tickle them. Is this still considered productive play?
A: Yes! In fact, it is the absolute gold standard of early interaction. In the Hanen More Than Words framework, these are called People Games.

When you completely eliminate the toys, you become the toy. This structural shift forces your child to focus entirely on your face, your vocal pitch, your words, and your actions. It naturally boosts eye contact, reciprocal communication, anticipation, and shared joy—no plastic required! 🧠✨

06/03/2026

🐾 Pawject Manager Report: The Toy Strike 🐾
Date: June 3rd
Status: Play Mode Activated.

Manager’s Log: The little humans in the clinic are striking against the toy box today, and honestly, I get it. Who needs plastic blocks when you have a perfectly good human to chase you around the room? My humans call this a "People Game," but I just call it a Tuesday.

The Manager’s Notes: When the toys go away, the communication goes up.
Without a toy distracting them, kids look right at your face to see what you'll do next.
It builds anticipation, eye contact, and interaction loops faster than any flashy gadget can.
Be the toy today. Go chase someone! 🐾💨

TherapyDogLife PlayIsTherapy MichiganSLP

06/01/2026

Activity of the Month: Nature Walk! 🔍🦮
Welcome to June! This month, we are challenging all of our Speech Unbound families to take therapy outside with our Activity of the Month: A Nature Walk.
Nature is the ultimate, vocabulary-rich sensory playground. You don’t need flashcards or expensive toys to build language; you just need to follow your child’s eyes and label their world using rich action words and descriptive concepts!

3 Ways to Build Language on Your Walk:
Action Verbs 🏃‍♂️: Talk about crunching leaves, flying birds, crawling bugs, or splashing in puddles.
Descriptive Adjectives 🪨: Find smooth stones, rough tree bark, heavy sticks, or squishy mud.
Spatial Concepts 🗺️: Practice looking up at the sky, under a rock, or behind a tree trunk.

☀️The Challenge: Take some tape and place it around your wrist, throughout your walk find fun items to stick to your tape-bracelet. Don’t forget to tag us in your outdoor adventures and nature walk bracelets all month long! 📸

06/01/2026

🧠 Mindful Monday: What IS Play?
Welcome to the first Monday of June! This month at Speech Unbound, our theme is all about Play, Nature, and Connection. ☀️🌲
To kick things off, let's strip away the pressure and talk about what true play actually is. In a world full of educational apps, electronic toys, and academic flashcards, it’s easy to think that play needs to have a structured, academic goal. But if we look at evidence-based frameworks like the Hanen More Than Words® program, real play looks very different.

✨True Play:
True play isn’t a one-way street where a child names colors or points to pictures on command. Real play is a dynamic, interactive loop. It requires:
⭐️Interaction over Labels: It’s not about your child saying "blue car" over and over; it’s about them rolling the car to you, watching you catch it, and waiting for you to roll it back.
⭐️The Back-and-Forth: Real play builds communication because it creates a shared rhythm. You do something, your child responds, and then you respond back.
⭐️Shared Joy: Genuine connection happens when you drop the clinical or teaching script and simply follow your child's eyes, interests, and imagination.

As people, we need other people (not just toys) inside our interactive loop of shared joy and engagement. When you shift the goal from "learning words" to "sharing a moment," the language grows naturally.

05/31/2026

Megan Says….

Is your kid spitting food out, appearing to not like a new food?? 

It takes multiple exposures to a new food before a person decides to actually eat it!
-look
-tolerate
-touch
-hold for a duration
-smell
-lick