The Speech Teacher's Handbook: A Parent's Guide to Speech & Language

by Molly Dresner

This engaging, easy-to-follow handbook provides parents with functional tips for helping their children improve speech and language skills at home, while having fun at the same time. "What a gift to parents who want to help their little ones master the complexities of talking and listening! The skills Molly Rai Dresner lays out are all clear, compassionate and doable." Adele Faber, co-author of How To Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk “If you are looking for a short, easy-to-read guide that will keep you focused and empower your parenting decisions – look no further! Once you implement these strategies, you will be asking yourself, ‘where did this chatty child come from?’” Dawn Winkelmann, M.S. CCC-SLP Speech Language Pathologist & Feeding Specialist “A perfect resource for any caretaker or parent who wants to improve their child’s communication skills. Highly recommend!” Mahsa Akhavan, MD

Genres: Nonfiction

58 pages, Paperback

Published September 15, 2017

Reviews

[Andie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good little review for me as a speech language pathologist and a good guide for parents. I think it's important that it emphasizes that the parent is not to take on the role of a speech therapist, but should reach out and find resources if necessary. This responsibility should not weigh heavily on the parent's shoulders, but there are strategies and ways to help and encourage speech and language development. This book gives some suggestions on how to make it easy and fun.

[Migdalia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm so glad I got to read this book! It's short, but very insightful.

What I liked:
- It gives you tips of what to do at home to help your child talk more.
- It provides basic milestones for each age range. This has been a bit hard to find online since I've seen conflicting info.
- There's chart at the end you can use as an example for your child. This is great if you're planning on taking your child to a speech pathologist. They will probably ask for something similar.
- The font. LOL I'm a sucker for nice fonts.

What I didn't like:
- I only counted one error, and it was just that the author or editor forgot a line break and kept on with the bullet points. No typos and no real content errors.

I definitely recommend this book to parents interested in learning what they can do at home to help their children with their speech development. As she mentioned, it's no substitute for therapy, but it can help a lot.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this as a kind of lay person's primer to speech language pathology. Granted, I know that's not what it was meant to be. But it sort of served that purpose anyway. However, I don't think it emphasized the nature of its own advice enough - i.e. that much of the advice was for, I assume, kids with speech delays.

Also, I am curious about the encouragement to speak in incomplete sentences. I know that baby talk is a legitimate thing, and my curiosity mainly comes from a TEFL standpoint, where telegraphic speech models are discouraged. I suppose babies and second language learners are different after all, haha.

[April Headings · Rating 5 out of 5]

So helpful

One of the best books I've read since trying to learn more about speech to help my son at home along with his speech therapy. This book breaks things down into parts which makes it easy to understand and gives a lot of helpful information for things you can incorporate into routines. Along with weekly speech therapy, we are practicing what we've learned from this book and my son is making unbelievable progress!

[Vanessa Skelton · Rating 5 out of 5]

MUST read! A handbook for parents that have children struggling with speech.

I absolutely loved reading this book! I wanted to be proactive in helping my daughter with her speech, being that she is seeing a speech pathologist. I now have a more open mind to her struggles when saying certain words, as well as with words that she has trouble pronouncing. I would definitely recommend. Love the tips too.

[Anthony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Helps connect the dots

My daughter has a serious speech delay and this book helped me connect the dots between what the speech therapists were saying and what we should be doing at home. It helped identify the gaps in our daily routine that could be contributing to the delays or at least offered strategies for improving.

[Parisa Rahman · Rating 5 out of 5]

great quick read

Finished the book in less than an hour and feeling more empowered to help my child speak. She does a great job of targeting the barebone basics of speech therapy and what to focus on

[Ana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good speech book with many handy tips

[stephanie kbear · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good Stuff

A lot of very good ideas. I have mostly done all of this with my daughter but the baby steps is a good idea.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Helpful

My son is 18 months old and though he "talks" quite often, I can't parse out any actual English words. We haven't reached out to a speech therapist yet because we want to give him more time to develop on his own. This book has great advice and I will definitely try using the more simple techniques to see if that can help guide his language development a little.

All in all, a nice little book that makes all of this seem a little less scary and stressful.