We – alpacas and Kieran and Sue Thank you for all that you do To read, Like and share And show that you care; Season’s Greetings we send to you, too. Christmas 2023. The alpacas and Kieran and Sue Send our Christmas greetings to you. We hope the New Year Will bring much greater cheer, […]

Jj is for Jottings 76.  Voice Disorders and Vocal Nodules. Manuel is trying to open his mouth as widely as he can so we can see if he has vocal nodules. In my last post I said I’d talk more about voice disorders and how they develop in children.  Vocal nodules, also referred to as […]

My name is Sue Carolane.  Born in Victoria, Australia, I’ve had over 35 years experience as a speech pathologist working in education. Troubled by the increasing number of children struggling to learn to read, write and spell, I decided to do something about it at its core – teaching each letter of the alphabet and […]

Jj is for Jottings 153.  Speech Sound Problems: /k,g/ We have previously learned about /s/ as a speech sound problem.  Let us now focus on speech sound problems: /k,g/.  As always, if your child makes speech errors, you need to know whether the error is actually appropriate for age.  (In which case, is it actually […]

Jj is for Jottings 159.  Creativity in Children, Part 1. Walk into any preschool/kindergarten and you see that they provide many opportunities for creativity in children.  Why is that?  Because arts and crafts are one of the most important ways to help children develop and grow between ages 3-8.  Here is a chart of communication […]

Jj is for Jottings 135.  Morphemes. There was a brief definition of morphemes in the article on learning vocabulary.  Direct vocabulary instruction referred to using morphological knowledge to work out meanings of more complex words.  So it’s probably time to go more thoroughly into morphemes and how important they really are.  Knowledge of morphemes is […]

Jj is for Jottings 158.  Smartphones in Schools. A few days ago (July 2023) in Australia, smartphones in schools were banned.  Some states had already banned or restricted their use, but the ban is now nationwide.  The ban also includes smartwatches.  There are quite a few reasons to ban smartphones in schools given below, but […]

Jj is for Jottings 165.  Motor Skills and Screen Time in Preschoolers. We will now look at the topic of motor skills and screen time in preschoolers in some detail.  In Creativity in Children, Part 1 I noted a deterioration in young children’s fine motor skills over the last few years.  I suggested that creative […]

Help Your Child Learn to Read Easily with the Help of Cute and Cuddly Alpacas. See shy April in her smart red halter. See two of the boys having a fight. Look right into Geisha’s mouth as she yawns. Find out what happens to their toenails…..The alpacas are fascinating and engaging Learn how to teach […]

Jj is for Jottings 156.  Speech Sound Problems: /th/ The speech sound problem /th/ is more complicated than many other sounds.  This is because in some parts of the English-speaking world, substituting /f/ for /th/ is normal, part of a dialect.  In this case it is not a speech sound problem. Continue reading Jj is […]

Jj is for Jottings 52.  Reading to Children – Some Statistics. Even the alpacas are worried about current trends. Here are some disquieting (but not unexpected) statistics and comments quoted by the guest, who is very experienced in education, at the launch of “Aa is for Alpacas”: Research by Angela Emher in 2013 of 1263 […]

Jj is for Jottings 154.  How Smartphones Affect the Brain. In this article we will cover some of the latest research on how smartphones affect the brain.  We have previously discussed  the effects of screen time on children.  Amongst other aspects, this included language delay in children exposed to screens at an early age.  We […]

Jj is for Jottings 156.  Speech Sound Problems: /th/ The speech sound problem /th/ is more complicated than many other sounds.  This is because in some parts of the English-speaking world, substituting /f/ for /th/ is normal, part of a dialect.  In this case it is not a speech sound problem. I am speaking from […]

Jj is for Jottings 153.  Speech Sound Problems: /k,g/ We have previously learned about /s/ as a speech sound problem.  Let us now focus on speech sound problems: /k,g/.  As always, if your child makes speech errors, you need to know whether the error is actually appropriate for age.  (In which case, is it actually […]