Dr. Rebecca Landa spoke at the recent ASHA convention about the importance of making rich connections between neurons in different parts of the brain. The best way to do this is to provide learning opportunities in meaningful contexts. “Neurons that fire together wire together.”

You can see this learning in action as your child builds new skill layered into familiar play routines.

Today’s activity: Build on your play routines by showing your child one more thing they can do with a toy: take turns putting blocks into a shared bucket; rolling a ball or car back and forth or try it on a new surface; push a button then wait for your child to do it; hide something in a box and let your child discover it; feed the doll then feed you; night-night then wake up.

Use these charts as a checklist for your child's progress.

Send your questions to [email protected].

Visit www.TheInteractionCoach.com to see the directory of speech-language pathologists licensed in your area. If you can’t find one in the directory, contact me at [email protected] and I’ll track down someone for you.