On this episode I welcome Melissa Minney, speech language pathologist, mother and on Instagram as @raisinglittletalkers.

We discuss the following and so much more!

• What pre-verbal skills are and why they are important
• How early we can see these skills
• How parents can work to develop these skills
• Potential pre-verbal development concerns
• How to connect gestures with teaching language
• So much more!

00;00;08;20 – 00;00;26;29

Dr. Mona

Welcome to this episode. I am so excited to welcome one of my favorite accounts on social media raising little talkers. This is Melissa Minney. She is a speech language pathologist and mother. And we’re going to be talking all about pre verbal skills. Thank you so much for joining me Melissa.

 

00;00;27;05 – 00;00;28;19

Melissa Minney

Thanks for having me.

 

00;00;28;22 – 00;00;41;05

Dr. Mona

Well I’m so excited that I got to connect with you on social media. I love your account. I love the way you give information. What do you love most about being a speech language pathologist and why did you start raising little talkers?

 

00;00;41;08 – 00;01;10;28

Melissa Minney

So my favorite part about being a speech therapist is helping parents connect and communicate with their children. I’ve always known communication to be the bedrock of any relationship, but it wasn’t really until I had children of my own that I really felt the impact that talking has on the parent baby and parent toddler relationship. And for my husband and I, we always talk about this how when our kids started to talk, they felt more like real people with desires and thoughts and ideas and feelings.

 

00;01;11;01 – 00;01;28;17

Melissa Minney

And we saw them really starting to take shape and felt more bonded and more connected to them. This was even more pronounced for my husband, who didn’t have that birth or nursing bond that I had. So that really is a shift that happened for me after I had children, and it’s one of my favorite things to foster in other families right now.

 

00;01;28;19 – 00;01;29;14

Dr. Mona

Oh, that’s so great.

 

00;01;29;22 – 00;01;49;05

Melissa Minney

Yeah, and I started the raising Little Talkers Instagram page at the start of the pandemic for a few reasons. Mainly to keep my skills sharp while I wasn’t able to see clients, but also to connect with other moms and empower them to help their kids at home. While they didn’t have access to speech therapy, and I really had no intention of it turning into a business.

 

00;01;49;05 – 00;02;06;13

Melissa Minney

But as it started to grow, I began doing consultations and then turning down requests for consultations because I didn’t have the time while being at home with my kids, and I really realized the need for what I was offering, and decided to create a course so I could help more parents than my schedule allowed. And that’s how it all started.

 

00;02;06;15 – 00;02;22;15

Dr. Mona

Awesome. And you’re going to be able to give more information about your course at the end, because I think it’s so great that you provide these resources. And like you said, in a pandemic, parents really wanted this information. And I think it is going to be something that we see on social media that it will carry, I think, past the pandemic, too.

 

00;02;22;18 – 00;02;39;23

Dr. Mona

Because, you know, social media has become such a great place for reliable education from, you know, people we trust. And I definitely learn so much from you, being so obviously geared towards speech language pathology has been so important for me as a pediatrician to learn to so I really appreciate what you’re doing on there.

 

00;02;39;25 – 00;02;41;12

Melissa Minney

I’m so glad. Thank you.

 

00;02;41;12 – 00;03;02;08

Dr. Mona

So yeah, I’m like, again, I’m so happy that we’re able to connect. And we’re talking about pre verbal skills. And so I think it’s such an important thing that we discuss because we talk about language and communication. But there’s a difference between the two. And you know spoken language like the words we hear children say a lot of that begins even before we hear that first word.

 

00;03;02;09 – 00;03;07;00

Dr. Mona

So what exactly are pre verbal skills and why are they so important.

 

00;03;07;02 – 00;03;25;18

Melissa Minney

Absolutely. They’re not talked about enough. So pre-verbal skills are these necessary building blocks that each child needs in order to, start talking. We can’t expect a child to talk if they have weaknesses in or are missing any of these skills. So they should be developed by 12 months. And like I said, it’s really not talked about enough.

 

00;03;25;18 – 00;03;47;15

Melissa Minney

We often hear parents like really excited about this big speech and language milestone of babbling and then first words and sort of not talking about any of the other mini milestones that come in between those or even before babbling. So I love that, when I share these with parents, they’re able to track these and have small wins to celebrate as they eagerly await their baby or toddler’s first words.

 

00;03;47;19 – 00;04;10;04

Melissa Minney

So one of the very first things that we see starting between birth and three months old is what I just called looking and listening. So this is your baby sensing and reacting to events in the environment such as like alerting sounds, moving objects, and then even communication from another person. So turning their head toward a voice that they hear, making and maintaining eye contact with somebody who’s looking at them.

 

00;04;10;06 – 00;04;31;18

Melissa Minney

The next one is anticipation. This one, actually, all the rest of them that I’m going to talk about start around 6 to 9 months. Some of them even earlier. And I’ll touch on each one as I go. But anticipation is when your baby anticipates what’s going to happen next based on the sounds that they hear. So for example, let’s say they hear running bath water or a key in the door.

 

00;04;31;19 – 00;04;51;04

Melissa Minney

They know that one means they’re about to take a bath or that daddy might be home from work. The gestures and facial expressions they see. So maybe they’re bracing themselves for tickles that are kind of come if your fingers are out, like you’re going to tickle them, or they see a tower about to knock over and they’re going to brace themselves because they know it’s going to fall and make a big crash.

 

00;04;51;06 – 00;05;11;23

Melissa Minney

And eventually this turns into words they hear. So if you’re saying, I’m going to get you, your child anticipates that a game of chase is going to start and they’re going to start running. The next one is imitating. Imitating can happen certainly at birth. I’m sure you’ve heard of people saying, you know, my babies imitating my facial expression or my tongue sticking out, right.

 

00;05;11;26 – 00;05;34;00

Melissa Minney

That’s not conscious imitation. And that definitely happens very early on. Eventually, between 6 to 9 months, we’ll start to see some purposeful imitation, which is where babies will imitate some facial expressions, body movements, gestures, sounds, and eventually words and phrases. And this is really important because a child will imitate your sounds in words prior to using them independently.

 

00;05;34;06 – 00;05;54;03

Melissa Minney

So we really want to see that the imitation piece is strong. The next one is turn taking. And this is not to be confused with sharing with a peer. So this is this back and forth interaction with another person. For example, handing objects back and forth, playing peekaboo back and forth, or rolling a ball back and forth with an adult.

 

00;05;54;05 – 00;06;17;12

Melissa Minney

This is the foundation of conversational turn taking. So I think I say something, you say something, I say something, you say something. That’s the expected turn taking that we do when we are communicating with another. And the next one is joint attention. And this one is really big joint attention is when you and your child are focused on the same object or activity, you’re both aware that you’re sharing that experience.

 

00;06;17;14 – 00;06;41;26

Melissa Minney

Think of a triangle connecting the three of you so you, your child, and an object or event that you’re watching. And this is critical for language development because in order for your child to learn the meanings of words, they need to be able to attend to what you’re saying. So they learn the word and to the object or event or activity, so they can make the association between the word and what they’re experiencing.

 

00;06;41;29 – 00;07;04;11

Melissa Minney

So when you have that joint attention with your child, it’s really the optimal time for learning the meanings of words. Understanding language is the next one. This is known as receptive language. This happens first before expressive language. So there are many ways a baby can demonstrate they understand language. For example, looking at or pointing to familiar objects or people when named, showing anticipation.

 

00;07;04;11 – 00;07;13;18

Melissa Minney

Like I mentioned before, when certain words are said and following directions. Okay, there’s three more. Stay with me. I love them. Okay, good so far.

 

00;07;13;18 – 00;07;23;28

Dr. Mona

Again, this is why I love your account so much because you just lay it down by age two and also by okay, this is going to happen. And then we should see this and we’ll talk about that more. But I love that. So thank you. So much. So go ahead.

 

00;07;24;05 – 00;07;47;29

Melissa Minney

Okay. So the next one is gestures. And in typical language development gestures are used before words. And research strongly connects gesture to word use. So we really want to see purposeful gestures being used before we can expect words to come. And this includes like pointing, even leading an adult to somewhere, pulling on a pant leg to indicate they want up, waving hi, and by lifting their arms to be picked up.

 

00;07;47;29 – 00;08;22;10

Melissa Minney

Shaking their head yes and no. There’s so many different gestures that a child can use to communicate, and that shows us that they are going to be using words soon in the next couple of months, usually. And purposeful vocalizations is the next one. And these happen when your child has moved from only reflexive vocalizations, such as crying or sneezing, to intentional vocalizations to get your attention or express wants and needs such as whining or screeching while looking at a desired object or person to indicate they want it or they want your attention.

 

00;08;22;16 – 00;08;45;19

Melissa Minney

And the last one is initiation. So this is when a child starts to initiate an interaction with an adult without being prompted first. And this is important because children who initiate are getting important feedback and language modeled about things that interest them during a moment of joint attention. Right? So if a child points to something, then they’re initiating to the adult.

 

00;08;45;24 – 00;09;04;09

Melissa Minney

I’m interested in that. I want you to talk about it. And then the parent will start or caregiver will start to name the object. And you have that strong triangle of attention that your child initiated. So you know that it’s something very interesting to them, and that is when they are going to learn the most language.

 

00;09;04;12 – 00;09;19;09

Dr. Mona

Oh, I love that last point so much and so important. I mean, it’s like using the environment and using what they’re interested in, what you’re interested in, and they’re looking at to to kind of solidify and create that glue of like this. You’re going to remember this word because it’s something that’s useful and interesting to you. That’s awesome.

 

00;09;19;09 – 00;09;38;18

Melissa Minney

Yeah, exactly. And just to go over the ages again, so looking and listening starts right away. You’ll see some imitation right away between 0 and 3 months. And the rest start around 6 to 9 months and will strengthen and become more advanced by 12 months. So by 12 months, your child should have all of these skills down pat and use them throughout the day.

 

00;09;38;18 – 00;09;50;11

Melissa Minney

It doesn’t mean necessarily that their first words are going to come right at 12 months. The normal range for that is between 10 and 14 months. But I’m less concerned if your child has all of these skills in place by one year.

 

00;09;50;14 – 00;10;07;02

Dr. Mona

So I guess my first question would be in that first year. Then when we look at these pre verbal skills that we’re talking about, are there certain timing or milestones if you want to use that word that would say okay this would warrant an evaluation. Because then we’re concerned there may not be spoken language at such and such time.

 

00;10;07;04 – 00;10;29;12

Melissa Minney

Yeah. So if you’re not seeing well I mean all of these are really important, but some big ones, if you’re not seeing joint attention by nine months usually that that starts to develop between 6 to 9 months. Understand language is another huge one that we want to see between 6 to 9 months. So if you’re not noticing those they kind of go hand in hand.

 

00;10;29;12 – 00;10;50;07

Melissa Minney

So if your child isn’t understanding words, then they’re not going to be able to use them purposefully. So if you think about it this way, your child’s never going to know to request milk or bottle. If they don’t know what milk or bottle is called, they need to understand the connection between the word and the object to be able to purposefully request it or label it for you.

 

00;10;50;09 – 00;11;19;20

Melissa Minney

So understanding words is really, really critical. And if you’re noticing that by nine months of age your child isn’t looking at familiar objects or people when you name them, if you say something simple like, Where’s daddy? And they hear the word daddy, but they don’t look around for daddy or look at daddy, if he’s right there, that would indicate that they might not be understanding words at that age, and that will grow that skill when they’re about 12 to 15 months.

 

00;11;19;20 – 00;11;50;04

Melissa Minney

We want to see that they’re able to follow simple directions. So if they can’t, you know, go get their shoes or give mommy the ball, then that’s an indicator that they might not understand what those words are, and we can’t expect them to say words again if they don’t understand them. The joint attention piece goes hand in hand with that, because sometimes we’ll notice that when children are not understanding language, if it’s not a hearing issue, then they’re likely having a joint attention issue where they’re struggling to learn the meanings of the words if there’s no other diagnoses going on.

 

00;11;50;10 – 00;12;12;01

Dr. Mona

Oh, this is so great. I guess my other question would be, so just say these children were showing these skills, but later. So let’s use your example of understanding a command like go get your shoes right. So ideally 12 to 15 months. So if a child’s not doing that or maybe at the later range of normal, is it safe to say that because they’re showing those skills later that they may be a later talker?

 

00;12;12;03 – 00;12;39;12

Melissa Minney

A potentially, I always like to rule out hearing loss as a possibility. Even if a child appears to hear so, they might respond to noises. They enjoy music. These are common things I’ve heard parents say, or they’re like my child. Total years in these cases, it can be that children have fluid in their ears or some sort of hearing loss that’s not being diagnosed, and that can make it difficult for them to understand language.

 

00;12;39;14 – 00;12;58;13

Melissa Minney

And start to babble and use words. So I like to rule that out, because if that’s treated, then they may just start using words on time once that’s worked out, if it’s not related to hearing, then until they get some speech therapy and start working on that receptive piece, you can expect that the words are not going to come until that’s resolved.

 

00;12;58;15 – 00;13;17;10

Dr. Mona

Oh, this is so great because I think we often our parents often focus on developing the language without thinking about these important foundation skills, which we’re talking about in this episode. Right. Those pre-verbal skills, what can a parent do to develop these skills? They just say they are not trying to teach the language so early, but or, you know, words.

 

00;13;17;10 – 00;13;26;02

Dr. Mona

But what can they do to foster, you know, the anticipation, the imitating? Just maybe some few examples of those early foundation skills that we can teach.

 

00;13;26;04 – 00;13;44;06

Melissa Minney

Sure. So one of the best things we can do from birth is encourage your child to look at you and share an experience with you. So getting face to face with your child, if they’re an infant, you can have them on, you know, like a boppy pillow or something on your lap facing you. You can get on the floor and do tummy time with them.

 

00;13;44;12 – 00;14;02;04

Melissa Minney

If they’re older, you can get on the floor and play with your child instead of being, you know, more of, like a spectator from the couch, because engaging them in that way is going to draw attention to you and the interaction that you’re having, and you’re more likely to have lots more moments of joint attention when facing each other in that way.

 

00;14;02;06 – 00;14;18;19

Melissa Minney

Teaching your child to imitate you early on is another great one. And you can do this by imitating them. So if your child does an action or gesture like, let’s say, bang on the table at the dinner table, you can bang on the table back at them and see if they do it again. And the goal is to get that back and forth.

 

00;14;18;19 – 00;14;36;21

Melissa Minney

Going to that turn take I mentioned. And then another one is use a lot of gestures when you talk and when you’re singing songs, use hand gestures and body movements because that is going to teach your child to use gestures, which I just explained is so important. But before words come, awesome.

 

00;14;36;21 – 00;14;46;09

Dr. Mona

And those gestures would be like if a song has like up in it, you kind of point up like that or obviously gestures to describe what’s happening in the song or what you’re saying exactly.

 

00;14;46;09 – 00;15;07;17

Melissa Minney

So if you’re showing up and you would point out pointing at everything that you’re talking about, it could also be when your child, let’s say, wants to be picked up, you’re modeling the gesture that you’d like them to do. So you’re raising your arms up when you say, do you want me to pick you up? Your arms are up so that even though they can’t necessarily say those words yet, they can hopefully imitate that gesture and start to use that to communicate.

 

00;15;07;20 – 00;15;23;03

Dr. Mona

And I know we’re talking about Pre-verbal skills, but I would love to speak about that. So you talked about obviously gestures, you know, any other tips for how a parent can connect gestures with teaching actual spoken language? You were saying like verbalizing it when you put the gesture out. What are some other tips exactly?

 

00;15;23;03 – 00;15;43;00

Melissa Minney

So well, that’s one of them. Very important ones is saying a word and gesturing at the same time so that your child can make that connection. And research is showing and has shown for a long time that pointing is like the holy grail of gesturing. So when you’re talking about an object and when you’re having that moment of joint attention, point to what you’re talking about.

 

00;15;43;00 – 00;15;59;25

Melissa Minney

Even though you think it’s obvious that your child knows you’re talking about that because you’re both looking at it, you still want a model pointing because then your child is going to imitate your point. And even before they can use words, we want them to be pointing to things, like I said, to initiate that joint attention with you.

 

00;15;59;28 – 00;16;17;24

Melissa Minney

And also to let you know what they want. And if they don’t have words yet, they can use their point, to indicate that. And I always want to tell parents a point isn’t necessarily an index finger point. That can develop after a open hand point or a closed hand point. That’s just like they’re using their whole arm to indicate something.

 

00;16;17;24 – 00;16;24;20

Melissa Minney

So even if they’re not using a finger, that’s still considered pointing. They’re drawing your attention to something that they’re interested in.

 

00;16;24;22 – 00;16;45;06

Dr. Mona

This is so great. I you know, since I have you on this recording, what would be some of the mistakes that you commonly see parents make when trying to teach language? I know we’re talking about Pre-verbal skills, but I love your expertise. What would you want to share with parents when they’re finally getting into that language education and helping their children learn words?

 

00;16;45;08 – 00;17;12;19

Melissa Minney

This is a great question. So one thing that I see parents doing a lot that I try and discourage in the first year is really focusing heavily on academic concepts. So colors, shapes, numbers and letters and those things are important when your child is older and going to preschool. But in the beginning, when your child is learning language, we really want to focus on functional language, functional words that are going to get their wants and needs met.

 

00;17;12;21 – 00;17;33;19

Melissa Minney

So imagine if your child could say blue and circle. They can’t really request that they’re hungry or thirsty or tell you that they want to go outside. So the more you repeat words, the more likely your child is going to pick them up. So if your playtime is always focused on these academic concepts, those might be your child’s first words and they’re not really helpful for your child.

 

00;17;33;19 – 00;18;07;05

Melissa Minney

So examples of functional words would be more help eat want the names of important people mommy, daddy, favorite toys, favorite foods, things that your child can use to request and to talk about. Another big one is telling your child to say certain words or asking them, can you say, blank? I just always tell parents, repetition is so huge, and I think that they underestimate how much you really need to repeat something before your child can pick it up.

 

00;18;07;07 – 00;18;20;05

Melissa Minney

So the best thing to do, especially when your child is nearing that age where you’re hoping words are going to come, is to continue to model the words that you’d like your child to say, instead of asking them to say them.

 

00;18;20;07 – 00;18;36;09

Dr. Mona

Same or just exactly right. Yeah, I know, it’s so funny. Melissa, like my mom and dad are visiting and I think socially, culturally, we’re used to doing that, right? I hear it all the time. Like, I mean, my patient, I used to do and I’m like, wait. And then I obviously learn more as I became a pediatrician, I’m like, no, that makes no sense.

 

00;18;36;09 – 00;18;55;00

Dr. Mona

But, it just happens, like, we’re like. And my mom is doing it right now. Okay, Ryan. Say, nanny, which is grandma, say, nodding. And I’m like, mom, just point to yourself and say nanny like it’s exactly no. Yeah. It’s so hard. Like, I love that you’re bringing that up because I think it’s common. And I think when you say it like that, it really says, oh yeah, I do do that a lot.

 

00;18;55;01 – 00;19;15;28

Dr. Mona

You know, I do say, say it, versus just pointing and labeling, kitchen. That repetition is so key. Oh my gosh. And you know, from even just personal experience, I know you would say the same thing with your own children. How much the repetition. And then we talked about this earlier, the repetition of things are noticing and that we’re noticing and that they’re interested in also.

 

00;19;15;28 – 00;19;35;13

Dr. Mona

Right. The joint attention combined with the repetition of the items that are in that joint attention, exactly, are what I see personally. Like Ryan, we have a big giraffe in his room. One of his first words was giraffe. Because of the amount of time he wakes up and points to the giraffe and I say giraffe. And now he goes graph.

 

00;19;35;15 – 00;19;36;20

Melissa Minney

Yeah, it’s exactly so.

 

00;19;36;21 – 00;19;45;27

Dr. Mona

It’s not a useful I get it. That’s not a useful word, but it’s because that it’s that repetition. He sees it every day. And I also point to it and say giraffe. Yeah. And I yeah.

 

00;19;46;00 – 00;20;00;09

Melissa Minney

I would argue that it is a functional word because it’s something he sees in his everyday life that he likes, and he’s able to start a conversation with you. So even though he’s not necessarily requesting giraffe, he’s saying, mommy, look, giraffe. And so that he’s starting a conversation with you. Yeah, it.

 

00;20;00;09 – 00;20;20;26

Dr. Mona

Is so cute. And you, like you said, like you started this because you love sharing your expertise. It is so cool seeing that develop, right? I mean, that’s why I love being a pediatrician, too, is that you get to see all this change. And, you know, I think this episode is going to be so great for people who may be concerned, like, oh, my child may not have the joint attention, or they may not have the gestures or they may not have the turn taking skills.

 

00;20;20;26 – 00;20;27;13

Dr. Mona

Maybe I should bring that up. With my child’s clinician. Is there anything else you want to add before we wrap up?

 

00;20;27;15 – 00;20;56;14

Melissa Minney

Yeah. So one thing I always love to share with parents, and maybe you do already with your patients, is that early intervention if you’re in the United States, is an amazing three or nearly free resource for families. And I can’t tell you how many people I’ve told on Instagram and they’ve never heard of it. So I’d love to just get the word out that that is an option for families who are wanting to get an evaluation or have a concern, but can’t afford it, or just want to know exactly what’s going on.

 

00;20;56;14 – 00;21;18;03

Melissa Minney

Because I always encourage a let’s check and see versus a let’s wait and see approach. And so if anyone’s worried then just get it checked out and see what’s going on. So that’s one thing. I know that that’s not an option for everybody. Or there’s waitlists and people don’t want to wait. My course called Raising Little Talkers is for parents of children 0 to 36 months.

 

00;21;18;03 – 00;21;39;29

Melissa Minney

And it really teaches you all the tools, for how to encourage these pre-verbal skills that we talked about and cover all of them in the course with example videos. And then I go into words and phrases as well. So that’s an option for parents who want to get started at home and to feel more empowered, like they know what they’re doing.

 

00;21;40;02 – 00;21;57;02

Melissa Minney

I don’t know about you, but but like when I was having my first baby, I was told, like, just do tummy time, and I didn’t really know how to do tummy time. I felt like, okay, I’m supposed to do it. I know it’s important. It’s kind of like the Holy Grail for like my child learning to sit up and crawl and walk.

 

00;21;57;02 – 00;22;18;23

Melissa Minney

So I kind of feel like I tried to create the course that was like the tummy time equivalent. I wanted parents to feel like they knew how to support their child as they are developing, so that they could be prepared to meet all of these mini milestones and then get to words and eventually phrases. So yeah, it’s not talked about enough, but I hope that that’s a helpful resource.

 

00;22;18;29 – 00;22;34;14

Dr. Mona

Yeah, I agree with you that most of the resources out there for early childhood development, especially in that first year, you know, is more for the motor skills, than speech. And I get it that you’re not actually teaching spoken language before, but like, you’re not like teaching them to say hello or up at like five months of age.

 

00;22;34;14 – 00;22;49;17

Dr. Mona

But the foundation skills that you’re talking about are important. Oh, this is so great. And I’m going to link everything, including your Instagram handle for everyone listening and any of your resources. But what would be your final message for everyone listening with, you know, all this amazing information that you’ve presented?

 

00;22;49;20 – 00;23;17;14

Melissa Minney

Okay, so my final message is that parents do not cause delays. Mom, guilt is such a huge, gross thing that we all experience. It’s so horrible and I know so many parents have felt like this is my fault, that my child is not meeting milestones or that they’re not talking yet. And you know, unless a child is severely, severely neglected or abused, really, parents do not cause these types of things.

 

00;23;17;16 – 00;23;34;11

Melissa Minney

There are things you can do to encourage the skills. You know, like I said, which is why I created my course and which is why speech therapy is really effective. But I just want to relieve parents of this mom guilt or dad guilt that this is something that they caused because they weren’t doing enough. Some children need nothing.

 

00;23;34;11 – 00;23;51;11

Melissa Minney

You just do what you’re going to do and you don’t think about it. And then there are other children who need support, and you can’t possibly know that they’re going to need this extra support or a different approach until you get there. So you know, when you know better, you change your ways and then, well, hopefully it’s effective and you see the change in your child.

 

00;23;51;11 – 00;23;54;28

Melissa Minney

But I hope that that’s helpful. Message for for moms and dads.

 

00;23;55;01 – 00;24;14;03

Dr. Mona

It is because I think there is a misconception like that last comment you said, like I see it also, and I’m going to give my example like I am doing everything I know to do for speech, right? And also I learn from you and I obviously I know these things and Ryan is doing really good for his milestone, but he’s not saying like 150 words.

 

00;24;14;03 – 00;24;32;27

Dr. Mona

Right? He’s 18 months, but he’s doing really good for him. And so it’s comparing the child on their own journey. And knowing your resources, knowing the skills you need to teach your child. And it’s not a competition. I do know that there is a badge of honor if your child walks early, or if your child speaks early, there’s just like, oh, my child is amazing.

 

00;24;32;27 – 00;24;47;24

Dr. Mona

And I think that’s awesome, I do, but I also want people to understand. On that flip side, it really isn’t a well, you didn’t do everything right. You’re actually are doing right and your job is to know, how do I engage with my child? Your job is to know, what do I need to do with my child? Is not meeting X, Y, and Z along this time?

 

00;24;47;24 – 00;25;07;22

Dr. Mona

Do I need to be concerned? Do I need early intervention? That is the goal here. It’s not comparing. It’s my own child’s journey. And what do I need to do to best service my child and their own development? Because everyone’s different. Like I see it all the time. I have children who speak super early, but then maybe walk a little bit later or, you know, have these sort of cognitive skills early and speak later.

 

00;25;07;22 – 00;25;26;21

Dr. Mona

I mean, there’s just so much variation and I want that for I agree with you that that mommy guilt, daddy guilt, any guilt that well, maybe I didn’t do enough. I really want to squash that too, because this is why we do these episodes, right? I want these educational pieces to be there to parents know. Well, you know what I am concerned, or I want to talk about it with my child’s clinician or get a second opinion.

 

00;25;26;26 – 00;25;32;07

Dr. Mona

That’s the goal here. So you’re just awesome. I’m going to have you back on again. You know I love you on your social media too.

 

00;25;32;11 – 00;25;34;26

Melissa Minney

So thank you for that message. Oh you’re welcome.

 

00;25;34;29 – 00;25;46;02

Dr. Mona

Well everyone listening make sure you check out the show notes. For resources. Follow Melissa at Raising Little Talkers on Instagram. I’m attaching it to the show notes page and we will see you next week. Thanks again, Melissa.

 

00;25;46;05 – 00;25;48;05

Melissa Minney

Thanks for having me. Thank you for tuning.

 

00;25;48;05 – 00;26;03;06

Dr. Mona

In for this week’s episode. As always, please leave a review. Share this episode with a friend. Share it on your social media. Make sure to follow me at PedsDocTalk on Instagram and subscribe to my YouTube channel, PedsDocTalk TV. We’ll talk to you soon.