May 8, 2025 • 29 mins
Dinalynn Rosenbush, certified speech-language pathologist and host of the Language of Play podcast, shares research-backed approaches for supporting children's communication skills through play when speech therapy services are delayed or unavailable.
• Nearly 8% of children ages 3-17 have communication disorders with speech problems being most common
• Children need to hear a word approximately 400 times before they begin using it themselves
• Understanding the difference between speech (sound production) and language (meaning, vocabulary, sentences)
• Simple strategies include having sensory-rich conversations about everyday activities
• Expand vocabulary by providing multiple words for common concepts (hot, warm, heated)
• Screen time impacts pragmatic language development, with 40% of children ages 3-10 struggling with social communication
• Create intentional tech-free time for family conversations and connection
• Stay curious about children's behavior, remembering that all behavior is communication
• Providing correction when children use incorrect grammar helps build their reading foundation
You can find Dinalynn's podcast "The Language of Play" on any player, contact her at hello@thelanguageofplay.com, or access free resources through her newsletter.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (00:00):
Are you waiting for speech therapy or
wondering if your child evenneeds it?
Are you worried that the windowfor impactful help might be
narrowing?
Well, today we're talking aboutwhat you can do right now to
support speech and languagedevelopment, no matter what your
role or resources.
Welcome to the brighter side ofeducation, research, innovation
(00:29):
and resources.
I'm your host, dr Lisa Hassler,here to enlighten and brighten
the classrooms in Americathrough focused conversation on
important topics in education.
In each episode, I discussproblems we as teachers and
parents are facing and whatpeople are doing in their
communities to fix it.
What are the variables and howcan we duplicate it to maximize
(00:49):
student outcomes?
If you've ever been told to waitand see while your child
struggles to communicate, you'renot alone.
For many families and teachers,the most frustrating part of
navigating speech therapy issimply getting started.
Speech therapy is simplygetting started.
Long wait lists and delayedintervention have become
widespread barriers, especiallyduring the early years, when
children are not only learninghow to talk but learning how to
(01:13):
read, and, according to the CDC,nearly 8% of children ages 3 to
17 have a communicationdisorder, with speech problems
being the most common.
Children with speech sounddisorders are at a higher risk
for reading difficulties due tothe challenges with phonological
awareness, an essential skillfor decoding and fluency.
A 2020 study in the Journal ofSpeech, language and Hearing
(01:37):
Research found that persistentspeech issues in early childhood
strongly predict later literacystruggles.
And, while early interventionhas proven benefits, many
families are forced to wait,sometimes for months or years,
and educators are left trying tosupport students without
adequate tools or resources.
So what can we do when thesystem can't keep up?
(01:58):
Well, today's guest brings us anempowering, research-backed
approach to supportingcommunication skills through
something every childunderstands play.
Dina Lynn Rosenbusch is acertified speech-language
pathologist and the host of theLanguage of Play podcast.
With years of experience inschools and private practice,
she saw a growing need to helpfamilies bridge the gap when
(02:20):
services were delayed or evenunavailable.
Through her podcast andworkshops, she equips adults
with tools that they can use tonurture communication, naturally
through plain connection.
Her work is research-informed,practical and full of heart.
Welcome, dina Lynn.
I am so excited that you arehere.
I look forward to this excitingconversation we're about to
(02:40):
have.
Dinalynn Rosenbush (02:40):
Thank you, Dr Lisa.
It's a joy to be here and aprivilege and an honor.
The Brighter Side of Educationis a fantastic podcast.
I'm glad you're doing it.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (02:49):
So I'm really glad to be here, and you too
which we're going to dive rightinto the heart of your work.
It is your podcast Language ofPlay.
Can you talk about like?
What is this concept?
What does it mean, and how didit come to shape the approach
that you now share with parentsand educators?
Dinalynn Rosenbush (03:11):
So in my years of working as a speech
language pathologist just, andmy years as a parent, I found
that a lot of times we wouldjust get a little bit short with
our kids or teachers, withstudents, and you know, I wonder
what is going on underneaththat.
And so often I would find thatwe think that the kids should
think like we think, and theydon't.
Children just kids should thinklike we think, and they don't.
Children just don't think likewe think.
Their minds are in an entirelydifferent space.
So what is that space?
(03:31):
Over the years I started toplay around with learning Well,
where is a child's mind?
Start to really probe, likethem, to express what they're
thinking.
And what I find is thatchildren are perpetually in this
state of curiosity.
They're always looking at theworld as discovery.
And when you're talking aboutyoung kids, sometimes what you
(03:53):
tell them in one room they don'tknow if it's the same in the
next room.
You know they really have totest everything to see where are
the boundaries, what reallyworks, what doesn't work.
And I can give you an exampleof this One of my friend's
children.
He was outside and he had takenpatio blocks and he was crashing
the patio blocks.
So he literally broke everysingle block with a hammer that
(04:16):
that dad was going to use on apatio.
And he went out there and he'slike what are you doing?
So the dad saw it as he'sdestroying stuff.
But, knowing this about kids, Iwent to him and I had to say I
bet it was interesting, wasn'tit?
It was pretty cool smashing him, wasn't it?
And then he softened up.
Yeah, and then, once hesoftened up, I started asking
(04:36):
what was it like for you?
And what he said was they makedifferent sounds.
So he had just been in musicclass where they were hitting
mallets and blocks and he wouldfind that different size blocks
had different sounds.
He saw these patio blocks so hewent and got a hammer and he
hit it to see if they would bedifferent sounds.
(04:57):
And indeed, when he broke thepatio block, he would hit the
smaller block and he'd hit thebigger block because it's now
broken.
So there's two different sizesand they were different sounds.
So then he just kept on hittingthem, listening to the sound
that they'd make.
Now, this child was not beingdestructive intentionally.
This child was exploring.
This child was curious, but theoutcome was a problem.
(05:20):
And so the language of playreally has to do with parents
and educators learning how wecan communicate with children in
the ways they think about theworld.
So if we can validate this ideathat they are coming from
curiosity and then ask themabout their experience, we might
find things to be a lotdifferent than what it looks
like on the surface, and thenwhen we do that, we can come up
(05:42):
with language that will helpthem know what they can do next.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (05:46):
But now you're saying that play is often just
seen as fun, and then you justshown how powerful it can be for
language development.
So why is play so essential,especially in the early years,
and how can adults make the mostof it?
Dinalynn Rosenbush (05:58):
I think that we do tend to see play as fun,
and indeed that is one part ofit.
But when we realize that playis so essential for us in fact
every mammal on the planet plays, every mammal we find that
birds play, we see fish play,you know, there is a real
experience of play that isessential for the development of
(06:21):
species, because it is thelearning process and the
language that we use is going tofortify the experience of play.
And I think that the languagewe use with our children is
going to be often reflective ofthe language that we use with
ourselves or what our parentsused with us.
And as we learn to use gentlerlanguage, exploratory type of
(06:43):
language, what was that about?
What might that be like for you?
What do you think will happenafter?
But when kids are little, weneed two statements I see one
that's blue To give the languagearound.
What they're playing and doingwill fortify that experience of
being able to also use language.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (06:59):
A lot of times people think about speech and
language as the same thing orrefer to it interchangeably.
Can you explain the differencebetween the two and why is it
important to understand thatwhen supporting child's
communication growth?
Dinalynn Rosenbush (07:13):
I'd be happy to.
So when we think of speechwe're going to talk about, how
is it that a sound is formed inyour mouth?
So you've got your tongue andyour lips, you've got your
airway, you've got your voice,and how do these things work
together to be able to producecoherent speech?
So, if you think about it, youneed to inhale, you need to turn
on and off your voice in themiddle of a word for sounds that
(07:36):
have a voice or don't have avoice.
For example, b like a, b has avoice but p does not.
So, right in the middle of aword, you're turning on and off
your voice.
There is a coordination of yourair coming out, your voice
turning on and off, your tongue,lips moving around in order to
be able to produce the rightsounds in the right order.
(07:58):
All of that is speech, so thatthere's a lot of areas where it
can break down for people.
Maybe it's fluency, maybe it'ssounds, maybe it's breathing,
maybe it's we call it phonation.
It'd be the voice turning onand off Any of those areas or
(08:19):
the coordination of those areaswe can have some hiccups in All
of that is the speech component.
Now let's talk about language assomething different.
Language, so after we say thosesounds, then we put them into
words and maybe the words aregoing to be sign language words.
So even if we're not using ourspeech, but it's words, and so
we can take words and put wordstogether to make sentences, and
(08:40):
then those sentences are goingto change meaning by changing a
word, and words change meaningeven by just changing a sound.
So if I say the word cat and Iadd an S at the end, it changes
the meaning, doesn't it?
So the image you have in yourmind if I say cat is different
than cats.
So language is the nuanceddifference that happens for
meaning and expression andunderstanding.
(09:02):
That happens with all yourwords coming together.
It's also how we interact witheach other.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (09:08):
So now, when you're supporting a child's
communication growth, why isthat important to know the
difference?
Dinalynn Rosenbush (09:14):
Oh yeah, so when children are struggling to
be able to communicate, wesometimes say that they can't
talk, and then at least that'swhat parents say to me, and I
work with parents most of thetime and so then it's a matter
of figuring out what do you meanwhen you say your child can't
talk.
Is it speech, so you can'tunderstand them?
Or is it that they can't formwords into sentences?
(09:36):
Maybe they need more vocabulary?
When we figure out whether it'sspeech or if it's language,
then we know how to help thembetter.
And then how well are theylistening?
So if we were to break languageapart, we could break it apart
into expressive and receptive.
Expressive language would beall that comes out of you to
express your thoughts and ideas.
Receptive language would becomprehension, listening skills,
(09:59):
all that that is coming to you.
So if we're going to break downlanguage, where is our child
struggling to talk, as parentssay?
And so that's something thatyou often, as a parent, will get
into a conversation with aspeech pathologist or some other
educator to tease apart inorder to figure out what do we
do to help our kiddos along.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (10:20):
And this is where you do a lot of support.
You received specializedtraining for speech therapy, yet
you emphasize that everydayadults can be part of the
solution.
So what are some simple waysthat parents and teachers can
support speech and languagedevelopment?
This is if they're at home orin the classroom, if they don't
have a lot of resources.
Dinalynn Rosenbush (10:39):
Yeah, so you're right, this is the heart
of what I do at the Language ofPlay.
So when a parent comes to meand they or sometimes an
educator too and they are sayingto me you know, the speech
therapist says they probablywon't qualify.
But what do I do?
Because I want to help my childand there is a big, big gap in
the amount of kiddos that gethelp and the kids that need help
(11:01):
.
And so as parents we can do alot and as educators we can too.
Going back to my example I wasjust talking about with
vocabulary, if our children aresaying that thing, that thing,
you know, get it, get it, thatthing.
They're using nonspecificpronouns, so we don't know what
it and that and thing is.
When we see expressions likethat, we know the child needs
(11:22):
vocabulary.
If the child is just usingshort sentences, we know we need
to give examples of how can weexpand their language.
If the child is having somespeech sounds, then we know that
we can help moms and dads to beable to help them along the way
, giving them just a little bitat a time, because of course
that is highly specialized, butthat's not to say parents can't
(11:43):
do it as long as they get smallpieces at a time that they're to
implement.
And I think that the everydaysolution is really to understand
how a lot of our interactionshappen in ways that we are going
to be able to fortify ourkiddos.
We do a lot of things that wedon't really notice that we do,
and when we become more aware ofhow we're talking and what
(12:06):
examples we're giving, thenwe're able to shift them and
then our children will get thosedifferent models, those
different examples, so that theycan make those shifts in their
home.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (12:14):
What about audio books or something even to
be able to like expose to theintonation or additional
vocabulary like you were talkingabout?
Would that work?
Dinalynn Rosenbush (12:23):
Yeah, oh yeah.
So real, specific ideas of whatparents and educators can do If
a child is saying to you thatthey want to go outside.
Have a conversation about whatwill I see when I go outside,
what will it feel like when I gooutside, who is going to be
with us?
How are we going to play?
What games do you think wemight play, you know?
In other words, have a fullconversation of what is going to
(12:47):
happen from all the senses, afull conversation of what is
going to happen from all thesenses.
You know, think through whatwill the, and not from your
senses, but from the child'ssenses, so they can build their
language.
So talk through what they see,what they feel, what they taste,
what they will touch.
Maybe you're going to cook inthe kitchen.
You can talk about the cookiedough as granular, you know.
Build that vocabulary and thengive them more than one word for
hot Words like that that areexpanding their vocabulary.
(13:10):
So we've got warm and we've gothot and we've got heated.
So we are like pouringvocabulary into them.
Now we wouldn't expect ourchildren to speak it all back.
I've heard, before a child saysany word, they need to hear it
about 400 times.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (13:25):
I didn't realize it was that much.
Dinalynn Rosenbush (13:26):
It is per word.
That's a lot.
I didn't realize it was thatmuch.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (13:29):
It is per word .
That's a lot.
I had a son who neededpragmatics and you know, knowing
how nuanced communication canbe.
Pragmatics is just this onelittle piece of it.
Can you help us understand whatpragmatics includes and then
share maybe a strategy that canbe used to support that?
Dinalynn Rosenbush (13:46):
So when we break down language, if we're
going to get into some of thejargon of it, pragmatics is one
of the words.
That means a social language.
We talked about how cat becomecats.
That would be something calledmorphology.
It's a way we study words andhow words change, and then we
have semantics and that would bemore like vocabulary and the
meanings of words.
The jargon pragmatics refers tothe social interaction between
(14:09):
people, the skills of socialaction.
Social interaction betweenpeople is something like you and
I are looking at each other.
Even though we're not in thesame room, we're on a screen,
I'm still looking you right inthe face.
We are making eye contact, evenif you don't feel it.
Here's me looking at the cameraand here's me looking at you,
and so the human piece of itcomes with, for example, then
(14:31):
the eye contact and we'relooking at each other.
Another piece of the socialinteraction is when I start to
smile, you will naturally startto smile.
These are mirror neurons in ourbrain.
Our body language is also partof pragmatics.
So you will know, if I'msitting up like this, that you
know I'm engaged and I'minterested, and if I was just
kind of back like this, youwould know, I'm probably a
(14:54):
little bit more tired or lessinterested.
So to be able to read thosesocial cues would be pragmatics.
Another part of pragmaticswould be staying on the same
topic, and this is one.
The example I'm about to giveyou is one that could be
considered language as a problemor pragmatic problem, you know.
So it could be social and itcould be just the mechanics of
(15:15):
language.
And that would be if I said toyou so what did you have for
breakfast today?
But your answer might be well,I was actually at my mom's house
this morning and I'm sittinghere waiting for the rest of the
story because I'm waiting forthe answer to breakfast.
Right, but you stop at.
I was at grandma's house and inyour mind it's like it might be
that grandma's house I alwayshave oatmeal.
(15:36):
It could be a language issuewhen somebody doesn't fully
comprehend receptive language orexpress what they mean
expressive language to be ableto piece with.
I expect you know what I'mthinking If I tell you I'm at
grandma's house.
You know we always have oatmeal, so why'd you ask If there's
(15:58):
that piece of it?
And that would be fairly commonamong our kids with autism.
You know where they think thatwe know what they think and our
brains are exactly in the samespot as them and they need to
learn that I have a differentmind, I have a different
knowledge base and that theydidn't actually answer the
question.
What we would do is, again,awareness.
A lot of times, we just let ourkids know here was the question
(16:20):
I asked and this is what youanswered.
Go back to this and answer this.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (16:25):
You've also shared how speech and language
skills support overallcommunication and when I was
teaching in first grade, I saw astrong correlation between
speech challenges and readingdifficulties.
Can you talk about how speechsound disorders may impact
literacy development and theearly support that can make a
difference?
Absolutely.
Dinalynn Rosenbush (16:46):
And I'm glad you brought that up, because a
lot of times people don't giveas much credit to speech or
language as impacting reading.
But truly it is your foundation.
It is the foundation forcomprehension.
When you're reading, you'resaying words in your mind.
You're making connections tothose words on the page, to what
you already know from hearingit.
(17:06):
So if you've never learned avocabulary word and now you're
reading it, it's not going tocompute for you.
So we've got speech and we'vegot language.
Here's another area whereknowing the difference kind of
matters.
So I'll zoom out to speechfirst, the basic building blocks
of sound we would call phonemicawareness.
A lot of parents tend to startwith phonological awareness,
(17:28):
which would be pairing a symbol,such as a letter, with a sound.
But prior to that you have asound system that is being
developed in your mind.
You're starting to hear sounds,you're starting to hear nuance,
you're starting to hear tonechanges.
You're starting to hear the sat the end of cats and get a
different picture in your mind.
(17:49):
You're doing Dr Seuss andcreating words that are nonsense
, and you're learning that wordscan be manipulated and play
with those words.
You're doing Dr Seuss, andcreating words that are nonsense
and you're learning that wordscan be manipulated and play with
those words, you'reexperimenting with sound.
Kids don't necessarily know thedifference between as a sound
and a letter sound.
It's all just sounds.
(18:09):
So all of that foundation ofsound play comes before a
child's ability to connect thesound to a letter.
Now, for some kiddos they'vemissed some of those pieces and
so the letters might help themfill in gaps.
But as a whole we want a goodfoundation in sound play and
then when they jump up to havingletters to have sounds for them
(18:31):
, then the reading tends to comemuch.
To having letters to havesounds for them, then the
reading tends to come much, much, much easier.
So that's where sound is.
Now, when we come to language, Istarted talking about
vocabulary.
If a child doesn't have thevocabulary then it's hard to
start reading it.
If you're reading sentences butyou're not knowing how to order
your words and how a change ofword order changes the meaning
(18:52):
in a sentence, then they can getconfused in their reading or
they'll start to look down andjust read what they know to be
true in their mind, becausethat's the only way they've ever
said something, and that mightbe her do it instead of she does
it.
And so if they read she does it, but they only really say her
do it, she does it doesn't makesense and they've only got a
(19:12):
sentence with comprehension withthe word it and they move on to
the next sentence.
The way we know this is we canask them a question who poured
the milk?
And they'll say I don't know.
And if you replace the sentencewith what they speak, heard, do
it they'll know the meaningbecause it's all they got so far
in their development.
So we want to give them all ofthe different structures in our
(19:33):
language development and then,when reading happens, all those
pieces fall into place muchbetter.
A mistake that I often hearparents make is thinking it's so
cute, her do it, her do it, youknow.
Or they say certain words wrongand you know, it's just fun,
it's cute and indeed it is.
But you're not doing a servicefor your child if you're not
giving the correction for that,so that they do have the variety
(19:54):
of ways to say everything,because the world gives us a
variety of ways to sayeverything and English has
multiple meaning words all overthe place.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (20:02):
So if they're not corrected and they don't
ever hear it the other way, thenthey're not going to bring
those two ideas together so thatthey understand it when they
read it.
That makes sense, yeah.
And we often think that theyjust of course they heard it,
but that doesn't mean that theygot it receptively, so they
didn't effectively hear it somany kids are getting these
(20:24):
screens in their hands at such ayoung age and I know that
there's a lot of excitingtechnology and learning games
and apps and things that are onthere and, of course, there's a
widespread concern as to howthis is impacting development in
our children, especially whenthey're getting them at, you
know, two years old and they'retouching the screen for various
reasons.
What kind of communicationchallenges are you seeing emerge
(20:45):
from this and how can parentsand educators work to keep that
real connection and languagegrowth front and center?
Dinalynn Rosenbush (20:51):
That's a beautiful question and it is
conversation that I get intorepeatedly, and every time I get
into this conversation I seemto learn something new.
That is a problem, and I knowwhat you're saying about the
apps to learn.
There are great learning apps.
The part that is missing, andthe part where we really see a
significant problem, is thehuman experience.
(21:13):
So you know, we just talkedabout pragmatic language and
looking at each other, makingthe eye contact.
One of the things that wecommonly see among kiddos who
have had a lot of phone time isthat they don't know to look at
you, to talk with you, wait tillthe conversation is done, have
the back and forth back andforth it's called reciprocity in
our jargon and then have thesocial skills to know the end.
(21:36):
So pragmatic language, like wetalked about earlier, and all of
the different conversationalskill there's a lot of issues
with that these days.
In fact, the CDC has said up to40% of our kids are considered
struggling, and this is the agesthree to 10.
Particularly, I see it incommunication, in the area of
(21:56):
pragmatic skills.
That's huge.
So we do know that phones arecausing some issues.
Another thing that I'm seeing isthat with a little bit older
kids that are actually typing onthe keyboard.
They're using images to expressa thought.
And, yes, a picture paints athousand words, doesn't it?
Yes, which is fine to sometimesuse an image to express a
thought.
And, yes, a picture paints athousand words, doesn't it?
Yes, which is fine to sometimesuse an image to express a
(22:17):
thought, but when they regularlyuse an image to express a
thought, they're not developing.
How do I use my language skills?
How do I switch up those wordsin the varieties of ways that we
can say things?
How do I understand somebodyelse that's talking to me when
they haven't used an image toexpress it?
If somebody else uses an imagedifferently than I use the image
(22:39):
, what are they really saying tome?
Because they're not usingactual words.
So let's move on from images.
Now to kiddos that are usingthe text and they're texting
each other.
We're seeing kids are usingtelegraphic language, so they're
just using a few words at atime, little punctuation, no
capitalizations.
Drop things like a and the.
Just give the main bulletpoints.
(22:59):
That would be telegraphic.
So they're communicating withthe main points only, but not in
full sentence structure whenthey put down the phone and they
start to talk to their peers,they're still talking in the way
that they text.
So we're getting issues withthat too, where our kids again,
they don't know how to developthe full sentence structure.
(23:19):
They don't know the varietiesof ways that we can put words
together to create eightsentences.
Because they've been practicingtelegraphic, they've been
practicing with an image.
I'm not saying that that doesn'thave a place, it can, as long
as when they're not using thatphone they're getting an
abundance of exposure to goodcommunication.
(23:40):
Real life is that mom and dadare on their phone too, and so
they have their work on theirphone.
They have their owncommunication, things that they
need to do on their phone, andso then, when they get off their
phone, mom and dad are lesslikely to want to feel like
communicating because they'vejust done a whole lot of it.
But that kid needs somechatterbox time where he
(24:01):
practices and he listens,because, again, we do need the
400 exposures, we need the wordsin different sentence formats,
and the kiddos need to be ableto hear it enough to be able to
start communicating.
So those are some of the issuesthat I am seeing and hearing
about because of over screen use.
(24:21):
And then all the like, thelittle acronyms that they again,
in and of itself, all of these,things are fine, there's
nothing wrong with them, but wecan't forfeit the abundance of
language exposure in order touse them.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (24:41):
So it reminds me of like, when people refer to
like.
There's a time and place foreverything.
You know how we dress, how wespeak to each other, our actions
and context being able to go.
Oh, I have to shift.
I use it here, but I don't useit there.
Those environments requiredifferent ways that we express
ourselves.
Dinalynn Rosenbush (25:00):
Yeah, a powerful shift that parents can
do in this can be to say okay,so now the next 10 minutes, 30
minutes, whatever it is,depending on the age and stage
of your child this is going tobe phone time.
But to actually verbalize, I'mnot going to talk to you, I'm
going to be on my phone and thenset a timer so that everybody
gets their phone time kind ofall at the same time, and then
(25:22):
we're going to have a time thatwe are talking to each other and
we're all turning off our phone.
For the next one hour we'regoing to have dinner, we're
going to clean up together,whatever we're going to do, but
we're not on the phone.
We are together.
And so this is like a new erawe're coming into, where we have
to actually make the decision,tell each other what the
(25:42):
decision is, follow through withthis new way of being.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (25:46):
The next question was going to be a small
but powerful shift a parent orteacher can make to help a child
feel more confident andsupported in their communication
.
And I think you just said it.
It was perfect.
Do you have anything to add toit?
Dinalynn Rosenbush (25:59):
I think that if I was to add something for
confidence and supportedness, Iwould add to stay curious.
And if curiosity has gottenaway from you in the stresses of
life, return.
Become curious and use it foryourself and your kids.
If we remember to be curious,we can also remember that all
behavior is actuallycommunication, and it's up to us
(26:21):
then to help our kids to findthe words Well thank you for
your time, all of your expertisein this area.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (26:28):
I really like the way that you use play and
that connection to help usunderstand how we can be
noticing more and helping ourchildren grow in these areas and
the power that we have asadults in their lives to be able
to impact their communicationprocess so positively.
(26:48):
So very grateful that you'rehere and for your insight.
Dinalynn Rosenbush (26:51):
Thank you very much, Really really glad to
be here.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (26:54):
What is a way that listeners can get a hold of
you after they listen to thisor be able to tune into your
podcast?
Dinalynn Rosenbush (27:01):
Thank you.
Yes, my podcast is the Languageof Play on any player, and then
my email is hello atthelanguageofplaycom and I have
all kinds of things coming upand so getting on my newsletter,
any of those things and I'vegot free gifts and all that the
people can access.
(27:21):
There's over 210 episodes now,so there's a lot of help for
parents, all right, well, thankyou.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (27:26):
If today's episode gave you something to
think about or try, I encourageyou to share it with a fellow
parent or teacher.
The earlier we can supportchildren's speech and language
development, the more confidentand connected they become.
And if you're on a wait list,know that you can still make a
difference today.
If you have a story aboutwhat's working in your schools
that you'd like to share, youcan email me at lisa at
(27:47):
drlisahasslercom, or visit mywebsite at wwwdrlisahasslercom
and send me a message.
If you like this podcast,subscribe and tell a friend.
The more people that know, thebigger impact it will have.
And if you find value to thecontent in this podcast,
consider becoming a supporter byclicking on the supporter link
in the show notes.
(28:08):
It is the mission of thispodcast to shine light on the
good in education so that itspreads, affecting positive
change.
So let's keep working togetherto find solutions that focus on
our children's success.
Are you waiting for speech therapy or
wondering if your child evenneeds it?
Are you worried that the windowfor impactful help might be
narrowing?
Well, today we're talking aboutwhat you can do right now to
support speech and languagedevelopment, no matter what your
role or resources.
Welcome to the brighter side ofeducation, research, innovation
(00:29):
and resources.
I'm your host, dr Lisa Hassler,here to enlighten and brighten
the classrooms in Americathrough focused conversation on
important topics in education.
In each episode, I discussproblems we as teachers and
parents are facing and whatpeople are doing in their
communities to fix it.
What are the variables and howcan we duplicate it to maximize
(00:49):
student outcomes?
If you've ever been told to waitand see while your child
struggles to communicate, you'renot alone.
For many families and teachers,the most frustrating part of
navigating speech therapy issimply getting started.
Speech therapy is simplygetting started.
Long wait lists and delayedintervention have become
widespread barriers, especiallyduring the early years, when
children are not only learninghow to talk but learning how to
(01:13):
read, and, according to the CDC,nearly 8% of children ages 3 to
17 have a communicationdisorder, with speech problems
being the most common.
Children with speech sounddisorders are at a higher risk
for reading difficulties due tothe challenges with phonological
awareness, an essential skillfor decoding and fluency.
A 2020 study in the Journal ofSpeech, language and Hearing
(01:37):
Research found that persistentspeech issues in early childhood
strongly predict later literacystruggles.
And, while early interventionhas proven benefits, many
families are forced to wait,sometimes for months or years,
and educators are left trying tosupport students without
adequate tools or resources.
So what can we do when thesystem can't keep up?
(01:58):
Well, today's guest brings us anempowering, research-backed
approach to supportingcommunication skills through
something every childunderstands play.
Dina Lynn Rosenbusch is acertified speech-language
pathologist and the host of theLanguage of Play podcast.
With years of experience inschools and private practice,
she saw a growing need to helpfamilies bridge the gap when
(02:20):
services were delayed or evenunavailable.
Through her podcast andworkshops, she equips adults
with tools that they can use tonurture communication, naturally
through plain connection.
Her work is research-informed,practical and full of heart.
Welcome, dina Lynn.
I am so excited that you arehere.
I look forward to this excitingconversation we're about to
(02:40):
have.
Dinalynn Rosenbush (02:40):
Thank you, Dr Lisa.
It's a joy to be here and aprivilege and an honor.
The Brighter Side of Educationis a fantastic podcast.
I'm glad you're doing it.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (02:49):
So I'm really glad to be here, and you too
which we're going to dive rightinto the heart of your work.
It is your podcast Language ofPlay.
Can you talk about like?
What is this concept?
What does it mean, and how didit come to shape the approach
that you now share with parentsand educators?
Dinalynn Rosenbush (03:11):
So in my years of working as a speech
language pathologist just, andmy years as a parent, I found
that a lot of times we wouldjust get a little bit short with
our kids or teachers, withstudents, and you know, I wonder
what is going on underneaththat.
And so often I would find thatwe think that the kids should
think like we think, and theydon't.
Children just kids should thinklike we think, and they don't.
Children just don't think likewe think.
Their minds are in an entirelydifferent space.
So what is that space?
(03:31):
Over the years I started toplay around with learning Well,
where is a child's mind?
Start to really probe, likethem, to express what they're
thinking.
And what I find is thatchildren are perpetually in this
state of curiosity.
They're always looking at theworld as discovery.
And when you're talking aboutyoung kids, sometimes what you
(03:53):
tell them in one room they don'tknow if it's the same in the
next room.
You know they really have totest everything to see where are
the boundaries, what reallyworks, what doesn't work.
And I can give you an exampleof this One of my friend's
children.
He was outside and he had takenpatio blocks and he was crashing
the patio blocks.
So he literally broke everysingle block with a hammer that
(04:16):
that dad was going to use on apatio.
And he went out there and he'slike what are you doing?
So the dad saw it as he'sdestroying stuff.
But, knowing this about kids, Iwent to him and I had to say I
bet it was interesting, wasn'tit?
It was pretty cool smashing him, wasn't it?
And then he softened up.
Yeah, and then, once hesoftened up, I started asking
(04:36):
what was it like for you?
And what he said was they makedifferent sounds.
So he had just been in musicclass where they were hitting
mallets and blocks and he wouldfind that different size blocks
had different sounds.
He saw these patio blocks so hewent and got a hammer and he
hit it to see if they would bedifferent sounds.
(04:57):
And indeed, when he broke thepatio block, he would hit the
smaller block and he'd hit thebigger block because it's now
broken.
So there's two different sizesand they were different sounds.
So then he just kept on hittingthem, listening to the sound
that they'd make.
Now, this child was not beingdestructive intentionally.
This child was exploring.
This child was curious, but theoutcome was a problem.
(05:20):
And so the language of playreally has to do with parents
and educators learning how wecan communicate with children in
the ways they think about theworld.
So if we can validate this ideathat they are coming from
curiosity and then ask themabout their experience, we might
find things to be a lotdifferent than what it looks
like on the surface, and thenwhen we do that, we can come up
(05:42):
with language that will helpthem know what they can do next.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (05:46):
But now you're saying that play is often just
seen as fun, and then you justshown how powerful it can be for
language development.
So why is play so essential,especially in the early years,
and how can adults make the mostof it?
Dinalynn Rosenbush (05:58):
I think that we do tend to see play as fun,
and indeed that is one part ofit.
But when we realize that playis so essential for us in fact
every mammal on the planet plays, every mammal we find that
birds play, we see fish play,you know, there is a real
experience of play that isessential for the development of
(06:21):
species, because it is thelearning process and the
language that we use is going tofortify the experience of play.
And I think that the languagewe use with our children is
going to be often reflective ofthe language that we use with
ourselves or what our parentsused with us.
And as we learn to use gentlerlanguage, exploratory type of
(06:43):
language, what was that about?
What might that be like for you?
What do you think will happenafter?
But when kids are little, weneed two statements I see one
that's blue To give the languagearound.
What they're playing and doingwill fortify that experience of
being able to also use language.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (06:59):
A lot of times people think about speech and
language as the same thing orrefer to it interchangeably.
Can you explain the differencebetween the two and why is it
important to understand thatwhen supporting child's
communication growth?
Dinalynn Rosenbush (07:13):
I'd be happy to.
So when we think of speechwe're going to talk about, how
is it that a sound is formed inyour mouth?
So you've got your tongue andyour lips, you've got your
airway, you've got your voice,and how do these things work
together to be able to producecoherent speech?
So, if you think about it, youneed to inhale, you need to turn
on and off your voice in themiddle of a word for sounds that
(07:36):
have a voice or don't have avoice.
For example, b like a, b has avoice but p does not.
So, right in the middle of aword, you're turning on and off
your voice.
There is a coordination of yourair coming out, your voice
turning on and off, your tongue,lips moving around in order to
be able to produce the rightsounds in the right order.
(07:58):
All of that is speech, so thatthere's a lot of areas where it
can break down for people.
Maybe it's fluency, maybe it'ssounds, maybe it's breathing,
maybe it's we call it phonation.
It'd be the voice turning onand off Any of those areas or
(08:19):
the coordination of those areaswe can have some hiccups in All
of that is the speech component.
Now let's talk about language assomething different.
Language, so after we say thosesounds, then we put them into
words and maybe the words aregoing to be sign language words.
So even if we're not using ourspeech, but it's words, and so
we can take words and put wordstogether to make sentences, and
(08:40):
then those sentences are goingto change meaning by changing a
word, and words change meaningeven by just changing a sound.
So if I say the word cat and Iadd an S at the end, it changes
the meaning, doesn't it?
So the image you have in yourmind if I say cat is different
than cats.
So language is the nuanceddifference that happens for
meaning and expression andunderstanding.
(09:02):
That happens with all yourwords coming together.
It's also how we interact witheach other.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (09:08):
So now, when you're supporting a child's
communication growth, why isthat important to know the
difference?
Dinalynn Rosenbush (09:14):
Oh yeah, so when children are struggling to
be able to communicate, wesometimes say that they can't
talk, and then at least that'swhat parents say to me, and I
work with parents most of thetime and so then it's a matter
of figuring out what do you meanwhen you say your child can't
talk.
Is it speech, so you can'tunderstand them?
Or is it that they can't formwords into sentences?
(09:36):
Maybe they need more vocabulary?
When we figure out whether it'sspeech or if it's language,
then we know how to help thembetter.
And then how well are theylistening?
So if we were to break languageapart, we could break it apart
into expressive and receptive.
Expressive language would beall that comes out of you to
express your thoughts and ideas.
Receptive language would becomprehension, listening skills,
(09:59):
all that that is coming to you.
So if we're going to break downlanguage, where is our child
struggling to talk, as parentssay?
And so that's something thatyou often, as a parent, will get
into a conversation with aspeech pathologist or some other
educator to tease apart inorder to figure out what do we
do to help our kiddos along.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (10:20):
And this is where you do a lot of support.
You received specializedtraining for speech therapy, yet
you emphasize that everydayadults can be part of the
solution.
So what are some simple waysthat parents and teachers can
support speech and languagedevelopment?
This is if they're at home orin the classroom, if they don't
have a lot of resources.
Dinalynn Rosenbush (10:39):
Yeah, so you're right, this is the heart
of what I do at the Language ofPlay.
So when a parent comes to meand they or sometimes an
educator too and they are sayingto me you know, the speech
therapist says they probablywon't qualify.
But what do I do?
Because I want to help my childand there is a big, big gap in
the amount of kiddos that gethelp and the kids that need help
(11:01):
.
And so as parents we can do alot and as educators we can too.
Going back to my example I wasjust talking about with
vocabulary, if our children aresaying that thing, that thing,
you know, get it, get it, thatthing.
They're using nonspecificpronouns, so we don't know what
it and that and thing is.
When we see expressions likethat, we know the child needs
(11:22):
vocabulary.
If the child is just usingshort sentences, we know we need
to give examples of how can weexpand their language.
If the child is having somespeech sounds, then we know that
we can help moms and dads to beable to help them along the way
, giving them just a little bitat a time, because of course
that is highly specialized, butthat's not to say parents can't
(11:43):
do it as long as they get smallpieces at a time that they're to
implement.
And I think that the everydaysolution is really to understand
how a lot of our interactionshappen in ways that we are going
to be able to fortify ourkiddos.
We do a lot of things that wedon't really notice that we do,
and when we become more aware ofhow we're talking and what
(12:06):
examples we're giving, thenwe're able to shift them and
then our children will get thosedifferent models, those
different examples, so that theycan make those shifts in their
home.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (12:14):
What about audio books or something even to
be able to like expose to theintonation or additional
vocabulary like you were talkingabout?
Would that work?
Dinalynn Rosenbush (12:23):
Yeah, oh yeah.
So real, specific ideas of whatparents and educators can do If
a child is saying to you thatthey want to go outside.
Have a conversation about whatwill I see when I go outside,
what will it feel like when I gooutside, who is going to be
with us?
How are we going to play?
What games do you think wemight play, you know?
In other words, have a fullconversation of what is going to
(12:47):
happen from all the senses, afull conversation of what is
going to happen from all thesenses.
You know, think through whatwill the, and not from your
senses, but from the child'ssenses, so they can build their
language.
So talk through what they see,what they feel, what they taste,
what they will touch.
Maybe you're going to cook inthe kitchen.
You can talk about the cookiedough as granular, you know.
Build that vocabulary and thengive them more than one word for
hot Words like that that areexpanding their vocabulary.
(13:10):
So we've got warm and we've gothot and we've got heated.
So we are like pouringvocabulary into them.
Now we wouldn't expect ourchildren to speak it all back.
I've heard, before a child saysany word, they need to hear it
about 400 times.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (13:25):
I didn't realize it was that much.
Dinalynn Rosenbush (13:26):
It is per word.
That's a lot.
I didn't realize it was thatmuch.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (13:29):
It is per word .
That's a lot.
I had a son who neededpragmatics and you know, knowing
how nuanced communication canbe.
Pragmatics is just this onelittle piece of it.
Can you help us understand whatpragmatics includes and then
share maybe a strategy that canbe used to support that?
Dinalynn Rosenbush (13:46):
So when we break down language, if we're
going to get into some of thejargon of it, pragmatics is one
of the words.
That means a social language.
We talked about how cat becomecats.
That would be something calledmorphology.
It's a way we study words andhow words change, and then we
have semantics and that would bemore like vocabulary and the
meanings of words.
The jargon pragmatics refers tothe social interaction between
(14:09):
people, the skills of socialaction.
Social interaction betweenpeople is something like you and
I are looking at each other.
Even though we're not in thesame room, we're on a screen,
I'm still looking you right inthe face.
We are making eye contact, evenif you don't feel it.
Here's me looking at the cameraand here's me looking at you,
and so the human piece of itcomes with, for example, then
(14:31):
the eye contact and we'relooking at each other.
Another piece of the socialinteraction is when I start to
smile, you will naturally startto smile.
These are mirror neurons in ourbrain.
Our body language is also partof pragmatics.
So you will know, if I'msitting up like this, that you
know I'm engaged and I'minterested, and if I was just
kind of back like this, youwould know, I'm probably a
(14:54):
little bit more tired or lessinterested.
So to be able to read thosesocial cues would be pragmatics.
Another part of pragmaticswould be staying on the same
topic, and this is one.
The example I'm about to giveyou is one that could be
considered language as a problemor pragmatic problem, you know.
So it could be social and itcould be just the mechanics of
(15:15):
language.
And that would be if I said toyou so what did you have for
breakfast today?
But your answer might be well,I was actually at my mom's house
this morning and I'm sittinghere waiting for the rest of the
story because I'm waiting forthe answer to breakfast.
Right, but you stop at.
I was at grandma's house and inyour mind it's like it might be
that grandma's house I alwayshave oatmeal.
(15:36):
It could be a language issuewhen somebody doesn't fully
comprehend receptive language orexpress what they mean
expressive language to be ableto piece with.
I expect you know what I'mthinking If I tell you I'm at
grandma's house.
You know we always have oatmeal, so why'd you ask If there's
(15:58):
that piece of it?
And that would be fairly commonamong our kids with autism.
You know where they think thatwe know what they think and our
brains are exactly in the samespot as them and they need to
learn that I have a differentmind, I have a different
knowledge base and that theydidn't actually answer the
question.
What we would do is, again,awareness.
A lot of times, we just let ourkids know here was the question
(16:20):
I asked and this is what youanswered.
Go back to this and answer this.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (16:25):
You've also shared how speech and language
skills support overallcommunication and when I was
teaching in first grade, I saw astrong correlation between
speech challenges and readingdifficulties.
Can you talk about how speechsound disorders may impact
literacy development and theearly support that can make a
difference?
Absolutely.
Dinalynn Rosenbush (16:46):
And I'm glad you brought that up, because a
lot of times people don't giveas much credit to speech or
language as impacting reading.
But truly it is your foundation.
It is the foundation forcomprehension.
When you're reading, you'resaying words in your mind.
You're making connections tothose words on the page, to what
you already know from hearingit.
(17:06):
So if you've never learned avocabulary word and now you're
reading it, it's not going tocompute for you.
So we've got speech and we'vegot language.
Here's another area whereknowing the difference kind of
matters.
So I'll zoom out to speechfirst, the basic building blocks
of sound we would call phonemicawareness.
A lot of parents tend to startwith phonological awareness,
(17:28):
which would be pairing a symbol,such as a letter, with a sound.
But prior to that you have asound system that is being
developed in your mind.
You're starting to hear sounds,you're starting to hear nuance,
you're starting to hear tonechanges.
You're starting to hear the sat the end of cats and get a
different picture in your mind.
(17:49):
You're doing Dr Seuss andcreating words that are nonsense
, and you're learning that wordscan be manipulated and play
with those words.
You're doing Dr Seuss, andcreating words that are nonsense
and you're learning that wordscan be manipulated and play with
those words, you'reexperimenting with sound.
Kids don't necessarily know thedifference between as a sound
and a letter sound.
It's all just sounds.
(18:09):
So all of that foundation ofsound play comes before a
child's ability to connect thesound to a letter.
Now, for some kiddos they'vemissed some of those pieces and
so the letters might help themfill in gaps.
But as a whole we want a goodfoundation in sound play and
then when they jump up to havingletters to have sounds for them
(18:31):
, then the reading tends to comemuch.
To having letters to havesounds for them, then the
reading tends to come much, much, much easier.
So that's where sound is.
Now, when we come to language, Istarted talking about
vocabulary.
If a child doesn't have thevocabulary then it's hard to
start reading it.
If you're reading sentences butyou're not knowing how to order
your words and how a change ofword order changes the meaning
(18:52):
in a sentence, then they can getconfused in their reading or
they'll start to look down andjust read what they know to be
true in their mind, becausethat's the only way they've ever
said something, and that mightbe her do it instead of she does
it.
And so if they read she does it, but they only really say her
do it, she does it doesn't makesense and they've only got a
(19:12):
sentence with comprehension withthe word it and they move on to
the next sentence.
The way we know this is we canask them a question who poured
the milk?
And they'll say I don't know.
And if you replace the sentencewith what they speak, heard, do
it they'll know the meaningbecause it's all they got so far
in their development.
So we want to give them all ofthe different structures in our
(19:33):
language development and then,when reading happens, all those
pieces fall into place muchbetter.
A mistake that I often hearparents make is thinking it's so
cute, her do it, her do it, youknow.
Or they say certain words wrongand you know, it's just fun,
it's cute and indeed it is.
But you're not doing a servicefor your child if you're not
giving the correction for that,so that they do have the variety
(19:54):
of ways to say everything,because the world gives us a
variety of ways to sayeverything and English has
multiple meaning words all overthe place.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (20:02):
So if they're not corrected and they don't
ever hear it the other way, thenthey're not going to bring
those two ideas together so thatthey understand it when they
read it.
That makes sense, yeah.
And we often think that theyjust of course they heard it,
but that doesn't mean that theygot it receptively, so they
didn't effectively hear it somany kids are getting these
(20:24):
screens in their hands at such ayoung age and I know that
there's a lot of excitingtechnology and learning games
and apps and things that are onthere and, of course, there's a
widespread concern as to howthis is impacting development in
our children, especially whenthey're getting them at, you
know, two years old and they'retouching the screen for various
reasons.
What kind of communicationchallenges are you seeing emerge
(20:45):
from this and how can parentsand educators work to keep that
real connection and languagegrowth front and center?
Dinalynn Rosenbush (20:51):
That's a beautiful question and it is
conversation that I get intorepeatedly, and every time I get
into this conversation I seemto learn something new.
That is a problem, and I knowwhat you're saying about the
apps to learn.
There are great learning apps.
The part that is missing, andthe part where we really see a
significant problem, is thehuman experience.
(21:13):
So you know, we just talkedabout pragmatic language and
looking at each other, makingthe eye contact.
One of the things that wecommonly see among kiddos who
have had a lot of phone time isthat they don't know to look at
you, to talk with you, wait tillthe conversation is done, have
the back and forth back andforth it's called reciprocity in
our jargon and then have thesocial skills to know the end.
(21:36):
So pragmatic language, like wetalked about earlier, and all of
the different conversationalskill there's a lot of issues
with that these days.
In fact, the CDC has said up to40% of our kids are considered
struggling, and this is the agesthree to 10.
Particularly, I see it incommunication, in the area of
(21:56):
pragmatic skills.
That's huge.
So we do know that phones arecausing some issues.
Another thing that I'm seeing isthat with a little bit older
kids that are actually typing onthe keyboard.
They're using images to expressa thought.
And, yes, a picture paints athousand words, doesn't it?
Yes, which is fine to sometimesuse an image to express a
thought.
And, yes, a picture paints athousand words, doesn't it?
Yes, which is fine to sometimesuse an image to express a
(22:17):
thought, but when they regularlyuse an image to express a
thought, they're not developing.
How do I use my language skills?
How do I switch up those wordsin the varieties of ways that we
can say things?
How do I understand somebodyelse that's talking to me when
they haven't used an image toexpress it?
If somebody else uses an imagedifferently than I use the image
(22:39):
, what are they really saying tome?
Because they're not usingactual words.
So let's move on from images.
Now to kiddos that are usingthe text and they're texting
each other.
We're seeing kids are usingtelegraphic language, so they're
just using a few words at atime, little punctuation, no
capitalizations.
Drop things like a and the.
Just give the main bulletpoints.
(22:59):
That would be telegraphic.
So they're communicating withthe main points only, but not in
full sentence structure whenthey put down the phone and they
start to talk to their peers,they're still talking in the way
that they text.
So we're getting issues withthat too, where our kids again,
they don't know how to developthe full sentence structure.
(23:19):
They don't know the varietiesof ways that we can put words
together to create eightsentences.
Because they've been practicingtelegraphic, they've been
practicing with an image.
I'm not saying that that doesn'thave a place, it can, as long
as when they're not using thatphone they're getting an
abundance of exposure to goodcommunication.
(23:40):
Real life is that mom and dadare on their phone too, and so
they have their work on theirphone.
They have their owncommunication, things that they
need to do on their phone, andso then, when they get off their
phone, mom and dad are lesslikely to want to feel like
communicating because they'vejust done a whole lot of it.
But that kid needs somechatterbox time where he
(24:01):
practices and he listens,because, again, we do need the
400 exposures, we need the wordsin different sentence formats,
and the kiddos need to be ableto hear it enough to be able to
start communicating.
So those are some of the issuesthat I am seeing and hearing
about because of over screen use.
(24:21):
And then all the like, thelittle acronyms that they again,
in and of itself, all of these,things are fine, there's
nothing wrong with them, but wecan't forfeit the abundance of
language exposure in order touse them.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (24:41):
So it reminds me of like, when people refer to
like.
There's a time and place foreverything.
You know how we dress, how wespeak to each other, our actions
and context being able to go.
Oh, I have to shift.
I use it here, but I don't useit there.
Those environments requiredifferent ways that we express
ourselves.
Dinalynn Rosenbush (25:00):
Yeah, a powerful shift that parents can
do in this can be to say okay,so now the next 10 minutes, 30
minutes, whatever it is,depending on the age and stage
of your child this is going tobe phone time.
But to actually verbalize, I'mnot going to talk to you, I'm
going to be on my phone and thenset a timer so that everybody
gets their phone time kind ofall at the same time, and then
(25:22):
we're going to have a time thatwe are talking to each other and
we're all turning off our phone.
For the next one hour we'regoing to have dinner, we're
going to clean up together,whatever we're going to do, but
we're not on the phone.
We are together.
And so this is like a new erawe're coming into, where we have
to actually make the decision,tell each other what the
(25:42):
decision is, follow through withthis new way of being.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (25:46):
The next question was going to be a small
but powerful shift a parent orteacher can make to help a child
feel more confident andsupported in their communication
.
And I think you just said it.
It was perfect.
Do you have anything to add toit?
Dinalynn Rosenbush (25:59):
I think that if I was to add something for
confidence and supportedness, Iwould add to stay curious.
And if curiosity has gottenaway from you in the stresses of
life, return.
Become curious and use it foryourself and your kids.
If we remember to be curious,we can also remember that all
behavior is actuallycommunication, and it's up to us
(26:21):
then to help our kids to findthe words Well thank you for
your time, all of your expertisein this area.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (26:28):
I really like the way that you use play and
that connection to help usunderstand how we can be
noticing more and helping ourchildren grow in these areas and
the power that we have asadults in their lives to be able
to impact their communicationprocess so positively.
(26:48):
So very grateful that you'rehere and for your insight.
Dinalynn Rosenbush (26:51):
Thank you very much, Really really glad to
be here.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (26:54):
What is a way that listeners can get a hold of
you after they listen to thisor be able to tune into your
podcast?
Dinalynn Rosenbush (27:01):
Thank you.
Yes, my podcast is the Languageof Play on any player, and then
my email is hello atthelanguageofplaycom and I have
all kinds of things coming upand so getting on my newsletter,
any of those things and I'vegot free gifts and all that the
people can access.
(27:21):
There's over 210 episodes now,so there's a lot of help for
parents, all right, well, thankyou.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (27:26):
If today's episode gave you something to
think about or try, I encourageyou to share it with a fellow
parent or teacher.
The earlier we can supportchildren's speech and language
development, the more confidentand connected they become.
And if you're on a wait list,know that you can still make a
difference today.
If you have a story aboutwhat's working in your schools
that you'd like to share, youcan email me at lisa at
(27:47):
drlisahasslercom, or visit mywebsite at wwwdrlisahasslercom
and send me a message.
If you like this podcast,subscribe and tell a friend.
The more people that know, thebigger impact it will have.
And if you find value to thecontent in this podcast,
consider becoming a supporter byclicking on the supporter link
in the show notes.
(28:08):
It is the mission of thispodcast to shine light on the
good in education so that itspreads, affecting positive
change.
So let's keep working togetherto find solutions that focus on
our children's success.
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