13. Speech and Language Development in the First Year and Beyond: Expert Interview with Mika Storey | Episode 13
I'm so excited to share this expert interview with Mika Storey!
Mika is a licensed pediatric speech-language pathologist and a mother of two young boys. She is the owner of A Speech Storey – a pediatric private practice specializing in early intervention and speech sound disorders in Southern California. Mika values play-based therapy, parent education, and family-centered care.
In this episode, Mika talks about:
• Speech and language milestones in the first year of life
• How she became interested in speech and language development
• Empowering caregivers in therapy
• What to do if you have concerns about your child's speech and language development
• Details about her language focused play group, Storeytime Tots and her debut children's book!
Join us!
Transcript:
Molly Vasa Bertolucci:
Thanks so much for joining us today! Tell us a little bit about yourself, your family, and what you do? How do you help parents and their babies in the first year?
Mika Storey:
Yeah, thanks for having me Molly! I love podcasts, so I'm very very honored to be on yours. Like you mentioned, my name is Mika, I am a mama, I have 2 boys Nixon is my oldest. He's five years old so he'll be headed to kindergarten in the fall which is like in a couple weeks - and my youngest Clyde is twenty months which is so crazy, that year goes by so fast I can't believe he's going to be 2 in December. And outside of being a mom I'm a pediatric speech-language pathologist, I am the owner of A Speech Storey, which is a private practice here in Long Beach, California. I provide in-home therapy to the early intervention population in families homes and I'm actually expanding my services this fall and I'll start to provide services on campus to a private school which I'm very excited about.
So most of my case load is made up of kids that are that are older than one but I do have a lot of families that reach out to me for parent consultation and parent coaching services for for new moms, especially those with babies because they're really just worried about their baby's speech and language development. You know they're worried if they're if they're doing things right. And there's like a trillion ways to do things right. And most of the time they just need some reassurance that they're doing things to support their child speech and language development. So a lot of it is just talking them through what milestones to look for, how to be responsive to their baby, and really just just discussing their concerns based on what they see. Because most of the time families and moms especially are worried and like I said they just need some reassurance that everything is okay and they're doing the right thing. There are times when when parents are concerned and those concerns are valid, so I always tell those mamas to to follow their intuition really seek out a consultation or some support if they have any inkling that that something might be going on.
Molly Vasa Bertolucci:
Yeah, what are some of those milestones and concerns to look for in the first year?
Mika Storey:
That's a good question so there's so many - so I broke it down into ah kind of 3 parts for you. So it's also easier for listeners to kind of follow along. So there's major milestones as far as your child's your baby's comprehension. So what they're able to understand. And then there's also major milestones for their expression. So you know gestures and and talking and how they're communicating to us and then there's also play milestones so I can go through each one and kind of give you some pointers if if if you'd like okay, so for comprehension I'll kind of do it by three month increments.
So in those first zero to three months, there's a lot going on but we're also in like, a major mom fog and haze, so 0 to 3 months you are really just looking for your baby to be soothed by your voice and that's kind of the beginning of of them kind of comprehending the world around them. You'll notice that they start to move and attune to your voice or different voices in the room and you'll notice, especially closer to the end of that three months, that they'll start to look at your mouth and your eyes a little bit and focus on them a little bit more. In that 3 to 6 month range you're really looking - you know, you might start to notice that your baby will turn their head towards you or they start to search for a voice or a speaker in the room. During six to nine months, a couple things to look for - um, your baby’s comprehension starts to pick up a lot so when you say “stop” or you say “no”, they will likely stop and look at you and follow you know, if you'd say" “no, don't touch that” they'll follow that, they'll start to recognize their name, and in the 9 to 12 month range, a major milestone is following one step directions. So simple routine ones like “come here”, “sit down”, “give that to me” - so those are just the milestones to look for. Again, it's not a comprehensive list. Those are just a few in that category.
Molly Vasa Bertolucci:
Great.
Mika Storey:
And then for expressive language, those first year to three months your baby is primarily just using vegetative sounds, so communicating to you when they're crying and they're grunting and it's how you know that they're tired or they're hungry. In the 3 to 6 month range, you'll start to notice that they start to Coo and goo or they'll start to blow raspberries and they'll start to use some sounds like single vowels or constants like ah or e and they really start to figure out their voice. In the 6 to 9 month range is when you'll start to notice babbling. So there's 2 different types of babbling and the one that emerges first is called reduplicated babbling. So that one is just when they take like a single consonant and a vowel and repeat it over again like ba ba ba ba and then as they learn to play around with their voice a little bit more in sounds will do something called variegated babbling. So it's a mixture of different sounds and vowels. So like Baba Bee Gaga goo and so that's what we kind of see in the 6 to 9 month range. And then 9 to 12 months is so fun because that's not only when they find their voice, but they start to use so many gestures. So, we should kind of be looking for gestures like are they pointing? Are they reaching up when they want to be picked up? You'll notice a lot more babbling in that stage, too, and then a major milestone is that we're looking for at least 1 true word by twelve months, so by 1 years old.
Molly Vasa Bertolucci:
What are some common first true words?
Mika Storey:
There's so many different ones! To be honest, this is going to sound so bad, I don't even know what my son's first words were. My twenty month old, I think his was dada - that his was for sure, dada. But I can’t remember my oldest, Nixon, what his first word was.
A lot of times. It's Mama or dada. Sometimes it's other functional words that they've been exposed to like eat or wawa - words like that. But um, in order for a word to be like a true word, we're just looking for 3 things: so you want your child to be able to use it consistently and independently, so they're not just copying it or, you know, when you say it they're saying it. But they're saying it by themselves day-to-day and that it's intentional. So are they saying it purposefully - you know, are they calling you mama are they calling dad dada, are they labeling Wawa or milk when they see their water bottle or their milk bottle.
Molly Vasa Bertolucci:
Okay, yeah, so one thing I think that is interesting that you said is like, “Wawa”. Sometimes you might not think of that as a true word because it's like, it's not the word water, right? But you're saying it is a true word because it's the meaning attached to it and it's, they're using it consistently and they're independently using it. So if they're saying Wawa for their water, that's a true word. Like, they got it. Full credit.
Mika Storey:
Yeah. Absolutely yes, full credit. I know a lot of parents have that question - so when your child is first learning how to talk, they're really just learning how to organize the sounds in their system to form meaningful words and “wawa” is easier to say than “water”- especially because when we're looking at like, syllable development, babies will use kind of reduplicated syllables first before they're able to form more complex words. So yes, “wawa” is definitely considered a word if it's used consistently, independently and intentionally. But those are called word approximations, so your child is just learning how to talk, so the first words that they say are not going to sound one hundred percent clear, but they're going to sound closely related to them.
Molly Vasa Bertolucic:
Tell me a little bit about the play milestones that you mentioned.
Mika Storey:
Yeah, so in the 0 to 3 month range we're really just looking for is baby gazing at objects and people briefly - like I said, moms are in a haze those first few months and we're just trying to get basic needs. met for our babies.
Molly Vasa Bertolucci
Yes, a thousand percent
Mika Storey
So yes. And in the 3 to 6 month range you might start to notice that your baby's you know, reaching for objects or bringing objects together and then in the 6 to 9 month range we're really looking for emerging imitation skills. So if you build something and knock it over does your baby try to knock it over, too? Or if you're banging on the table or banging on a play drum will your baby try to do that, too? And then in the 9 to 12 month range we're really looking for play to emerge and your child to be able to use objects functionally, especially during play. So will they pretend to drink from a cup? Or hold up a phone to their ear and pretend like they're talking, you know, push a car back and forth? We're really looking for those skills.
Molly Vasa Bertolucci:
I'm smiling because it's just like, it's so cute! And you're just like, oh these are just so cute things they are doing, but they're working! Like, they're learning.
Mika Storey:
They are, right? Like, it's work. They are working and learning and making and the reason why play is so important to me, because I'm a play-based therapist, but play is really how children develop meaning and find meaning about the world around them. It's just totally exploring and figuring it out. So yeah, it's very important to me.
Molly Vasa Bertolucci:
Yeah, okay, thank you! And then what are some of the concerns? So if we went through - this is so so great, this list. So if you are at six to nine months and you're saying like “stop” to your kiddo and they're not responding to that, is that a concern? Or what are some of the big concerns that if kids aren't meeting that milestone it would be a good thing to address early on?
Mika Storey:
Yeah. I think a lot of parents are concerned for how well a child can perform a skill and that's so hard because you know, children aren't meant to perform skills 100% of the time. And a lot of it is because they don't want to, or they're attending to something else and they're not really paying attention to you. So sometimes parents are like, “well they do that sometimes but not all the time.” So I always ask parents to think of kind of zooming out a little bit and really looking at your child and asking yourself, “Can they follow it most of the time? Can they do this most of the time?” But also do you feel connected to your child? That to me is the most important thing. Like do you feel connected to your child, does your child feel connected to you, or do you feel like your child's connecting to you. And not in the sense of like, bonding, that's you know, that's one aspect, but as far as like, communication. Are you guys able to read each other and understand each other, and if not then we kind of explore that a little bit more. There's so many questions and everything is so individualized to a specific family and and mother and child.
Molly Vasa Bertolucci:
Yeah, totally. It's like, we had an audiologist on the podcast a few episodes back and she talked about hearing as the foundation of connection and that really like shifted my view. And I'm hearing the same thing from you, that like, speech is just this vehicle of connection. And so if you're able to communicate - and I see that in the milestones that you talked about, like the gestures - like you're looking for that communication and the speech and language is developing as like, the avenue of connection.
Mika Storey:
Yes, absolutely. and sometimes parents too are so focused on the words, like my child's not yet speaking, my child is not saying this many words and another child is saying this many words - but we also ask them to, you know, scale it back a little bit because your child's not using words yet, so how are they communicating? Are they using gestures? If they're not using gestures then let's start there. So, you know, there's all those, what we call them is pre-linguistic skills. There's so many skills that develop before true words emerge and sometimes we just need to have parents scale back and really assess where their child's at and have parents meet their child where they're at and then build from there.
Molly Vasa Bertolucci:
Totally yeah, it sounds like a big part of your role in supporting families is maybe helping parents see all the things that their children are doing to develop speech and language.
Mika Storey:
Oh my gosh. Yes, 100%. And I specialized in early intervention and most of my work, because I'm in parents’ homes, I see these kids maybe 1, 2 times a week and that's not enough to facilitate change. So a lot of it is really educating the parents and empowering them with tools that they can, you know, continue to facilitate their child's communication skills all the other days of the week
Molly Vasa Bertolucci:
Yeah, it's like a… it's a whole family affair.
Mika Storey:
Whole family affair.
Molly Vasa Bertolucci:
What does a typical session look like for you? How do you incorporate play and bring in the parents and support the kiddo in session to build that language?
Mika Storey:
Yeah that's a good question, so because I'm primarily in the parents’ home, I really try to utilize the toys and materials that they have available. And I do that for a couple reasons. 1 is sometimes a child can get overwhelmed if I bring too much in and 2 I also want to have the family understand that they have enough - they have enough toys, they have enough books, they have enough in their home to really support their child skills. So I really try to do that, but there are times, you know, where I love to bring in fun little toys like a pretend microwave or a new Melissa and Doug to Melissa and Doug toy that I bought because it's very motivating. But it's really just building in language strategies or speech strategies into play and really following a child's lead. I mean the the number one priority for me to have a successful session is to really be connected to the child and connected to the family. So a lot of it is starting off with play, incorporating some strategies and then also explaining what strategies I'm using to the family so they understand what's going on. Because sometimes it just looks like play but there's a whole lot that I'm doing or that the child's doing so really communicating with them exactly what I'm doing so they can use that strategy or that tool when they’re home the rest of the week.
Molly Vasa Bertolucci:
Yeah. Do you have some kind of favorite go-tos when you're just first starting out with kids to get to know them and kind of bring them out?
Mika Storey:
Yes I have this loud ball popper that I love to bring to families’ homes, that one's a pretty good one and every kid loves big Mega blocks or legos. They love those. And I have this little pretend microwave that kids just eat up. They love it and it's because you put food in it, it actually spins around, it lights up and they love it. So Those have been those a been my go-tos lately.
Molly Vasa Bertolucci:
So Mika, if parents do have concerns about their baby speech and language development in the first year and beyond, what steps should they take? What would be the journey from those concerns to maybe having a session with someone like you?
Mike Storey:
I always try to educate families on the resources that are available to them, wherever that they live. So for anybody who is living in the United States, every state has an early intervention program that the state covers evaluations and therapy. And that can be found by going to CDC and you can figure out what your state's early intervention program is, so for California it's called Early Start and um children will often be referred to what's called a Regional Center where they can get evaluated. I always tell parents to start there because it's free and it's available to them and it's specifically meant for that 0 to 3 age window. And if your child is older than 3 you can reach out to your local public school, if you live in the United States, because the public school is allowed to give you a free evaluation just to determine if your child is eligible or if services are warranted. But there's also different things - I am in private practice, so you can ,you know, search private practices and seek out therapists that specialize in early intervention around where you live.
Molly Vasa Bertolucci:
How did you become interested in speech language pathology and working with kids in general?
Mika Storey:
That's a good question. So I grew up as a competitive gymnast almost all my life. And one day during practice when I was in high school, I saw this therapist come in with one of her clients, and they were on the gym equipment. And I got to talking to her, and I just really loved what she was doing. And she was a behavioral therapist, but she said, you really should look into the field of speech pathology. There's super high need for therapists, and if you love kids and you love play. So, I shadowed a therapist a couple of times, and then I started observing in clinics, and I really just fell in love with it. And for as long as I can remember, I've always loved pretend play and playing with dolls, and playing school and playing teacher. So, yeah, I really just loved it. And I majored in it during undergrad, and loved it even more. So that's kind of how it all started.
Molly Vasa Bertolucci:
That’s awesome. I love the model of the way you work because you're doing the in home and the in classroom like it's so functional. So like so it sounds like part of your approach is really supporting kiddos in the environments that they live, play, communicate in, I think that's so cool.
22:03.10
Mika
Thank you, yeah I really try to make it as naturalistic as possible and functional for them and communication is like so big for me. It's so important for even if I'm working with an older kiddo and the family's not there to figure out how I can communicate with them to let them know how the session went, it’s so important for them to know exactly what's going on because they're going to be the vessel for change. They have to carry it out all the other days of the week which is something that I've kind of been saying over and over again.
Molly Vasa Bertolucci:
Yeah, totally. It's constant right? We're always communicating and the need to communicate, to communicate your needs and connect with other people… This is kind of like, off topic a little, but I lost my voice last week and it was a really good lesson for me because I was really frustrated trying to go about my life and communicate with such limited ability to talk. And it just made me feel such kinship and compassion for my one year old and like what she goes through trying to communicate with us all the time about what she needs and what she's feeling. And so it's like this paradigm shift of like, oh, this is what it's like to struggle to communicate. It was a good lesson.
Mika Storey:
Yeah, oh my gosh. Absolutely, There's like this saying that goes around in the speech world, “if they could, they would” and we really like to keep that in the back of our mind and it helps us kind of understand where a child's frustration comes from. It’s hard! And even if your child's developing speech and language skills on target, they're going to get moments of frustration because they're learning. Yeah, that's some pretty good insight, though.
Molly Vasa Bertolucci:
If they could they would. I think that's really good to keep in mind.
Tell us about Storeytime Tots!
Mika Storey:
Storytime Tots! Oh, my language-based play group. I'm so excited, iit's gonna be coming back in the fall. So. My first session is going to be in October so I will definitely let you know when that is. So Storeytime Tots came from an idea where I just really wanted to gather people in the community to give them a space where they could connect with other families but also learn language strategies and carry them into their home. So the group is primarily for tots, so kids that are one to three, but I accept up to age 4 just because you know sometimes age doesn't really determine where a child is at as far as their communication skills. So yeah, we read a book, I talk about language strategies to use, I set up play stations for families to interact with their child at, and then we kind of come back at the end for a Q and A and I answer any questions that the families have and a lot of times 1 question that a family has is the question that so many other families are wanting to know the answer to, so it just gives them a safe space to connect and a fun way to to play with kids in the community.
Molly Vasa Bertolucci:
Yeah, that's wonderful. I love that idea of that environment where you could go and be supported by a professional and with other parents and other kiddos.
And tell us about this, is so exciting, your new book!
Mika Storey:
Yeah, absolutely oh I'm so excited about this new book. It is in the final stages. I've been saying that for forever now. But it's almost ready for print. We're just making minor changes before print so it's called Nixon's Engine Words - I have a 5 year old named Nixon, so it was very much inspired by him and when he was first born. So I often refer to engine words on my social media page. A lot of a therapist call them power words but to me engine words are single functional words that really pack a punch, you know, your child can use them and they can communicate so much with just that one word. So they're functional words like “want” or “help” or “open” versus more academic-based words like colors numbers and shapes. Those are sometimes very important for a family for their child to know, but it's really hard for children to communicate their wants and needs if they only know those academic type words. So Nixon's engine words is about a kid named Nixon and he enjoys like an ordinary day with his mom and they do just ordinary things together but he uses his engine words during functional activities and on each page there's a caregiver tip so that families can implement those strategies into their home right away and um, yeah I I love it. Nixon, you know, wears glass and - he actually just got them off - but he wears glasses and my illustrator drew him and it's just… I can't wait for people to see it. So I will let you know when the preordered date is released.
Molly Vasa Bertolucci:
How special. Congratulations, that sounds like such a great tool for parents and I'm just I'm thinking as we're talking how much I wish I had known you when my first was born because she was a late talker and we had early intervention for her and all kinds of services and I so appreciate your approach of just earlier when you said like whatever families have in their homes the toys the books that's enough -because as a mother there was such a feeling of like, if I could just get the right toy, or if I could just get the right book or like if I could just work harder than her speech would develop and just like, right? You want the very best for your kid and we automatically go to like “how do I fix this” and so I really appreciate that approach of, you know, what you have is enough, what you're doing is enough, like coming alongside parents and partnering with them to to help their kiddo. And this book also sounds like something that would have been so helpful for our family in our journey. So I'm just I'm so glad that it's going to be out there and that you've agreed to come on the podcast and talk about your expertise so that families can hear about your services too.
Mika Storey:
Oh. Thanks, Molly. I am so excited - I'm so still thankful that you had me on. I was listening to some of your other episodes and it's wonderful what you're doing for the community and just for everybody to help them just like connect with other moms that are in it. You know, I mean, we're in it. We have kiddos like very close in age and it's wild and no one ever prepares you for having children. Especially that first year and even doing it a second time, you forget.
Molly Vasa Bertolucci:
Yeah. I feel like we could do a whole podcast on second time mom because it's like, you just kind of think you have it figured out, right? You're like, okay, I think I'm better prepared and then it's like Bam this kid's totally different and bam like, you're still new, you're a new mom again, you're new completely all over again.
Mika Storey:
Completely new. Yeah I always make this joke that my second like really humbles me in my parenting journey. He really does humble me and you do change. Like I feel like with my first I evolved into such a different person and then I'm like okay I kind of got this person figured out and then you have your second and that ignites so much within you again to evolve and change and rediscover. So it's all a journey.
Molly Vasa Bertolucci:
Yeah, all a journey, a wild ride and it's awesome that you're here to support parents in their journey and support kiddos and being able to communicate with their families.
What words of encouragement or wisdom do you have for parents who might be in this journey of helping their child develop with speech and language right now?
Mika Storey:
One is for mothers to follow their intuition. A mother knows when something is going on and I want mothers to act on on their intuition if they do have concerns and to talk to a professional whether it's a speech therapist or any other professional that specialize in the area that they're concerned about and my second is to just really tell moms and dads and any other caregivers that they're doing such a good job. Most of the families that I work with there's so much guilt that caregivers are placing on themselves and they really are feeling like they caused their child to have a speech delay or a speech disorder and that's just not the case. So to just really reiterate that they're doing a good job and that they're doing everything that they can. There's no one right way to do something and most of the time they're doing a phenomenal job
Molly Vasa Bertolucci:
One last question for you. Do you have any activities that you do with your kiddos that are some of your favorite play -based activities for just encouraging language and communication?
.Mika Storey:
Yes, oOne strategy that I love to use in my house and that I will recommend to any kiddo, especially under five, that I'm working with, is something called Communication Temptations. So a lot of what I teach families to do is that we can create an environment to help their child communicate. So Communication Temptations are kind of manipulating the environment so that your child has the opportunity to communicate. So I love putting things that they love up high, kind of out of reach, so that they have the opportunity to kind of communicate what their wants and needs are. Or toys, sometimes it's helpful to put toys, especially those that have lots of pieces, in a bin, in a container that they can't open so that they can bring it to you and ask for it to be opened up or ask for help.
Molly Vasa Bertolucci:
Okay, so kind of setting up opportunities for them to tell you what they want and need.
Mika Storey:
Yeah, exactly. Sometimes we're placing so many demands on our child, like, say this, do that. Can you tell me that you want this? And that creates like a lot of pressure. We're putting a lot of pressure on our children to communicate and that can make them kind of resist the process and shut down. So if we can kind of do things where they don't really know that we're doing them. So, yeah, like I said, manipulating the environment around them so that they can communicate their wants and needs is a strategy I love to give to families.
Molly Vasa Bertolucci:
So doable just kind of naturally encouraging or eliciting that communication. Thank you, such a great tool. Mika, where can people find you to connect?
Mika Storey:
Yes, you can head to my website so it's www.aspeechstorey.com.
I do one on one therapy, but I also do complementary consultations and parent coaching sessions virtually for families who are interested in that service and you can follow me on Instagram which is how we met.
Molly Vasa Bertolucci:
Yes! And Mika shares so much valuable content on Instagram, so definitely give her a follow and then we will also provide any updates about when your book is coming out and Storytime Tots as well for listeners and Storytime Tots particularly for those local here in southern California and Long Beach.
Mika Storey:
Yes, absolutely. I will let you know when that October date is released for Storeytime Tots and the pre-order date from my book. Thanks so much. Molly.
Molly Vasa Bertolucci:
Thank you, Mika.
I hope you enjoyed this conversation as much as I did. If you loved this episode, please share it with a friend, review it, and subscribe to the podcast. Be sure to check out the show notes for links and information about any resources we mentioned in this episode. Thank you for listening.
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