“I found the activities very practical & easy to implement into daily routines. They are easily adapted to suit my child's specific interests & the needs of our family. They actually made my kid imitate and say new words. I’d say that the part that helped us the most was the activities & daily routines"
~ Hayley

The playbooks are designed for parents of children who are ‘learning to talk’. As such, they will be primarily helpful for children from 1 year to 3 years of age. However, if your child is late to talk or has a diagnosed/significant delay, your child’s age range may likely extend to 1-5 years of age. Instead of choosing the playbooks based on age, I would highly recommend looking at the communication stages as explained in the point below.

The playbooks are designed to assist three communication stages. See below the recommendations for which playbook suits each communication stage:

The Engager – Imitation Builder

• Has an intent to communicate (directs intentional messages to others).
• Connects with others by making eye contact, smiling, looking back & forth.
• Uses gestures and sounds to communicate (reaching, pointing, looking).
• Understands words that are part of their everyday routine.

Single-word user – Vocab Builder

• Use single words / one word at a time.
• May only use a few real words.
• Using words for simple reasons such as requesting & naming.
• Can imitate words
• Can follow simple instructions, even without
  gestures.

Phrase-user – Phrase Builder

• Uses phrases with 2 or even 3 words.
• Uses words & short phrases for multiple different reasons.
• Has a variety of words in their vocabulary (nouns, verbs, adjectives, locations).
• Can follow simple instructions, even without gestures.
• Can answer simple questions (what, where).

If you are still not sure, you can email Saffira at hello@onlinespeechie.com OR you can complete the Online Speechie Screener tool here

These Speechie Parent Playbooks are for children who already show adequate social engagement, attention, & cognitive abilities. Children who have difficulties in social interaction and/or cognitive development should be seen by a professional in person.

The Speechie Parent Playbooks can still benefit your child with social communication difficulties (problems with engagement). It is just a word of caution that; children with these difficulties usually need more time to progress & additional support. Therapists commonly use the imitation phases described in this program with kids with social communication difficulties.

If this is your child, please do reach out to me via email hello@onlinespeechie.com or social media @onlinespeechie

Imitation builder
Vocab Builder
Phrase Builder

As a practising speech pathologist for over ten years, I have always been passionate about helping mums and dads celebrate the small wins, especially for kids with significant delays. Like what you expect if you attended a therapy session in person with me, I could never guarantee that your child will make specific improvements nor ensure how far they will progress. Your child’s progress will depend on several factors such as genetics, personality, environment, underlying conditions and much more.

As with all The Online Speechie products, resources, methods, strategies & programs, there is no guarantee of improvement in your child’s skills.

I am a practising speech pathologist and genuinely believe that one-on-one therapy with a therapist is required in many cases. Regardless of whether your child needs to or is accessing one-on-one treatment, sometimes there is not enough support for families to generalise and cross-over skills into their everyday environment. Everything that the Online Speechie provides on this website, social media, and products like this aims to complement and enhance traditional in-person therapy, not replace it!
Any videos, programs or products by the Online Speechie do not include a comprehensive speech and language assessment to determine your child’s presentation. As such, it is not a customised or tailored speech therapy plan. Use of any information or content found in The Online Speechie digital products, website or social media is at the user’s own risk.

If your child has significant difficulties & you have substantial concerns, please do seek a referral to paediatric professionals such as a child health nurse, speech pathologist/therapist, paediatrician, or general practitioner.

Yes, they most certainly are. Early intervention research has shown that implementing strategies within naturalistic tasks/environments is the best thing any parent can do – which you are already doing in someway (Just google milieu training, linguistic mapping, pivotal response training, contingent imitation, following child’s lead, social routines, video feedback etc.).

I have spent ten years working within the paediatric field, whereby I have been committed to continuing my studies. I also returned to the University of Western Australia to complete my postgraduate, which has further inspired me to lead new research within the next few years, which will focus on early language development and clinic-based/parent-based treatment.

The Speechie Parent Playbooks provide a tonne of research article links, references and interesting facts, so you can rest assured that they are evidence-based.