Volunteer Spotlight
This month we would like to recognize Erica Kirinovic as our Volunteer Spotlight! She has been volunteering here for about a month and has already made a difference. She has been co-leading GiGi Prep and tutoring three students this summer here at GiGi's Quad Cities. She is from Lockport, IL but is...
100 days of meeting new friends!
321 days of acceptance | 100 days Our friends in Hoffman Estates has this great blog article to celebrate the 100th day of the #321daysofacceptance so we thought we'd share it. If you haven't been following along we hope you will. There's still time! 221 days to be exact. Have...
Potty Training and Down syndrome
We know several families that visit the Playhouse have expressed their frustration with the potty training process. Another Playhouse in the network shared with us a great blog post regarding potty training. If it helps just one of our families then it was worth sharing! Rose Reif is a private...
3 Cs – Concert, Collaboration, Community
Last fall, we shared the exciting news that we had won a free concert with the Laurie Berkner Band. (Thanks to our friend and supporter Megan Hancock for nominating us.) See the video announcement here. That concert is just around the corner. The private concert for GiGi’s families and friends...
“more please”
I just need to brag a bit on this girl right here… This is our friend Leah. Leah was the first new baby I met at the Playhouse back in April 2016. She has grown so much over the last 16 months and I just am so amazed by her...
Speech and Language Social Stories
This week for the blog relating to speech and language we're actually going to point you to a live video on our Facebook page. Check out the recent video All About Social Stories that was posted by our Program Manager/Speech and Language Pathologist. In addition to the weekly blog articles, she is...
Speech and Language Activities for 3 to 5 year olds
Next up we have activities for our very active 3 to 5-year-old friends. These activities are taken directly from our Leaps and Bound Speech and Language Resource Guide. Bubbles: Bubbles focuses on requesting more, using the b, m, g, p, w sounds, following a routine and imitating words and sounds....
Speech and Language growth for the under 3 crowd
As we continue through Better Speech and Hearing Month, we are going to discuss activities or games that can help promote speech and language growth. This week we are going to focus on activities for ages 6 months to 3 years. These ideas are taken directly from our Speech and...
What do crafts have to do with speech?
This week we are going to talk about using crafts to improve speech and language skills! Here at the Playhouse we LOVE to do crafts! Not only is it a great way to work on fine motor skills, we are also practicing speech and language skills! Crafts work on vocabulary...
Better Speech and Hearing Month
May is Better Speech and Hearing Month and we want to celebrate this with our blog this month! Our first post will focus on what a quality speech session should look like from, Ruth Haberkorn Halm is a speech-language pathologist at the Kaufman Children’s Center for Speech, Language, Sensory-Motor & Social...
National Volunteers Week
This week is National Volunteers Week and boy do we have a lot of outstanding volunteers that we need to recognize! All of you....yes YOU! If you have ever raised your hand to help at the Playhouse or at an event the Playhouse is sponsoring, we're talking to YOU! Without...
Student Growth from a Tutor Perspective
Tutoring does more than just help students improve their academic performance, it helps them improve their standards for success altogether. During my time as a tutor, I could watch and measure not only my students’ academic performance, but their confidence and ability to persevere as well. When students use tutors...