I recently took in my 3-year-old son, Frank, for a speech assessment in our home school district. He has been having some articulation problems and our pediatrician recommended that we take him in for the free speech therapy screening.

I sat around the table with Frank and three speech therapists.  They started by asking me questions about Frank’s overall development.

Does Frank understand the concept of three? (By this they meant not just can he count to three, but does he understand in any order and with various objects that three is always three).

Well, we have done many ReadyRosie activities like “The Number Stays the Same”, so I knew exactly how to answer that question!

Does Frank understand categories, for example if you said “let’s name types of fruit”, would he be able to say several things in the category of fruit?

Frank and I play “How Many Can You Name” in the car often, so I knew the answer to that question as well.

The questions continued….Can Frank “chime in” when reading a familiar story? Can he predict what would happen next in a story? If an object was hidden, could he describe it? Does he have an understanding of a “loud” and “soft” voice? ­ ALL of which I knew because they are ALL ReadyRosie activities we have done together, including “Chime In” at the doctor’s office waiting for our appointment.

The therapists were looking for key indicators in Frank’s development and I was able to answer, with confidence, every question.

The entire time she was asking these questions, I kept imagining how a parent would answer these questions without having done some of these specific things with their child.  Then, I kept wondering how they would have ever known to DO those specific things with their child.   I wouldn’t have if I had not been exposed to ReadyRosie.

ReadyRosie is not JUST about school readiness – it is about knowing WHO our children are – what they like, where they are at developmentally, and how they like to learn.  

The therapists ended our session by giving me a flyer for ReadyRosie.  They told me that they recommend ReadyRosie to all families who come in for speech assessments.  Frank heard that recommendation and let the therapists know that “we alweady watch weadywosie evewyday.”

Shared by Emily Roden, co-founder of ReadyRosie.