CST Academy

Happy June! ☀️ Looking for an easy activity to keep your little one busy? This month’s craft is a fun and messy (in the best way!) car wash art project.

All you need are toy cars, a large piece of paper or cardboard, some paint, and a bucket of soapy water. Let your child drive the cars through the paint to create colorful tracks and designs, then head to the "car wash" to clean them up in the bucket. 🚗🎨🫧

It's a simple way to combine sensory play, creativity, and a little outdoor fun!

Whether you’re wondering if your child is showing early signs of autism, you don’t know where to start when scheduling an diagnostic evaluation, or you’re trying to understand next steps after receiving a diagnosis - you’re not alone.

Clinical Psychologist Dr. Stephanie Borjas Clark answers questions about all of the above in the article below ⬇️

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How to Get an Autism Diagnosis in Lake County | CST Academy Not sure where to start? Here's how Lake County families can get an autism diagnosis and what to expect at every step.

Another installment of Meet the Therapist, SLP edition! This month we are meeting Emma, our Lead City SLP and Park Ridge Clinic Director! Emma has been with CSTA for 4 years and has been an SLP for 5. Outside of the clinic, Emma enjoys baking sourdough and chocolate chip cookies, walking on the 606, and reading! Who should we meet next? 👀 P.s. Let us know how you feel about the Gummy Bear song below ⬇️ #CSTAcademy #aba #rbt

A fun day out at the farm 🌻🚜

Our Wilmette learners spent last Thursday visiting Wagner Farm where they soaked up the sunshine and made a few animal friends along the way ☀️🐔

💭 Myth vs. Fact: Communication is more than just talking
Myth: Speech therapy is only about talking.

Fact: Communication includes gestures, signs, AAC, and social interaction. And it's never one-size-fits-all.

Some children use spoken language. Others communicate through signs, pictures, or devices. All of it is meaningful.

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Speech Therapy Services for Children | CST Academy CST Academy offers speech therapy to help children improve communication, language, and articulation skills in a fun, supportive, and play-based setting.

Before our SLPs were helping our learners communicate, they were learning to connect with the world in their own ways too 🥹

Happy National Speech-Language Pathologist Day to all the incredible SLPs making a difference every day ✨💬🗣️

Happy May! Our craft of the month is… May Flowers 🌸

This fun, hands-on activity is a great way to practice fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and creativity while making a colorful spring craft!

All you need is:
🌼 A pipe cleaner
🌼 Some beads
🌼 A paper flower (handmade or printed)

Simply attach the pipe cleaner to your flower and decorate the stem with beads to create your own unique flower design!

This easy and engaging craft is a great way to ring in the spring season 💐

To say we love our SLPs is a major understatement 💙 May is National Speech-Language-Hearing Month! To all of our incredible SLPs, your work is life changing and your dedication is inspiring. We are so lucky to work with all of you! 💬🗣️🫀 Keep the shoutouts coming in the comments ⬇️ #CSTAcademy #slp #nationalspeechlanguagehearingmonth

✨ Building Early Reading Skills Through Play

We love using hands-on, engaging activities to help children grow, and our Dolch Pre-Primer Sight Words Build and Trace sheets are one of our favorites!

These 40 essential sight words (like “the,” “and,” and “it”) are key building blocks for early reading. Children learn to recognize them by sight, which helps reading become smoother, more confident, and more enjoyable over time 📚

Through a multi-sensory approach, children build each word using materials like Play-Doh, trace the letters to strengthen fine motor skills, and practice reading the word in simple sentences. This combination supports not just recognition, but real understanding.

We use these activities every day in our therapeutic preschool program to make learning interactive, meaningful, and fun! 🙌

📥 Download it now on our website and start exploring sight words together: https://cstacademy.com/resources/activities/dolch-pre-primer-sight-words/

Happy National Teacher Appreciation Day to our amazing classroom leaders! ✨

Your expertise, compassion, and dedication shine through in the way you blend therapy and education to support each child’s unique learning style.

You make our therapeutic preschool program everything that it is 💙