Everybody knows the saying “practice makes perfect”. If your child plays a sport or musical instrument, he/she is likely required to commit a certain amount of time practicing their skills during the week. In academic settings, practice comes in the form of homework. Teachers want their students to put in extra work outside of the classroom to sharpen the skills they learned in the classroom.
The same is true for speech and language skills. No matter how much formal speech and language therapy your child receives a week, it is still a relatively small amount of time to devote to such a critical life skill as learning to communicate effectively. For a child to make substantial progress in his speech and language skills, he/she must practice those skills outside the therapy room.
That’s where you, the parent or caregiver, come in.
You are your child’s number one communication partner. Because you are one of the people who communicates consistently with your child throughout the week, you have a unique opportunity to significantly impact your child’s communicative progress. You can do this by helping your child reinforce the speech and language skills he/she is learning in therapy by practicing those skills with them at home or while you’re out running errands.
Not only will working on your child’s speech and language skills give him/her more repetitive practice, it will also help with what is called the “generalization” of skills. This is the main goal of your child’s speech-language therapist. Generalization is the process of taking a skill learned in one setting (e.g., therapy) and applying it in other settings (e.g., home, school) (Fouse & Wheeler, 1997). By practicing the speech and language skills with your child when you’re at home or in the community, your child will become better equipped at using these skills in a variety of settings.
If you’re thinking that this sounds like a tedious and burdensome task for you and your child, don’t worry! There are many creative games and activities you can do with your child to make this a fun and enjoyable activity for both of you to do together.
Here are some ideas of fun and functional activities you can do with your child to practice their speech and language skills outside the therapy room. These can be done when you’re at home or while you’re driving in a car together:
Home
1) Read a book together – consider taking turns reading pages
Articulation
Target sounds: Help your child practice saying words that contain target sounds.
Language
Comprehension questions:Ask your child comprehension questions as you read the story together.
Making Predictions: Ask your child what they believe will happen next in the story.
Expanding vocabulary:Ask your child if they can figure out what an unfamiliar word means based on the story. Try to use that new word throughout the week.
Identify the main idea:Can your child tell you the main concept of the story without recounting the minor details?
Describing/locatives: As you read the story together, ask your child to describe where an object appears in the picture using locatives (“in”, “on”, “under”, etc.).
Social Skills
Taking other’s perspectives: To help your child practice learning to take other’s perspectives, ask your what he/she thinks the characters are thinking and feeling as you read together.
Literacy
Reading: Your child can practice their reading skills while reading the story to you.
2) Play a game
Articulation
Target sounds:Your child can practice saying different words that contain target sounds. This can be done with words in the game or you can ask your child to practice saying a few words before each turn.
Language
Following/Giving directions:Help your child practice following directions by following the rules of the game. You can help your child practice giving directions by having them tell you and others what to do.
Expanding utterances:By asking your child to describe what’s going on during the game you will help your child practice expanding their utterances.
Social Skills
Turn taking:Encourage your child to invite other players to take their turn.
Losing: Don’t purposely let your child win every game. Instead, model and encourage good gamesmanship.
I hope you and your child have a great time doing these together. For more activities and games, look for Part 2 next week!
-Rachel
References
Fouse, B., and Wheeler, M. (1997). A treasure chest of behavioral strategies for individuals with autism. Arlington, TX: Future Horizons.
Manager. (2019, July 08). 10 Ways To Practice Speech At Home This Summer. Retrieved from https://therapytravelers.com/10-ways-to-practice-speech-at-home-this-summer/