Looking to Be More Involved in Your Child’s Therapy?

Looking for ways to become more involved in your child’s therapy? Look no further! There is no “wrong” way to become involved. Just by trying you will make a difference. Here are some ways to get you going;

1.     Try some therapy on the go.

a.     It can be overwhelming to think about working on goals when it feels like you have a million things to do, but in reality, that is the perfect time to practice. Why? Because your child does not live in the therapy room! When you work on goals in the real world, it helps them take the skills they learned in therapy and apply them to real life.

                                               i.     Example: Working on following directions? Bring your child to the grocery store when you need to pick up a few things. Try prompting them with directions such as “Pick up the Oreos and hand them to me”, or “Grab the pack of napkins, then the plastic forks, and put them in the cart”. Practice makes perfect, plus the kids will feel like they are helping you.

                                             ii.     Example: Working on using longer sentences? Bring your child to go holiday shopping with you. If they see something they like, have them tell you about it when they get home. Bonus: You can go back later and get something that caught their eye, takes some of the guesswork out of gifts.

                                           iii.     Example: Working on taking turns? When you are driving with your child in the car, take turns pointing out different road signs or colors you see while you drive.  

2.     Build therapy into day-to-day routines. 

a.     Brainstorm ways you can incorporate therapy into your daily routines. The structure of a routine is a great platform for therapy, and once you work on goals within a routine a few times, it will become an expected part of the routine itself.

                                               i.     Example: Working on reading comprehension? When you read a bedtime story to your child, ask questions throughout. Talk about the beginning, the middle, and the end. Have the child answer wh-questions or predict what is going to happen next. This is activity that has a lot of room for working on a lot of goals.

                                             ii.     Example: Working on asking questions? Play a “conversation starter” game at dinner. Take turns asking each other questions. Don’t give too much information though, give your child space to ask follow-up questions such as “why?” or “what is that?” or “who is ___?”. This is a structured way to practice natural conversation, and it’s fun too.

3.     Keep the SLP in the loop.

a.     A great way to get involved with your child’s therapy is to keep track of their communication throughout the week. If you hear something that is interesting, write it down! The more information the speech-language pathologists (SLPs) have, the better we can tailor their therapy.

b.     Let us know about exciting activities that are coming up or that have happened. This gives the SLP conversation starters for the child that allow us to work on a variety of goals such as giving details, descriptions, recall, and more. 

c.     What are your communication concerns? If something comes up, tell the SLP about it. It is always helpful to have a lot of information so we can make sure therapy goals stay relevant to your child. 

These are just a few ways you can become involved in your child’s therapy. Find what works for you and stick with it! No matter what you do, consistency is key. 

Kara Cotter

Developing Communication Skills Through Games

Play has often been considered to be the work of children. While many children tend to think of “playing” as time for electronics, playing board games and card games provide opportunities to socialize while building on important life skills.  In addition to providing valuable time interacting with family and friends, playing games is also a great way to help children learn improved communication skills (both receptively and expressively).

Many of the games that are listed can be adapted for various ages/skills by playing with other rules (which also works on flexibility).  Examples of rule changes include eliminating timers; working in pairs or groups; eliminating the need to write answers; reducing the number of rules that are used; creating your own games using the game pieces such as using pictures for describing, comparing, etc.

Here is a list of games to consider for you child for the holidays or anytime.  Although the games below are listed based on specific areas of language, the games typically can help improve various areas of language while having fun. 

Receptive and expressive language including language concepts, following directions, retaining, recalling and integrating information, formulating sentences, describing, explaining, categorization, associations, etc:

• Scattergories:  Thinking of words that fall into a list of various categories that also start with a specific letter

• Wordplay:  Thinking of words that fall into a specific category that also start with a letter that is chosen by spinning a spinner

• Frazzle: Naming words that fit a chosen category and initial letters more quickly than your opponent

• Headbanz: Asking yes/no questions to figure out the picture of an item that is placed on your “Headbanz”

• Double Ditto: Thinking of items that may fall into atypical categories and then seeing if the answers match those of other players 

• Scavenger Hunts: Either purchased or homemade games where items are presented for children to find.  Items can be presented either verbally, through pictures or even clues that are spoken or written

• Go Fish: Naming and describing pictures while learning vocabulary, turn-taking skills, etc. 

• UNO cards with various characters for describing such as Dory, Frozen, Spiderman, etc.  Instead of playing the typical game of UNO, such cards can be used for describing and playing matching games or Go Fish   

• Stare:  Answering questions and recalling information about a picture you have stared at for 30 seconds

Vocabulary including word retrieval, word meanings:

• Matching Games: matching pictures game that can be based on different themes

• Bingo with pictures

• Word Teasers:  Using conversation questions while focusing on vocabulary

• Zingo: Matching presented pictures to the pictures on your board by shouting out the picture name

• Secret Square Game:  Asking questions to guess the target picture

• 20 Questions:  Guessing the items based upon clues that are read by your opponent.

• 5-Second Rule: Naming items in a category in 5 seconds

• Spot it: Using card pairs to find the matching picture and quickly state the answer before someone else does.  Various themes are available  

• Blurt:  Guessing words based on clues that are given

Pragmatic skills including turn-taking, topic maintenance, perspective-taking, reading body language, negotiating, compromising, etc: 

• Charades Games such as Kids on Stage, Guesstures, Charades for Kids, Picture Charades for Kids: Acting out various animals, vehicles, or the use of items for others to guess; also requires the actor to decide on the most important aspects to act out

• Cooperative/noncompetitive games:  Learning to work together and realize that games are not always about winning

• The Secret Door: acting  as detectives to work together and  figure out which objects are missing

• Snail’s Pace Race: matching colors to have snails move along the race path.  Can choose to have the first snail win, the last snail, or a snail in the middle

• Dinosaur Escape:  Helping dinosaurs escape to their island before the volcano erupts

• Snug as a Bug in a Rug:  Helping the matching bugs to hide under the rug before the stink bugs stink up the place

•  Race to the Treasure:  Stopping the Ogre from getting the treasure by working  together to get to the treasure first

• Stone Soup: Matching  ingredients to go in the soup before the fire goes out

• Hoot, Owl, Hoot:  Matching colors to help owls get back to their nests

• Table Topics:  Using cards to start conversations.  Various themes are available

• Would You Rather? Voting on which you would choose when given 2 dilemmas to theoretically experience

Executive function including organizing, sequencing, problem-solving, negotiating, compromising

• Apples to Apples, Junior or Regular: Choosing the item in your hand that is best described by the adjective that is provided.  There are different levels of this game.

• Pickles to Penguins: Quickly linking pictures together based on commonalities

• Guess Who:  Guessing the mystery character based on a series of questions

• Life: A classic game that requires players to make life choices and deal with the  consequences of those choices

• Monopoly: A classic game that comes in many themes where players buy and rent properties while managing their money

• Clue, Jr: Using clues and the process of elimination to figure out what is hidden in the clubhouse.

• The Labyrinth Game: Using planning, strategies, associations, cause-effect, etc. to open passages in order to accumulate your game pieces

Phonological Awareness including articulation, spelling and reading 

•  Rhyming games:  Such as I Spy a Mouse in the House! Picture Rhymes, Pop for Word Families, Rhyming Bingo, The Learning Journey Match It! Rhyme and other games that help children focus in on similarities and differences in word endings and word meanings

• Mad Gab:  Read a series of words while changing the emphasis on the words.  Eventually it will sound like a different phrase

• The Last Letter:  Quickly coming up with a word on one of your cards that starts with the last letter of the previous word that was stated

• Scrabble: Making up words with letter tiles.  Different levels are available starting with Scrabble, Jr. (which uses letter matching)

• My Word: Making up words from cards with letters on them.

• Play on Words:  Making up words from cards that are presented while using strategies to capture opponents words

• Word on the Street: Stating words in a category and identifying letters in that word

Have fun! 

Carol A. Walck, M.S. CCC/SLP