Hi guys!
Allie here—Certainly strange times we are in right now! Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy! Today I wanted to drop in and just give you guys some pointers and suggestions on how to work on speech and language skills with your kids during these times of staying home and social distancing.
First off, I know these times are hard and sitting down and working on speech and language seems like just another thing to add to the never-ending To-Do List. That is why I suggest you DON’T sit down and work on speech/language, but instead, do short bursts of practice throughout your day, built into all the activities you already have in place! In the following list I will give a few ideas of how to do just this:
- Take advantage of the routines you already have in your day. Since many of our days right now do not have as much variation as they usually do, it is a great time to take advantage of the routine/predictable pattern of our days for practicing speech/language skills. The idea here is that you pick out a couple of activities that you do EVERY day with your kids and designate these times as times to consistently practice. Some routines a family might do every day with your kids might include mealtime, bath time, reading books, going outside, going for a walk, etc. Again, just pick one or two of these daily routines in your day where you have speech/language practice as part of that routine. Here are some example ideas:
- Example #1: If you pick breakfast as one of your daily routines for practice and your child is working on making requests using full sentences, every morning for breakfast you could have your child ask for each food/drink item they would like using full, complete sentences.
- Example #2: Another example would be if you always sit down and read books each day, make book reading time a designated time for practice. If you’re child is working on saying the /S/ sound, after you read a page you could go back through and find all the words with the /s/ sound in them and have your child say them aloud.
- Make the most of facetime/phone/video calls! Even though kids might now be seeing all the relatives or friends they would like to right now, many kids are still connecting with their loved ones via video and/or phone conversations. These are perfect times to practice speech and language goals! Here are some example ideas:
- Example #1: If your child is working on answering WH-questions (who, what, where, etc.) you can prep both the conversational partners (whether that’s grandma, grandpa, older cousin, etc.) and ask them to “ask lots of questions about his day/what he has been doing, etc.”
- Example #2: If your child is working on using a strategy taught to him/her to reduce stuttering, this would be a phenomenal time to practice using these strategies with a new conversational partner in a new setting.
- Be a great model and increase their awareness! You might be spending more time than usual with your child right now and you are likely his/her main teacher. Take advantage of that and bring up speech/language awareness throughout your day.
- Example #1: If your child is working on the /R/ sound, you might point out things you see throughout your day that have that sound in it (without the expectation that your child will say the word).
- Example #2: If your child is working on saying words with using the plural marker, if you’re on a walk together you could talk about seeing all of the plurals (ie; cars, houses, dogs, mailboxes, etc.) you see along your walk.
- My final suggestion for practice during these uncertain times is to try not to make speech/language practice another stressor. If you forget to practice for a day or two, don’t worry about it! We all have so much on our minds right now, taking a break here and there is absolutely a good idea.
That’s all I have for now! Stay safe, stay healthy, and enjoy the getting-nicer-by-the-day weather!
– Allie
