When your child visits us in clinic, they likely will have speech, language or social communication goals that they are working towards.
But, here at CISLT, we don’t just want them to meet these goals in clinic – we also want them to use their new skills within their everyday talking!
If we see your child for an hour each week, for instance, that accounts for around 1.2% of their week.
They need to be practicing their skills more often if we want them to generalise their new skills. We call this carryover, which means transferring their new skills into their everyday life.
In short, parents should work on speech therapy skills daily with their children.
We find that children whose parents are actively involved and participate move through therapy faster and see quicker results.
We know and expect that it’s really difficult to find the time to sit at a table and work on specific things with your child. The good news is that little and often works best, and chances are you can fit this into your current routine.
It might just mean making small but effective changes to interactions during everyday routines you’re already doing, like getting dressed, playing games or meal time.
If your child is working on their speech sounds, there is lots of research to suggest that homework is extremely important.
Sometimes speech difficulties are caused by an incorrect motor pattern they’ve learnt. Speech is a motor activity and motor memory needs to be developed. Some speech sound therapy has a basis in something called the ‘principles of motor learning’. One definition of motor learning is, ‘A set of processes associated with practice or experience leading to relatively permanent changes in the capability for movement.’ (Schmidt & Lee, 2000). So you can see how key practice is to these small motor movements that are used within speech.
Here at CISLT, our therapists will provide you with the all the strategies and guidance you need, working together with you during sessions to create a personalised home plan to fit with your daily routines.
If your child is having some difficulties with their speech and/or language development and this sounds like an approach that may suit your family, please contact us on 07534 043087 or support@cislt.com. We are currently taking on new clients.
Kerry x