The question I get asked the most - How often should I practice? The simple answer is as often as possible.
Not what you wanted to hear? No I can imagine. Here are some easy ways to link therapy targets and activities into your day to day life without having to make your child sit down at the table and practice.
The key to all this is finding ways to practice which are motivating and don't feel like practice. It can be very challenging as parents (I know as personally I am trying to motivate my own daughter to do physio exercises every day) to maintain the interest in the activities. I hope I can give you some ideas to help!
NB. these ideas can also be used to support children with their language development and sounds if they aren't known to a speech therapist or are currently waiting to see one ;-).
Please note any products I recommend are for your information. I do not receive any gain by recommending these products - they are just want I use!
Learning new words or vocabulary
As a therapist I often use categories or a programme called Language Steps to help develop vocabulary. This programme in itself comes with multiple ideas of how to learn new vocabulary however once you have used them all what do you do next?
Linking to every day environments: I believe this is the key point with learning new vocabulary. If you can use the new vocabulary in every day scenarios your child is more likely to learn it in a functional way and it is more likely to stick. For example if you are learning food vocabulary you could do some cooking together with some of the items on your list, or find them in the supermarket etc.
Creating games: Games can be a great way to develop vocabulary. Keep your child involved, edit games your already have, make up new ones - whatever you need to do to keep it interesting. One of my absolute favourites is to use skittles. Place a picture on each of the skittles and as your child knocks them down they have to name them otherwise they go back up again.
Talking about vocabulary in every day conversations: Try to include any new vocabulary you are learning in day to day conversations and use visual supports as required to show your child what you mean. Identify it as part of books, or in day to day activities to show your child when they can use it e.g. if learning action words you could talk about what characters are doing in a book while reading the story. Practice these actions together and pretend to be the characters.
Resources: some other resources I like to use to learn new vocabulary, especially with topic vocabulary relating to schools is the Word Aware Programme. There is also a version for early years/nursery settings.
Developing attention and listening skills
Turn taking games: One of my favourite games to practice turn taking is pop-up pirate. Motivating games like this are great to develop turn taking and joint attention skills. Show your child how the game works and use verbal cues such as "Mummy's turn" "x's turn" in order for your child to understand whose turn it is. Take it in turns until the game reaches its finale.
Cause and effect toys/games: Wind-up toys or toys which require adult input are brilliant for developing attention and listening and joint attention. Wind up the toy/set the toy going and allow your child to explore it. Wait for it to complete its cycle and then ask the child if they want more. If they indicate they want more then wind it up/set it going again. Repeat as required.
Bucket: Here is a video about attention buckets. They are a great way to start and develop joint attention and can then be used to develop attention further through the attention autism programme.
Learning to follow more complex instructions
Concept development: if focusing on learning a range of concepts then as with a lot of the advice above try to make your use of them functional. Use them in every day activities to support generalisation. Make up silly instructions (e.g. "before you jump on the sofa, touch your nose") or use the concepts in instructions relating to your day to day activities (e.g. "before you put your trousers on put on your pants").
Breaking down instructions: take note of what your therapist is working on e.g. the number of items in the instruction, the type of instruction, the sequence of the instruction. Try to keep instructions to this level or lower. If using the target level of instruction and your child is struggling to understand what it is your have said/are asking break the instruction down into smaller elements. Once you have worked through the instruction then ask the instruction again as a whole and support them to answer it/follow it appropriately.
Learning to put words together into phrases or sentences
Repeat and expand: on a day to day basis you can use the repeat and expand strategy to support your child to increase the number of words your child puts together in a sentence. If your child uses a short sentence e.g. "mummy car fast" you repeat what they've said and add another word to it in order for your child to hear how they can expand their language e.g. "yes the car is driving fast".
Adding in target words: Look at your child's targets and see what they are trying to add into their sentences e.g. verbs, nouns, action words etc. Make sure you use these types of sentences in your day to day language.
Books: books can be a great way to develop expanding sentences. Instead of reading the book talk about what is happening in the pictures. Model the types of sentences which your child is being targeted and support them to try to do the same to describe what is happening.
The big do's and don'ts
Do:
Make things interesting.
Vary the types of activities which you are doing on a day to day basis.
Think outside the box.
Use resources that you are given by your therapist and adapt them to use them in a variety of ways.
Take therapy into different environments - try practicing in the car, in the bath.
Find a time of the day which suits you and your child - when are most productive.
Don't:
Repeat the same things every day - they can get boring.
Do therapy activities when your child is tired or in a negative mood.
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