Please note that I do not receive any financial gain from you clicking the links in this post - I only put them in so you can see what we have been doing and where you can get similar items.
As Speech Therapists we talk about how to move therapy sessions and targets into your everyday lives to support generalisation.
This morning I unwittingly did it with E and I wanted to share with you all to give you some ideas. E is loving the Orchard Toys Shopping Game at the moment and we pay it daily, if not twice or even three times a day. I suddenly had an idea. Why don't we move it into an actual life experience and she can take what she is learning into an every day situation.
So this morning over breakfast we decided what we were going to eat today (as a side note we are currently in lockdown - I needed to go shopping for food anyway so this wasn't an additional trip out). E had heard her Dad say that while he was away on business this week that he had pizza so that was her request. We decided we were going to make the dough and buy the ingredients we needed to make the sauce and toppings. We had a chat about what we wanted on our pizza and came up with a list.
Now as I use symbol software all the time for work so I used Symplify to create this shopping list for E (adding a few additional items for her to find). I then photographed it and we had a list on my phone which we could then look at. You could use google images or stickers or pictures to do the same thing. Make it visual, you don't need words just pictures with under 4's (I just have them automatically appear on my account) but if you have a school aged child add the words in - it isn't going to hurt.
So off we went to the shops. As in the game she chose a basket or trolley and had our list and as we walked around the shop she found all the items and we put them in the trolley.
So how does this relate to speech and language therapy and generalising skills?
Vocabulary: as part of the game E has learnt a whole range of new foods which we don't have regularly at home. Because she was thinking about the game we had played at home she spotted some of those items in the shop. But we didn't put them in our trolley as they weren't on the list (all part of the game). It did however give us the opportunity to talk about them and discuss if they were or were not on our list.
Attention: E stayed focused on her task while we were in the shop (for around 20 minutes) and showed me good listening and thinking about what she needed.
Spoken Language: we had to problem solve on a few occasions because the item we were looking for wasn't in stock. We chatted about something else we could buy and she came up with an idea and off we went to find it.
Generalising things you learn in therapy can be a real challenge, and often takes the longest period of time. By finding day to day activities like going shopping for food to support your child with the new skills they are learning you are more likely for them to achieve as it is in a real life scenario with real objects and activities they see us doing all the time.
We will be taking this further and cooking it together, adding in the items from our list and referring back to it if needed. Cooking can be another great way to learn new concepts (e.g. fill, empty, big, small) and a wide range of day to day vocabulary. We do a lot of cooking together and E loves it. Its a great opportunity to give her simple instructions to follow, show her a step by step process which she needs to follow, attends to an activity for an extended period of time (adult-led activity as well), and she uses her language to ask questions and comment what we are doing. As parents it also gives us the opportunity to expand her language.
I hope this quick post gives you a few ideas on how to generalise skills - it doesn't have to be fancy, complicated or involve lots of organisation. Just use your day to day activities (cooking, bath time, walking, going to the shop, playing, tidying up, cleaning etc.) to find opportunities to generalise what you are learning. You've got this!
If you are concerned about how to generalise your child's speech and language skills or have concerns which you wish to talk to someone about please call me to arrange a free 20 minute telephone or video consultation. We can discuss what your concerns are and if I can do anything to help. Visit my website for further details.
Comments