Speech Tips for Parents
After working in the field of speech language pathology for
a couple of years at this point, I have started creating a list of things I wish parents knew, things I wish parents did, and things I wish more people knew about speech. While
I addressed these lists to parents in particular, you can replace parent with
older sibling, aunt, uncle, grandparent, godparent, friend of the family, etc.
I know very few people who have absolutely nothing to do with a child, almost
everyone I know has siblings, nieces and nephews, friends who have kids, etc.
so I think these lists are pretty applicable to everyone.
Here they are, in no particular order of importance:
What I Wish People
Knew About Speech
·
Speech Language Pathologists (SLPs) are
professionals who go through a total of 7 years of higher education and
training including a national exam before they are allowed to become licensed.
While you may know every grammar structure in the literate world and every
developmental milestone, a speech therapist is able to use those developmental
milestones and grammatical structures inside of research and experience-guided
therapy in order to increase your child’s speech and language skills at the
greatest possible rate.
·
Speech therapy does not only include children
saying their R’s. Speech therapy can include:
o
Articulation- saying speech sounds correctly
o
Fluency- stuttering
o
Swallowing- that’s right—if you have trouble
swallowing, we’re who diagnoses you
o
Language- focusing on your internal grammar
abilities. Language can be both expressive (what you say) and receptive (what
you hear)
o
Cognition- we work with executive function
issues, memory, etc.
o
Pragmatics- this is also known as social
language- its everything you say with your body language and tone of voice
o
Voice- this includes vocal nodules, vocal
paralysis, etc.
o
Aural Rehabilitation- this works with children
and adults who are learning to use the hearing they have or hearing devices to
hear and respond to the world around them to the best of their ability.
o
AAC- Augmentative and Alternative Communication-
we use everything from a single button to a complex eye-gaze system to help
people get a message across to their communication partners
·
Speech therapy is best when started EARLY!!! If
your child is 3, they’ve already missed prime therapy time. By 10, there’s only
so much we can really do. For adults, speech therapy after a stroke or other
neurologic event is best in the first year, after that, there’s only so much we
can do. When you break a bone, you don’t wait around for several years saying,
“Well, it’s going to heal just fine on its own, so why bother to get a cast?”
·
Speech and Language skills affect everything that we do. Have you ever
gone to the grocery store when no one spoke to you? Ever gone on a date? Ever
made it through the school day with no one speaking? Ever had to communicate
that you were hungry or tired? Ever tried to make it through school without
reading or writing?
What I Wish Parents
Knew
- Where to look up speech development guides. Most parents don’t really need to know that k, g, t, d, p, b, m, n, ng, and the vowels should be developed by three, s by four, r by 7, etc. But, I have so many parents that ask me if they’re child is ok that I wish more parents had access to the information in the first place. An excellent resource is www.handyhandouts.com. My favorite hand out for this topic is “When Should I Worry if My Child is Behind?” (available here)
- Your children model your behavior. Monkey see, monkey do. The more educated you are (about everything), the better model your children have.
- There is nothing better you can do for your child than talk to them and read to them.
- Talking to your child does not mean, “No, stop, don’t.” Talking to them includes talking about your world (“Man, the trees look so nice in the fall, don’t they?”), talking to them about what you’re doing (“Here we go, driving to school!”), talking to them about what they are doing (“I see you throwing that big, red ball”), and talking about how to do things (“First we put the groceries on the belt, then we need to pay”). Guess who teaches your child everything about the world for the first few years? You do!
- I wish you knew WHY your child is being recommended or is getting speech therapy. That includes knowing what goals they’re working on. In one of my most memorable meetings at school, I had a parent who’s child had been receiving speech therapy for at least 4 years who said, “I don’t know why Sue* is getting speech. She talks all the time.” Sue was one of my most severe students for language, but she was pretty talkative. The problem was she talked about nothing to do with anything we were doing and couldn’t answer simple questions accurately. Despite being given evaluations and going to 4 years of meetings, this poor parent didn’t have a clue. I encountered many more like her and I wish parents really strove to understand what speech was doing for their child. (That being said, many parents do make that step). (*Name has been changed)
- Language and learning disorders run in families, if you or your siblings (or in-laws) have one, your kids have a higher chance of getting them. You can ask for screenings from the school therapists or go to a private clinic for a screening to make sure you can get to therapy as soon as possible.
- School therapists are very restricted in what they can and cannot treat. For example, I had very strict guidelines of scores my school would allow me to treat, if a child didn’t score low enough on an assessment, or was performing at grade level in class, or their impairment didn’t have a clearly identifiable educational impact (they could be understood with their bad R for example), I was not allowed to treat them, despite them needing therapy in my professional opinion. I did my best to refer them out to private therapists (I always provided at least 3 options one of which was free) so that they could get the therapy they needed. If you think your child needs therapy, private therapy may be your only option. Speech grad schools also have clinics which may be able to provide therapy at reduced prices. Insurance may help cover some of the cost as well.
- Sometimes therapy everyday all day will not be able to “fix” the problem. Sometimes even the maximum therapy schools or hospitals can’t “fix” the issue. Sometimes kids will not be able to recover to normal. That being said, therapists from speech, occupational therapy, physical therapy, social work, etc. are able to do amazing things to help your child cope with the world with the skills they have. We can help identify strengths and help your kiddo use those strengths to overcome or minimize their weaknesses.
- Googling speech disorders to diagnose your child or tell us what to do is kind of like using WebMD to diagnose the flu and telling the doctor to give you chemotherapy. Remember, SLPs studied for 7 years in order to diagnose speech and language disorders, google will not tell you all you need to know, how to treat the disorder, or the prognosis. SLPs are going to be able to do all of that and provide individualized treatment for your child. That being said, don’t be afraid to approach with ideas you’ve looked up and discuss why you like them with your therapist.
- We are NOT PLAYING. Yes, to the untrained eye, it make look like we are just carving a pumpkin, however we are actually working on following directions, dealing with sensory issues, using focused stimulation to elicit language from your child, using music and finger play to work on imitation, working on social skills, working on joint and sustained attention, helping the OT with her pencil grip goals, and simultaneously trying not to make sure no knife accidents occur.
Things I Wish Parents
Did
- Read. Read. Read. Read. Read. Read. Read EVERYTHING: cereal boxes, instruction manuals, picture books, chapter books, shampoo bottles, street signs, movie titles, recipes, pamphlets, text messages, newspapers, magazines, scriptures, coupons, grocery aisle signs, maps, etc. You and your children grow up in a world full of words. The more you read, the more your child realizes that words have meaning. The more words have meaning, the more they understand. Kids learn rules, social structure, vocabulary, etc. from books.
- Fun fact: the only research based method to learn new vocabulary is by reading.
- Fun fact: The difference between children of parents with high income and children of parents with low income is about 30 million words over 4 years. Reading can help bridge this vocabulary gap. (Hart, B. & Risley, T.R. “The Early Catastrophe” (2004) Education Review, 77(1), 100-118
- Did I mention reading? When reading to your child, ask questions, talk about the pictures, talk about the characters motivations and interests, talk about the character’s feelings, talk about your feelings, talk about likes and dislikes, talk about character’s choices… In short, talk about anything and everything in the book. You don’t have to do that every single time, sometimes you can just read the book—other times, make your kid work for the book.
- Talk to your child. You'll be amazed at what they understand. Don't talk at your child, talk with them. Ask them about their day, what their favorite subject is, what they think about the book you read, what their favorite color is, why do butterflies have wings, etc. I particularly enjoy asking younger children (around 4) deeper questions (why is the sky blue? Did dinosaurs have restaurants?) to watch them really think about things.
- If you're concerned about a kiddo, I wish more than anything that you would ask questions. Go get an assessment, talk to a speech therapist, talk to your pediatrician, talk to your school. Ask someone you trust and if you can't find answers keep asking. Kids can't advocate for themselves, they need a loving parent to help them.
Resources for Parents and Caregivers
For a more complete list see the "My Favorite Resources" page on this blog.
- Handy Handouts- wonderful handouts put out by SuperDuper Inc. which explain speech and language issues and concepts in parent friendly language. They also provide lots of additional resources and tools parents can use at home. www.handyhandouts.com
- American Speech Language Hearing Association- this is the national association for Speech Therapists. There are wonderful resources for both parents and therapists as well as a search to find a therapist if you need an assessment or a new therapist should you move.
·
Picture Sources
- http://amorganslp.blogspot.com/2009/05/things-to-know-about-speech-therapy.html
- http://www.hasdpa.net/Domain/86
- http://www.zazzle.com/speech+therapy+posters
- https://carmenwiki.osu.edu/display/hdfs361sp20119489/Children+Speech+Therapy+By+Brooke+Laird
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