Parents Make a Huge Difference!
Studies have shown that parents can be taught how to promote their child’s communication and that their children can improve as a result.
What is parent coaching? Parent coaching is when a parent guides a child to meet certain goals or milestones.
Parent coaching can make a significant impact on the speech and language development of a child. Children learn to communicate during everyday activities and conversations with the most important people in their life (HANEN, 2016). By coaching your child to communicate and by providing them with language models, you will be extending speech therapy into every part of your child’s day. Parent coaching has proven to be successful during activities such as mealtime, bath time and bedtime. These parts of your child’s day are familiar and meaningful which provide parents with an optimal opportunity to encourage language development for their little ones. Language skills development when a child is comfortable within his/her surroundings and when activities are motivating and fun for the child (HANEN, 2016).
There are a number of ways to increase your child’s language development. Please refer to the chart below (HANEN, 2016):
Suggestions of interactions include watching TV together, playing a board game, reading a book every night, identifying body parts during bath time, having the child following instructions when getting dressed or undressed e.g. take off your red shirt, put your shoes IN the closet.
If you're concerned about language issues with your child, it is recommended that you consult a speech-language pathologist. A speech-language pathologist can help you identify specific strategies to better assist both you and your child.
Therapy Materials for Parent Coaching
Utilize these strategies recommended by HANEN:
§ Say Less and Stress
§ Go Slow and Show
§ Observe, Wait & Listen
§ Repeat what you say and do
§ Offer opportunities for language
§ Cue your child to engage in speech
§ Keep it fun!
§ Include your child’s interests
§ Imitate your child
§ Interpret what your child is saying
Read!
Reading is an excellent way to practice
§Answering questions
§ Expanding vocabulary
§ Following directions
§ Maintaining joint attention
§ Storytelling
Below is a link for Children’s book to encourage Speech and Language development:
https://kidmunicate.com/100-childrens-books-for-speech-language-development/
Use items you have around the house to engage your child in play!
Bubbles
Have your child request and take turns! Practice using vocabulary words: more, up, pop, blow and open/shut.
Puzzles
Help your child learn basic vocabulary, categories and problem solving. Puzzles can also be used to practice answering a variety of questions.
Sing Songs
Look up kid’s songs on YouTube. Some classics include the Itsy-Bitsy Spider, Rain, Rain Go Away, and Patty Cake.
References
