Does your child have a speech or language delay? As a parent or caregiver, you want to do everything you can to help, both at school and at home.
Here are a few ways you can work on developing communication skills with your child.
At school
The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association suggest parents, “Make sure that the teacher knows what supports or strategies your child may need. These may include use of captioning, additional “wait time” to allow the child to process information, or rephrasing of messages if the child doesn’t seem to understand. Parents can encourage their child to speak up if they didn’t understand—and even develop a script for doing so (e.g., “I didn’t get it—say it again, please”). Children with speech and language disorders may be more easily distracted—by other children on the screen, noises or activities occurring in their own home, or the learning platform/technology itself. “
Sing Songs
Children of all ages love to sing, even if they are speaking fluently. They still benefit from expressing themselves through music. Sing songs such as “Rain, Rain Go Away” or “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and pause before finishing the song and allow them to try and sing it themselves. Celebrate any progress.
Reading with your child
Children love to explore pictures and ideas in books. Around around 18 months old, children enjoy picking out books they want to you to read. Typically, they like reading the same book over and over again. While it may seem repetitive, reinforcing the same concepts has many benefits.
Hearing new words, listening to stories and they rhythm in which they are told, has many advantages for a child.
Try to help your child participate in the story, have them point to pictures and ask questions about what is happening in the story.
If you have any concerns about your child not meeting developmental milestones, contact First Words Speech Therapy. Our certified speech-language pathologist can help with a screening or evaluation.
