Hi Everyone
I feel like it’s been a long time since we’ve had a blog, when in actual fact, its been just 2 months. It is scary how fast time is passing us by , but it also bears testament to the busy lives that we all lead.
Which leads me to the blog topic for August; how can we stimulate our child’s language and speech without it being a chore or just another to do on our ever increasing list.
As a younger therapist I would often prepare long, elaborate home exercise programmes for clients, caregivers and parents to complete. It took me a significant amount of time to prepare and, unfortunately, parents would come back with only one or two activities being completed.
Now, as a somewhat “older” and more experienced therapist, I prefer to give functional advice that automatically becomes a part of daily life.
One of my favorite language activities is done during bathtime; there is a cute cocomelon song that mimics the baby shark tune that can be sung during bathtime that helps with listening skills as well as body awareness. And it steps away from the traditional head, shoulders, knees and toes. Here’s the link: https://youtube.com/watch?v=WRVsOCh907o&feature=shared
I will not be held responsible for any earworms.
It is also good to practice following of instructions in the home. Depending on the age of your child, you can ask for more specific chores to be completed, for example “go and fetch your green socks and your brown hat from the cupboard”, for older children, “before you go and fetch your black shoes, please pass me the spoon”. The linguistic complexity of the instruction can slowly increase as your child becomes more familiar and gains confidence with more practice.
Another simple way to stimulate language is in the car; Name items that you see along the way, but don’t merely name these items, expand on them. It’s not just a tree; it’s a tall green tree, not just a car; it’s a speeding red car, not just a bird; it’s a big bird flying high in the sky.
For older children who need assistance with auditory memory skills, car rides can also be well utilized for a traditional game of “I went to the shop”. So player one begins with “I went to the shop and I bought bread”, player two continues with “I went to the shop and bought bread and milk”, player three continues with “I went to the shop and I bought bread, milk and chocolate”. The aim of the game is to remember everything that was purchased at the shops in the correct order. You can easily categorize the game further by going to the market (fruits and vegetables), to the mall (clothing items) or to the toy shop. Another fun game is the chaining game and this can be played anywhere and is great for phonological awareness skills. Player one begins with a word “Cup”, player two now needs to think of a word that begins with the last letter of that word “Pig”. No words should be repeated.
Language stimulation techniques are vast; one that I often use and advise parents to utilize is the “one up” method. When your child gives you a single word , you one up by adding just another word to this utterance, for example your cutie says “dog”, you can one up by saying “big dog”, “brown dog”, “naughty dog”.
Please avoid the word “say” when stimulating language; sounds a bit odd though right?
We don’t recommend saying this word, as often it puts our kids on the spot, sometimes they may not be able to say the word and it also discourages more spontaneous language. We may be encouraging them to wait on us as the adult to cue them to say certain words. Instead, follow their lead and simply model the word for them and pause for them to repeat, If they don’t repeat it’s fine but the pause is enough to indicate that it was their turn to speak.
Many speechies offer different types of language stimulation techniques, but our aims and objectives are always the same; spontaneous functional language. This means that the language we use can enable us to get our wants known and immediate needs met.
Have you tried of any of these techniques, has it helped you?
Please do let me know
your Super Speechie
priya