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Maintaining momentum
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According to Megan Harrap, Clinical Lead – Speech Pathology at Telethon Speech & Hearing, parents can help their kids maintain their learning momentum by incorporating some of their listening and spoken language focus areas into their activities at home.
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“The best thing parents can do is to know what goals their kids have been working on during individual/group therapy and then try and incorporate those goals into everyday activities,” says Megan.
These may include:
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getting ready in the morning
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meal preparation
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shopping
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car trips
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book sharing
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imaginative play
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interactive games/puzzles
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play dates with friends
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outdoor play
Megan suggests creating an Experience Book together, as described on the Hearing First website. The Experience Book is a homemade book that you and your child put together that records their daily experiences.
According to Hearing First, the book features your child as the main character and supports them to tell you about their experiences, guide conversations, and model language appropriate to your child’s listening and spoken language (LSL) goals.
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The Christmas holidays are upon us and while it’s a wonderful time of year for families to get together, it can be worrying for parents as their kids will be away from support services, such as speech therapy, for an extended period.
With younger children:
• Begin by reminding your child about the experience you’re using for the book.
Example: Tell me about your trip to the park this morning.
• Help them to decide what pictures should be included in the book.
Example: Which was your favourite part of the park?
• Expand on their answers to help your child use phrases to describe their actions.
Example: If your child says the slide, expand on this by adding further vocabulary. For example, “Yes, you climbed up the steps to the top of the slide and then slid down really fast.”
• Open questions help to generate more spontaneous descriptions.
Example: “How did it feel to slide down the slide?”
• Write the words that your child says on each page.
• Help them to draw pictures, use stickers or find images in a magazine that you can cut out. Encourage your child to find images that match the words and help them glue or stick them to the page.
With older children:
• Encourage your child to tell you about the event.
• Then you can ask them to retell the story in chronological order. Start with the first thing that happened and talk about the beginning of the story.
• Use keywords such as where, what, who, and how to prompt your child to tell you more about the
event.
• Guide your child to draw their own images and talk about their drawings by describing the
objects and actions.
• Expand your child’s words and encourage longer, more complex sentences. Then help your
child practice by writing the sentence on the page.
• Add to the story by identifying emotions, talking about their feelings, and drawing the faces
to match the feelings.
• Ask open questions that prompt your child to think about their next experience.
Example: What should we do next time?
“Creating an experience book/journal/scrapbook is also another way to help children reflect and learn from their own personal experiences,” explains Megan. “Children learn best through ‘hands on’ experiences and creating a journal of these experiences is a great way to introduce new vocabulary, concepts and feelings/emotions. It's also a great way to introduce story telling as they can use the pictures as a prompt to retell their experiences to another adult (such as a grandparent).”
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Read more about Experience Books here.
5 fun activities to do with your kids:
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Cooking: Include your child in some simple cooking or baking. While preparing, discuss the ingredients and steps involved, focusing on vocabulary and sequential language skills.
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Nature walks: Take your child on a nature walk, being sure to discuss all the interesting things you can see, hear, smell and feel. Talk about the plants, bugs and animals that live here (or could live here), focusing on expanding your child’s vocabulary.
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Sing-a-longs: Nursery rhymes are a great way to improve language skills, so why not enjoy a sing-a-long, making sure they pronounce each word of the song.
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Scavenger Hunt: Create a bingo card with pictures or written clues about things your child can find around the house or even at the park. This activity promotes understanding, following instructions, and problem-solving.
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Arts and crafts: Engaging in art activities encourages conversation about colours, shapes, and textures. Talk about the process and ask questions to encourage verbal expression.
