Therapy Programs

Speech Therapy: Home Suggestions
If your child's evaluation at Pediatric Therapy Services, Inc., indicates that he/she has a delay in speech/language development. The following are tips to assist you in providing a language rich environment in your home.

By combining skilled speech therapy with developmentally appropriate verbal interaction in your home, you are assisting your child reach his/her communicative potential.

Encourage your child to communicate at. . .

0-12 MONTHS

• Talk to your baby when you're washing, dressing, or feeding him/her
• Use your baby's name when talking to him/her
• Use simple, lively phrases
• Copy your baby's sounds and actions (sighs, facial expressions)
• Use a lot of facial expressions as you interact with your baby
• Play simple games like "peek-a-boo" and "pat-a-cake"
• Sing songs or nursery rhymes
• Show your child colorful books and talk about what you see
• Take your child with you to new places and situations

12-18 MONTHS

• Name the things your child sees and labeling his/her actions

• Repeat words over and over again (children love repetition)

• Imitate what your child says, then add a word

• Allow your child to manipulate objects as much as possible; talk about what he/she is doing, how the object looks, tastes, sounds, etc.

• Give your child time to talk with you (e.g., you say something, then pause to allow your child a chance to say or do something). Look at him/her when they're talking.
• Provide correct models for a word even if you child changes or distorts it (e.g., child says "tootie", you say "Oh, you want a cookie")
• Don't pressure your child to talk and don't have unrealistic expectations.
• Give your child a chance to talk. Don't anticipate all of his needs
• Read simple stories with your child every day; you don't have to read word for word, simply talk about and label the pictures

18-24 MONTHS

• Talk to your child simply, slowly and clearly
• Continue imitating what your child says, then adding a word (e.g., child says "juice", you might say "Juice. Want juice")
• Add to the type and variety of words you use in your speech. You can emphasize specific concepts such as 'on', 'under', 'broken', 'jumping'.
• Imitate and identify environmental sounds with your child such as a dog barking, telephone ringing, etc.
• Encourage your child to take part in singing, recalling nursery rhymes, and reading books (e.g., have child fill in the last word of familiar rhymes)
• Have the child "find" body parts on him/herself or dolls
• Ask your child many questions
• Show your child you understand what he/she says by answering, smiling, nodding
• Ask plenty of WHAT and WHERE questions (e.g., "Where is daddy?")
• Read books with your child every day.

2-3 YEARS

• Involve your child in daily routines and activities which provide opportunities for language learning (e.g., baking, gardening)
• Adding words and ideas to your child's sentences (e.g., child says "big truck", you might say "It's a big red truck")
• Emphasize concepts such as colors and opposites in your speech
• Encourage interactions with other children
• Describe things in your child's environment with detail; use adjectives
• Model the correct way of producing sentences (e.g., child says "Me hungry", you might say "I'm hungry too)
• Describe you are doing, thinking, planning
• Ask many yes/no questions (e.g., "Do you have your shoes on?")
• Ask WHERE, WHAT and WHO questions (e.g., "Who reads your books at night?")
• Read books with your child every day

3-4 YEARS

• Talk about how things are the same/different
• Help your child tell stories using books and pictures
• Let your child play with other children
• Pay attention to your child when talking
• Talk about the places you've been or will be going using words like 'yesterday', 'tomorrow', 'tonight'.
• If watching a TV program, talk about what's happening/happened. Guess what might happen next
• Practice learning identifying information such as last name, name of town you live in, street you live on, etc.
• Continue talking about colors and begin talking about shapes
• Ask WHERE, WHO, WHAT, WHEN, and WHY questions
• Read with your child every day

***Sources: www.erinoak.org/preschoolspeech

www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/speech-language/lda_milestones.html

. . .offering medically-based physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech/language therapy services in a "kid friendly" environment