We need your help. As much as we want to say that how well your child does in speech therapy depends solely on our efforts, it is very much the other way.

Speech therapy is a joint-effort between parents and speech therapists. We try to coach you on the methods and strategies, but we rely on your help to carry them out at home. Since therapy time is short, we want you to get the most out of your session time by being well prepared.

So what are some things that you, as a parent, can do to maximise the benefits your child will get from speech therapy?

Get Your Child Excited for Speech Therapy

As speech therapists, it breaks our heart when children are not happy to see us. That is why at Speech & Talk, we always aim to make sessions fun for our little friends.

We employ the best play-based techniques, and try to infuse play into therapy so that our little clients are building speech and language skills without feeling like its work. To be honest, we want our clients to see speech therapy as their favourite part of their week.

However, a big part of how a child view sessions also depends on the expectation that their parents have set for them. If for example, you were to say “Oh, I know it is so hard. Mummy will buy you an ice cream after you go for therapy ok?”, it creates in your child’s mind that “speech therapy = hard work”.

But on the other hand, you can also do the opposite by making therapy sound really fun. Use your tone and facial expression to convey your excitement. Tell your child “We are going to go and play with that nice lady tomorrow!” or “Hmm..I wonder what toys we will get to play with tomorrow?”

When you build up the anticipation, children are more likely to look forward to their session rather than dread it as work.

Arrive Early for Speech Therapy

Murphy’s law dictates that “what can go wrong will go wrong”. Alas, life is not always smooth sailing so always plan for the worse and hope for the best.

In this spirit, always aim to arrive at your speech therapy session 10-15 minutes early so that you give yourself some buffer. In addition, arriving early also gives you and your child a breather and allow you to prep yourselves (see next point), so that you can start the session in a calm mode.

Prep Your Child Before his Speech Therapy

The average toilet break takes between 5-10minutes which translates to 10-20 percent of a 45 minute session. Furthermore, children sometimes need extra time to re-engage after they return from their toilet break, which takes away even more time from therapy.

Therefore, it makes sense to get your child’s toilet needs attended to before the session to minimise any such disruptions.

In addition, children sometimes get fussy when they are hungry. Actually not just children, I know I do too! So if your session is close to meal times, make sure that your child has something to eat beforehand so he doesn’t get hungry midway.

Finally, if your child craves lots of movement, help him to get some jumping on the trampoline or do some gross-motor activities like walking up the stairs. This helps to expend some of his energy, so that he can engage in calmer activities. Actually this works too for children who have low energy levels as it wakes their system up so that they can feel more alert and attentive.

Prepare Your Questions

We always see questions as a good thing since it means that parents are involved and want to do more for their children. So if any questions pop up during the course of the week, do write them down so that we can help you during the session.

Ask Questions

We believe strongly in parent coaching and whenever possible, will try to explain and provide demonstration during the speech therapy session. However, as much as we would like to make our words easy to comprehend, there may still be instances where you may feel unsure about how and why certain techniques are done.

If you find yourself in such a situation, please do not feel shy about asking them. We always welcome questions because we want to help you understand how and why a certain activity will help your child. As we always say, “A parent who is onboard is a parent who can best help their child”.

Do Your Speech Therapy Homework

But of all the advice I can give you, this one is the most important. Speech therapy is like learning the piano. If a child only practices his piano once a week during the 1-hour session with his piano teacher, his skills is unlikely to improve much, if at all. Like learning the piano, speech therapy is all about the practice that follows the session.

Another way you can look at it is how people in physiotherapy have to exercise their body muscles, working on the walking bars day after day. Similarly, speech therapy is working their speech and language muscles. So your child too, will need daily practice to improve.

Therefore, make sure you take time off every day to do your homework. Children, whose parents are the most involved, are usually the ones who make the most progress. Your dedication makes all the difference.