A Parents Guide to Speech Therapy during the COVID-19 Pandemic
In Washington state alone there are 1.2 million students at home and not in school. That includes all of our students who receive services such as: speech, occupational, and physical therapy, vision services, behavioral services, etc. In addition, many clinics are closed and are scrambling to look into remote services for their clients. Due to the scramble, I have included a few tips and tricks that YOU as the parent can implement at home.
AROUND THE HOUSE:
This is a version of the alphabet game where you come up with as many items/animals/etc. that begin with a chosen letter. You can play the same game with speech sounds! Go around your home and look for items that begin with the speech sound. You can even make it a game between siblings, or even better yet…a scavenger hunt! For example, if the target sound is /s/ then you might think of as many words as you can that start with the /s/ sound like “sock” “salt” and “sign”.
HIDE AND SEEK:
Hide target words around the house and have your child find them with a flashlight. This is a fun one!
GAMES, GAMES, and MORE GAMES:
Jenga:
Write your child’s target words on the side of the Jenga pieces. Each time they pull out a piece, they have to say the word with their sound. You can even challenge them by having them say the word in a sentence!
Headbanz:
This is a perfect game for language! It works on categories and synthesizing information.
20 Questions:
This is great for the older kids. I have a super old version of this game and I love to stump the middle schoolers with cards that have words like “phone book”…bwahaha. This works on categorization, memory, and sentence formulation.
BOOKS!!
Books are one of the best tools that you can use with your child. I could write a book on the many benefits and activities that can be done with one book. You can target speech sounds, language, social language, etc.!
You can ask your child questions while you read to them. For example, “What is the girl doing?” “Where are they?” “Why did the mouse want the cookie?”
You can ask your child how the characters feel during different parts of the story.
At the end of the book, your child can retell the story making sure they include a beginning, middle, and end in their narrative.
You can use the words in the book to target specific sounds.
MOVIES:
Yes, as a speech therapist I am saying you can have your child watch a movie. However, they may not like you with my idea of movie watching. This is especially a great activity for older students. Let them choose a movie, but afterwords have them write a plot summary that includes all the important details (make sure they don’t google a plot summary). If your child is working on social skills, have them identify a problem the character is facing and how they solved that problem.
I could go on and on, but this will keep you busy for a little while:)
-Dayna Sanders, MA, CCC-SLP
