Tips to Target Therapy Goals in Your Daily Routine

Therapy is often compared to going to the trainer: if you go to the trainer once a week but don’t continue the exercises or healthy eating, the training session isn’t going to do much for you! It is so important to carry over activities from therapy to ensure your child makes progress and meets their goals. Everyone is so busy these days and adding additional learning opportunities to your child’s life shouldn’t be daunting. Here are a few ideas of how you can address common play therapy goals into your daily routine!

Laundry

  • Matching/Sorting Concepts
    • Have your child to match socks
    • Have your child sort clothing into different piles by color or by item
  • Size Concepts
    • Have your child compare his small t-shirt to a family member’s larget-shirt
  • Association Concepts
    • Ask your child which body parts different clothing items are put on
    • Discuss the occasion or weather you would wear certain clothing items

Meal Prep

  • Symbolic Play
    • Provide your child with (safe) kitchen utensils for them to also “make dinner”
  • Size Concepts
    • Encourage your child to explore size concepts with different sized Tupperware
  • Identifying Colors
    • Discuss the colors of the food you are preparing
  • Following Directions
    • Show your child how you follow directions when following a recipe
    • Give your child simple directions to follow during meal prep
  • Association Concepts
    • Describe the functions of the different kitchen gadgets while using them

In the Car

  • Color Identification
    • Use colors to describe what you see:
      • “That construction cone is orange”
      • “The blue truck is next to us”
    • For older children, you can play games like “I Spy”. Take turns choosing a color and encourage your child to label everything they see of that color. This not only works on color identification but also vocabulary!
  • Size Concepts
    • Use size words to describe what you see:
      • “Look at the little dog on the sidewalk”
      • “That is a big dump truck”
  • Social-Emotional Development
    • Discuss:
      • Plans for the day (where you’ll go, who you’ll see)
      • What your child did at school/daycare that day
      • Encourage your child to ask you questions

And most importantly – have fun together; make it silly and stress-free! You are your child’s first teacher and can help frame their perspective on learning! Please feel free to discuss specific ideas with your child’s therapist to ensure he or she is getting the most out of their therapy.

Kimberly Shlaes, MAT, DT
Director of Developmental Therapy Services

Image credit: https://netmums.cdn.prismic.io

Should I be working on pre-academic skills with my child?

 

Although pre-academic skills such as letters, numbers, shapes and colors are important to learn, these skills should not be targeted until a child is able to functionally use language.  Can your child ask you for “more” of a preferred item? Can your child tell you what toy they would like to play with or what food they would like to eat? Can your child ask you for “help?” If the answer to these questions is no, then save working on pre-academic skills until your child has a stronger grasp on using language functionally.

What is functional language?

Functional language can be thought of as your child’s ability to make their wants and needs known. This includes core vocabulary words that are relevant in everyday life, such as names of important food items, toys, people, etc. It also includes words such as “more,” “help,” “all done,” and other requests that allow your child to communicate what they want or need. Working on these core vocabulary words is key in teaching your child to communicate with you. For language to be considered “functional,” it should be used for a communicative purpose such as requesting, commenting, or interacting with you rather than just labeling words.

Why is it important to have functional language before teaching pre-academic skills?

We want children to be able to say words that are important for everyday situations before they can say their colors, numbers, shapes, and letters. We want children to be able to converse with you meaningfully and ask you to have their needs met before they learn pre-academic skills. Of course it is great if a child can say “green,” “two,” or “circle,” but if they are not able to ask you for “more milk” it is time to take a step back from learning pre-academic vocabulary and focus on increasing your child’s ability to use language functionally.

When is it appropriate to work on pre-academic skills?

Pre-academic skills are concepts that are typically learned in the pre-school setting. If your child is using language to functionally communicate with you, it would be appropriate to learn pre-academic skills together if this is an important topic for you and your family.

Katie Dabkowski, MS, CCC-SLP
Speech-Language Pathologist

Skill Building and Repetition

“It feels like we’re doing the same things over and over, why hasn’t my child learned this by now?”
“We’ve tried that and it didn’t work.”
“My child said that once, but hasn’t said it again since.”

CareyHope/Getty Images

Toddlers with language delays often learn along the same developmental path as “typically” developing children, they may just require more time to learn skills, more repetition of models, more cueing or help, more practice with each new concept, word, or skill, etc. Often times, children with language delays don’t just pick up words overheard in adult conversation and they don’t repeat things they have heard within full sentences. They require more direct teaching of each word or concept, which often includes a lot of exposure to each target, keeping things simple and concise, and a lot of repetition and practice before it truly becomes part of their repertoire. Some children may process a new word after five repetitions, some may require 20, some may require 50 or more, it all depends on the complexity of the concept or word, their interest level in said concept or word, what cues or aids they have when being exposed to this concept or word (e.g. pictures, physical objects, models of actions, etc.) and a variety of other factors. Just as we as adults often need practice or multiple exposures to be good at something new, children’s brains, oral motor mechanisms, and bodies need a lot of repetitions to efficiently learn and use new skills.

At times it may feel like our toddlers are not listening or intentionally refusing to do or say something we’ve seen or heard in the past, but it’s important to be aware that just because we’ve heard something or seen it done once, twice, or even a handful of times, does not necessarily mean it’s been mastered; therefore, we cannot necessarily always expect it done. Until each new skill is used consistently, children need continued repetition and practice. Oftentimes, we will hear some children in the initial phases of learning to talk repeating words to themselves for seemingly no apparent reason, but they are practicing when there is no pressure to perform!

Once we’ve seen a new skill or heard a new word, resist the urge to move on to the next new thing. Elicit this over and over to help your toddler practice! Make it a game to perform the action or repeat the word again and again. Make it functional so the child has more motivation to keep trying or participating. For example, saying “Say ___. Say it again. ____. Say ___,” is not a functional use of this new word. While it seems to be the quickest, easiest way to get high repetitions of the word in a short period of time, they will quickly lose interest, in addition to not necessarily equating this new word with it’s true meaning. Instead, with each target word, give a little at a time so the child is motivated to use to the word again in order to receive the desired output. For example, give one piece of the snack until your child uses the word again to request more of it, give one piece of a desired toy until they use the word again to get another one, or perform one silly action and pause until they use the word to request another performance. It may feel redundant, but modeling or eliciting a new concept, skill, or word with high repetition is key to your toddler’s acquisition of it. Once children find something they like, they will attempt to get it over and over again anyways, so you might as well use it as an opportunity for repetitive exposure and practice!

Therese Schmidt, MS, CCC-SLP
Speech-Language Pathologist