What is the difference between an IFSP and an IEP?

IFSP stands for Individualized Family Service Plan. An IFSP is created for children (birth to 3 years old) who qualify for an Early Intervention program.

IEP stands for Individualized Education Plan. An IEP is created for children (3-21 years) who qualify for special education services through their school system.

The main difference between an IFSP and an IEP is that an IFSP focuses on the services that the child and family need to help improve their child’s development. An IEP concentrates on the child’s educational needs. Both documents are created to ultimately to set in place individualized goals, objectives, and various services to support the child’s current needs.

You don’t need Halloween to do the Monster Mash! Try creating your own mystery monster with items you have at home. This activity requires 3 people, 1 piece of blank paper, and crayons/markers/colored pencils.

How do I implement therapy techniques during daily routines at home? It is hard to find time for one-on-one work, and there are so many suggestions. Where do I start?

It is definitely hard to find time to sit down one-on-one with your little one, especially with siblings and the various activities that fill their busy schedules. It is important to know that even if you are not spending as much one-on-one time with your kiddos as you’d like, that they are still gaining valuable input from each and every conversation you have with them! Implementing therapy techniques does not need to be limited to individual practice; while one-on-one time is beneficial, it is also important for your child to learn how to use language in everyday routines and when interacting with family and friends. You can easily implement techniques that support language development into tasks you already do every day:

Use self-talk to describe what you are doing while preparing snacks/lunch – “Cut apple, eat banana, drink milk.” Label items while on walks or in the grocery store to target vocabulary. Give your child options to encourage independent language use – “Do you want your boots or your shoes?” “Would you like water or milk?”

If you find yourself overwhelmed with the number of suggestions or goals established with your therapist, try to choose one or two to work on each day. Reserve one reoccurring routine for the morning or afternoon as your language practice time – that way you can be consistent with their practice without feeling like you need to constantly be in “therapist mode.”

Playing With Just Your Imagination

There are many ways to incorporate therapy activities into everyday life; even with little or no supplies! There are a many benefits to embedding developmental strategies into your family’s daily routine. They include:

Melissa & Doug Deluxe Alphabet Nesting and Stacking Blocks

These nesting blocks help young children work on early problem solving skills. They also grow with kids and provide countless opportunities for language development. You can take turns stacking them up to practice social skills, work on imitating early play sounds using the animals pictured on the sides, or use the largest cubes to sort like objects (all cars in one, all trains in another). You can even turn the boxes on their sides to create “garages” for a child’s transportation vehicles to build pretend play skills!

How can we motivate our child to speak? He doesn’t seem to have any interest in imitating our words.

One way to increase motivation is to use toys and activities that your child is interested in, such as cars, trains, dolls or animals. Withholding and requesting high interest toys is a great way to encourage your child to use their words to get what he/she wants. To do this, withhold the desired item until your child attempts to vocalize the request for the activity or object!

Another tactic is playing with a toy that has lots of accessories or pieces. Then have your child verbally ask for each item they need to play with. If your child isn’t responding, model the correct word until your child understands that they are expected to imitate in order to receive the item you are withholding.

Farm and Animals

This toy is great for eliciting imitation and spontaneous production of animal noises and other simple sounds, such as “mmm,” or other eating/drinking noises.  It is an excellent activity for facilitating pretend play, such as feeding the animals or having them run, jump, etc. It is also great for learning new simple vocabulary by labeling objects and animal body parts. This versatile toy is perfect for children ages 1-3, as you can appropriately adjust expectations for your child’s responses.

I thought once he started speech therapy his language would explode immediately. Now my child is just acting more frustrated with his language skills.

Practice, practice, practice! Now that your child is being asked to use their language more often, they are more likely to get frustrated since you are making them work harder to get what they want. Now, instead of pointing and using gestures, your child is being required to vocalize and use more words. Continuing to model language for your child, providing choices in which he/she is required to use language, and encouraging your child to use their words to request items will all help promote continued language use. Repetition is key, and remember, building language skills takes time and practice!

Imaginative play is crucial for both cognitive and language development, and the good news is that you can engage in pretend play with your child almost anywhere with little to no supplies! One activity that kids love is to play “grocery store” with food already in your home. Set up food around the room and give your child a bag, box, or bowl (anything you have handy!) for them to carry food in. You can work on vocabulary, action words, requesting, and turn taking, so it is a great way to encourage language development.