What is your role as a parent in your child’s therapy sessions?
As a parent of a child who is receiving Early Intervention services, you may wonder what your role is during your child’s therapy sessions. Will the therapist be working one-on-one with your child? Will you be observing the session? Or will you be actively participating?
Parents are key to the success of therapy, no matter the goals being targeted. As a parent your involvement and insight are essential for your child to make progress towards their developmental goals. For this reason, it is recommended that parents take an active role in therapy sessions. Your child’s therapist will model and teach you strategies and techniques for achieving your child’s specific goals. These strategies can then be carried over into your child’s daily routines and activities. You will see the best outcomes when the strategies provided during therapy sessions are embedded into your child’s everyday routines, as this will provide your child with frequent and natural learning opportunities to practice the skills introduced.
Benefits of parent involvement:
- Parents are a child’s first teacher and children will learn the most from the people who know them best!
- Parents interact with their children everyday and offer frequent learning opportunities for their children.
- Children generalize learned skills when they are embedded into every day routines, such as mealtime, bath time, bedtime, and play
The impact of ongoing parent involvement
As a parent you will be able to provide your child’s therapist with important information that will help with setting specific goals for therapy and how best to implement strategies for reaching those goals based on your family’s daily routines and activities. You will take an active role throughout the therapy process by reporting changes that you see in your child and subsequently working with your child’s therapist to determine what the next steps will be. As a parent you will be able to take the strategies provided during therapy sessions and incorporate them into your child’s every day activities, which will allow frequent learning opportunities for your child. You are your child’s first and best teacher and your involvement makes all the difference!
If you have any questions or concerns about joining your child’s therapy sessions, talk with your ongoing therapist to discuss a plan for getting involved. For further information on parent involvement, please contact us at info@playworkschicago.comor 773-332-9439.
Claire Kakenmaster, MS, CCC-SLP
Speech Language Pathologist