Mommy Speech Tips, Part 2

And here's the eagerly anticipated (ha) follow up to my Mommy Speech Tips, Part 1.

Not a word? Make it a word.

In the early days of speech therapy with our old therapist when Camden would say something like "ba" and our SLP would say, "Yes, Camden, ball (or balloon or bottle or bath)", I would roll my eyes, knowing that Camden hadn't meant to say any of those words. My mom used to do that with him, too. Camden might say "Ma!" and if Mickey Mouse happened to be on TV, my mom would say, "See, he just said Mickey Mouse!" In both scenarios, I knew that my son's words weren't intended to represent a ball or Mickey Mouse; they were just approximations he used to label many different things, because they were easy for him to say. What I didn't know is that my mom and the old SLP had the right idea. Camden's new speech therapist uses the same technique and asked me to do the same for him at home. If he says something that resembles a word in therapy, she makes it a word. For example, Camden used to say "oh" quite often, and it didn't mean anything in particular other than he liked the way it sounded. His new therapist made it the word "go". When they played cars in therapy, she'd say, "Ready, set...Camden, say 'oh'!" And now, two weeks later, Camden uses "oh" for "go" completely appropriately. After observing how well this worked, I'm always listening out for new sounds that I can turn into words for him.

Designate a speech area.

This is still a work in progress for us, but I think it's a fantastic idea. We work on Camden's speech every day at home, and most of the time it's in the context of play that I mentioned in my last post. However, now that we're given "homework" after each speech session, I do have some speech tasks to complete with Camden that require a little more concentration. Camden's SLP suggested that I designate an area of my home for speech, so that Camden knows that when we go to that area, it's speech time. It can be as simple as sitting at the kitchen table. We have a kid-sized desk and chairs that I am considering designating our "speech area".

Use every day tasks as learning opportunities.

Almost any daily task can become a lesson in speech without your child even realizing it. For example, Camden loves to turn the light switches on and off. That was something I used to let him do silently, without giving it any thought at all. Now, when I'm holding him and he reaches to turn the light on, I ask him to tell me "on" (and any attempt or approximation is all I'm looking for). Same with turning the water on and off at bath time, or when Camden asks for bubbles to be added to his bath ("You need bubbles? Tell me how you say bubbles!"). Don't expect your child to say the word perfectly; at first, the attempt might not even resemble the word and that's okay. All you're looking for is an attempt. And if your child isn't verbal yet, ask for the sign.

Get your spouse on board.

I'm a stay-at-home mom, so of course I'm the one taking Camden to speech each week and I'm the one who's working with him at home during the day. But Matt knows exactly what's going on with Camden's speech each week. I almost always call him on the way home from a therapy session to fill him in on what's new. I also brief him on our "homework" for the week so he knows what to work on with Camden too. And, on several occasions, when Camden has learned a new word, I've called Matt at work saying, "Listen to this!" Sometimes having Daddy work on speech with him is just the novelty Camden needs to stay motivated.

Pull the vowel.

If your child is non-verbal and you don't even know where to begin to get him to attempt a word, pull the vowel out of the word and try to get him to imitate that. Vowels are often easier for kids to say than many of the consonant sounds. That's why, when we play the Mr. Potato Head game that I mentioned in my last post, "nose" is "ohh" and "ears" are "eee" in Camden's language. "Car" becomes "ah", "juice" becomes "oooo", etc. Camden didn't automatically choose these approximations for these words; they were taught to him by his SLP and me. It was rewarding for him to realize that he did know how to say many of these words (or approximate them anyway) after all.

Follow the three P's: patience, praise, and persistence.

I don't struggle with having patience with Camden-- I have an infinite amount of that most of the time. But I do struggle with learning to accept the fact that speech therapy is a relatively slow moving process. It's not like you can throw your non-verbal child in a 2 week intensive program and expect them to be talking in sentences at the end. That's not exactly the way things work in the speech therapy world. Progress is inevitable if you have the right SLP but it often comes in baby steps and you have to learn to appreciate those. After all, those baby steps eventually combine to make some big grown-up strides.

Praise your kiddo often. They're working hard, and of course they're going to get frustrated sometimes. That's why it's important to go overboard on the praise whenever they try-- regardless of if their attempt is "right" or "wrong" in your book. If you ask your child to say, "bubble", and you get a "ba"-- clap, cheer, give a big hug and let your child know just how smart they are.

And, finally, persistence. Keeping up with speech therapy at home isn't always an easy task. There are many nights when I think it sure would be more restful to just turn on an episode of Mickey Mouse for Camden instead of pushing cars around the floor while say "vrooom" repeatedly. But I always choose cars (or blocks, or whatever)-- even if just for 5 minutes. Because getting even a few minutes of speech in a day is infinitely better than not practicing at all. And if you're not seeing much progress? Keep right on playing. Your child is listening, even if he or she isn't ready to respond quite yet.