It's important to provide your child with support and encouragement and consistently practicing speech therapy skills with them at home. Your child will need space to be frustrated, make mistakes, and deal with setbacks without the threat of consequences or criticism at home. It’s imperative to your child’s progression that you’re engaging with your child and providing them with a safe space. Here are a few tips for supporting your child:
Reinforce new words in daily routines. Once a word is learned in therapy, help your child use it throughout the day. Your therapist should provide specific words or phrases to work on.
Make practice fun. Turn speech practice into games, such as prompting them to use new words in different places or with different people to help them generalize skills.
Use meaningful words often. Encourage your child to use words they’ve practiced by weaving them into normal conversations, such as calling for the family pet or responding to questions.
Learn with them. Make an effort to learn alternative means of communication, like sign language or AAC, with your child.
Validate their feelings. If your child feels frustrated, let them know it’s okay. Help them recognize their strengths and remind them that working hard in therapy is helping them improve. Offer extra encouragement when milestones are reached.
Track your child’s progress through frequent follow-ups with their SLP, teachers, and IEP team.
Find more information in our full article Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) 101.
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