Using Materials Already in the Home: Reduce, Reuse, Replay

I pulled up to the house at 10:14 on a warm Thursday morning. While I organized my materials in my car, I saw a little face staring at me from a window. I could see the mother holding her son’s arm out to encourage him to wave. This is when I decide to leave my giant bag of therapy materials behind to bake in the afternoon sun. Although I still frequently decide to bring the big bag into sessions, I’m happy to report that I’m learning to arrive with just my clipboard. When I started working in early intervention, I wanted to make sure I kept my clients interested and engaged throughout each session. I aspired to write plans fitting with a family’s routine, but parents and caregivers often persuaded me to bring my own materials, because they said their child no longer showed interest in their own toys. How could this be? This child with a complete studio apartment full of every educational toy imaginable got bored? I thought hard about how I presented materials to clients and their families to keep them engaged without filling their apartments with more stuff. I made my best effort to leave my materials bag in the car. How would adding my pile to theirs help? As I thought about solutions, I realized many of my families acquire a lot of clutter. Parents bought their children hundreds of dollars’ worth of toys in hopes the objects themselves would foster language growth. I gave frequent—usually ignored—reminders that progress is based more on what you do with a toy...
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Press Releases - Category: Speech Therapy Authors: Tags: Speech-Language Pathology Early Intervention Language Disorders private practice Speech Disorders Source Type: blogs