5 Ways to Make Carryover Exercises Easier for Families

Do you ever wonder what happens after you assign practice exercises to families? Do they really get done? Did the training and modeling you showed really carry over?  Practicing carryover exercises is tough. Life gets in the way. Even if speech-language pathologists create simple and functional exercises for families’ everyday lives, finding the time to do them can be challenging for parents. This tension between the need to practice and limited time got me thinking about approaching activities for carryover from a different angle. I reviewed research on how children learn and come up with some ideas to make carryover easier: Parents are key: Kids learn more when their parents play with them and guide their interactions. Conversations are a must: Kids end up speaking more fluently and clearly when parents learn how to keep conversations going. Asking questions is critical: Kids improve their vocabulary and verbal reasoning scores when they are asked “wh” questions. Exaggerated prosodic speech works: A sing-song approach to talking while playing is dynamite for language development. The type of toy matters: Classic toys, like puzzles, blocks, dolls and meal sets improve visuospatial skills, social-emotional-bonding abilities and overall communication skills. All of the research I studied says children between the ages of birth and 3 develop better overall when they have dedicated playtime with their parents. It also showed that guided play—as opposed to joint pla...
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Press Releases - Category: Speech Therapy Authors: Tags: Speech-Language Pathology Augmentative Alternative Communication Autism Spectrum Disorder Language Disorders Speech Disorders Source Type: blogs