Help Your Child Over the Summer
If you think back to learning important skills in childhood, such as tying your shoes or riding a bicycle, what did your parents always tell you? Perhaps, “practice makes perfect,” or “you won’t succeed unless you try!” The same principles hold true for becoming an effective communicator. Summer speech therapy can be an important part of your child’s success.
Communication is a critical component of daily life, as well as one of the most important skills your child will develop. If your child experiences delays in communication, working with a pediatric speech-language pathologist at an early age can help to address speech and language concerns and prevent further developmental delays. Children who receive speech therapy services during the school year receive consistent (if not daily) support, which results in great gains. As parents, it is incredibly exciting to see a child build positive skills throughout the school year. This progress should not stop when summer approaches.
Especially during early childhood, children’s brains are continually developing and processing new skills. By continuing speech therapy in a summer program, children can maximize their potential to retain skills they learned throughout the school year and build new skills. Speech-language pathologists recognize that consistency is key when building new skills in early childhood development, and they often find that children benefit from year-round therapy. Some summer programs are structured as group therapy, while other programs offer one-on-one sessions with the speech
therapist.
Some of the speech and language concerns that a summer speech therapy program may address:
• Apraxia (an oral-motor speech disorder)
• Articulation
• Expressive language
• Fluency
• Language processing
• Lengthening sentences
• Oral-motor skills
• Vocabulary development
• Dysphagia (feeding and swallowing disorder)
Throughout the course of a summer speech therapy program, children will become more effective communicators, allowing them to be understood and understand others. As a parent, it is an invaluable gift to help your child find and use their voice.
Even if a child is not enrolled in summer speech therapy, parents can still practice with their children at home. One important aspect of pediatric speech therapy is family involvement, so speech therapists can coach parents on helpful strategies. For instance, parents may spend time with their child practicing core vocabulary words or reading aloud together.
If you have questions about whether a summer program is right for your child, your child’s speech therapist can help you to determine the most beneficial plan of action for your child.
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I like how you pointed out that communication is one of the most important skills since it is so critical to functioning in everyday life. My 5-year-old still struggles to pronounce many words and speaks with a lisp. I think I will have him attend speech therapy over the summer to strengthen his language skills.
Hi Lyla! Yes, communication is so vital to functioning in everyday life… something many of us often take for granted. Getting a speech evaluation completed for your child sounds like a great first step to see if speech therapy could be beneficial for his articulation skills.
It’s good to know that children with speech and language concerns would benefit from summer speech therapy, which would make them more effective communicators. My son has a problem with his articulation with the letter “r” and “l.” I’ll talk to my husband about this later so we can start looking for a reputable speech therapist in the city. Thanks!
So glad this was helpful! R and L tend to be pesky sounds that we often have to work on with kids here in the clinic. Hope you find a speech therapist in your area that’s a good fit!
Thank you for elaborating on how speech therapy can improve a child’s communication skills. My son has a hard time expressing himself, so I’m considering taking him to a pediatric speech therapist this month. I’m going to look for a good pediatric speech therapist in the area to use.
So glad you found the information helpful! Not sure where you are located, but you can check out https://www.asha.org/profind/ to find an SLP in your local area.
I’m interesting in speech therapy for my daughter Reyna is Austim what kind of insurance that y’all Thank y’all
Hi Victoria,
If you’re in the Tacoma, Washington area we would love to see if we’d be a good fit for what you’re looking for in terms of services for your daughter. We are contracted with most commercial insurance companies, Tricare, and most Medicaid plans. Feel free to call us at 253-212-3502 to get more information about next steps in the process!