Have you ever heard the joke about having your second, (or third, fourth, fifth) additional child by Jim Gaffigan? “Imagine you‘re drowning. And someone hands you a baby.”
Here at Rehab Specialists of Idaho, we’re parents too! We understand you don’t have hours of free time to sit down and practice additional skills with your children each day. That’s why it’s a relief to us, and to the parents that we educate, that when working on speech therapy skills with children at home, 5-minute sessions have been proven to be just as effective as longer-drawn out study times.
*Research shows shorter, more frequent session are more impactful for learning and retention.*
One of RSI’s very own beloved speech-language pathologists Cara Butler (Rexburg & Rigby Pediatric Clinics) explains it this way. “Developing many speech skills can be done during normal everyday activities with your children. Young children often need help getting dressed, bathing, and eating. Take advantage of these circumstances! As parents/caregivers, we have a captive audience! Driving in the car to the school or store provides a great opportunity to practice and reinforce speech and language development.”
Here are some great 5 minute speech activities that you can seamlessly incorporate into your child’s regular day from yourtherapysource.com. Shoot for two 5-minute sessions per day to target your child’s speech and language skills.
- Stoplight Speech While you’re sitting at a red stoplight, see how many times your child can do the skill correctly before the light turns green.
- Playing Cards Get a playing card for every repetition. When your child has all of the playing cards, you can play the game with him.
- Blowing Bubbles Blow bubbles for every 10 repetitions that your child does.
- Blocks on a Tower Each time your child practices the skill, give them a block to build the tower. When the tower falls , take the blocks back and start over.
- Hopscotch Draw a hopscotch track on the ground and practice your speech skills once before each jump or move on the track.
Ask your speech-language pathologist for targeted skills on which to work and focus on repetition in skills practice. If you’re unsure where to start, give us a call and let us get you connected with one of our incredible professionals.