Vacations are wonderful times for the family to spend time together and bond. It can also be a time to promote carryover of learned skills. If your child is receiving speech therapy for speech sounds or language problems, here are some ways you can help them to progress even when they are on vacation:
Have your child label exciting places she is going or things she is going to do that have her target sounds. For example, if your child is working on the “R” sound and you’re going to Florida you can have her use her skills to say words like “Florida”, “Disney World”, the names of rides, names of restaurants, etc.
If you are traveling by car, you can have your child help you find the names of license plates, or stops along the way that have the target sound.
Vacation is also a great time to expand vocabulary by labeling the things you see, going to museums and learning new words, or even labeling things you find on the beach.
When vacation is almost over, help your child to come up with 2 or 3 big events from the trip that they can tell friends or family about.
When vacation is over or when you are on the way back, review any funny or interesting events that your child can tell as a story about his trip. You can demonstrate how to tell the story to others.
The above activities will help your child to consolidate the speech and language skills she has acquired which will help her use these skills in other situations. When she returns to speech therapy, she may demonstrate progression, not regression of her skills which will make both you and her speech therapist very happy!
Comments