Tips for Parents

Tips for helping your child improve their speech and language skills

 

1.  Keep talking fun.

2.  Reward and praise your child's communication attempts.  It's not necessary to repeatedly correct your child's grammar or pronunciation.

3.  Use facial expressions and gestures to help your child understand.

4.  Keep your sentences short and simple.

5.  Speak slowly and clearly.  Repeat for your child if necessary.

6.  Emphasize key sounds or words you want your child to learn.

7.  Repeat main ideas frequently, in as many ways as possible.

8.  Set a good example for your child.  Model correct speech.  It's not necessary to ask your child to repeat exactly what you say.

9.  Give your child enough time to respond.  Your child may take a long time to organize thoughts and feelings and put them into words.  Avoid the tendency to interrupt your child.

10.  Discuss your child's speech and  language abilities with your Speech and Language Pathologist.  Try not to expect too much or too little of your child.

11.  Avoid placing too much pressure on your child to talk.  Your child may not want to "perform" verbally in front of others.

12.  Asking your child to repeat a word because they have not produced the sound correctly may not work.  This may only end up causing the child to become frustrated, if they are not cable of producing the sound correctly at that time.