How To Carryover Fluency Techniques and Skills In the Home

Why do our clients attend therapy?

The answer is simple: to generalize the skills we provide for them in therapy. Many times, as speech therapists, we can get caught up in what happens DURING the session that we forget to plan for what happens in the other 168 hours that they spend outside of it!

Other than moving in with our clients, how can we ensure that they are carrying over the concepts we instruct them on? Utilize the resources we have: their parents and caregivers!

How can we involved parents and work towards generalizing those skills so our clients can meet our goals?

• Make sure that the student/child knows their goals and the strategies they are using to work towards that goal. This part is on us; using visuals and handouts that children can understand and implement in the therapy room before leaving it is crucial to success! The parents/caregivers should also be aware of the strategies and goals, as well as how to implement them!
• Make it easy and make it functional. Both parents and kids will be more likely to make home practice a priority when they see a tangible outcome!
• Allow time for self-reflection by advising parents to video or audio record the interactions and have the child rate their performance after.

So….how do we do that exactly?

• Keep parents informed and empower them to step into your shoes by providing lots of education and training.
• Record sessions with the student and send them home via email
• Provide handouts that detail how to use the strategies and the cueing the child responds best to!
• Allow them to use it in everyday life! Here’s where we can make it functional while being easy to implement:
• Have students practice their fluency strategies in the car by having them order in drive-thrus or restaurants for the family
• Have conversations using their strategies with parents in the car
• Lead a family discussion at the dinner table,
• Let them call family members for a chat on the phone
• Storytime: Before bed let them read the book (or just make a story up!)
• Be the therapist: have the child explain to their parents what strategies they use for fluent speech and how they use them (make them demonstrate and correct their parent’s speech!)

Keeping fluency homework functional and easy to incorporate ensures that our clients will continue making progress well beyond the therapy room and allows them to meet their goals sooner!

Want easy (and fun!) fluency homework? Check out these!

Happy speeching!