This list is not all inclusive, but your relationship with your Child's SLP, along with your child's therapy progress, will improve with the knowledge of these ten things....
10 things your Child's Speech Path wants you to know (in no particular order).
She (while I know Speech Path's can also be male, we are using the pronoun "She" for today)... She wants you to know that...
1. 50 minutes a week with her will not fix whatever is wrong with your child's speech and language. You have to help.
2. She is not a babysitter. If your child is receiving home based services. You need to be there, the entire session...if not in the room then at least in the house. Don't ask to run to the store.
3. Being habitually late (or habitually not having your child ready if it is a home based session) cheats your child. She can't extend the session just because you weren't there or weren't ready. If you are habitually late, even only 5-10 minutes, you are cheating your child HOURS of therapy time over the course of the year that one: you paid for and two: you can't get back.
4. It may look like she is playing, but it has a purpose. Everything she does has a purpose and an end goal in mind. For example, What may look like just playing bubbles to you is actually bubbles with specific cues for good lip rounding so that your child can learn to make the /w/ sound.
5. She doesn't mind a quick chat at the beginning of the session, but time spent chatting with you, is essentially time taken off your child's therapy session.
6. You need to cancel if your child is sick. If your child is sick and you dont want to cancel because you don't want your child to miss a session, think about it this way: you cancel and one child misses therapy due to illness. Don't cancel and get her sick and up to 30 children miss therapy due to an illness (hers).
7. She likes it when you communicate with her. From everything about what toys motivate your child best, to what is your expectations for the outcome of this therapy. If she is working towards functional communication but your goal is verbal communication, these are very different things. And ask questions...this shows us you are interested in your child's therapy.
8. She does alot of things, including therapy planning, prep and paperwork on her own time.
9. She got into this profession because she is a giver. Speech pathology, like nursing and teaching, is a giving profession.
10. We become attached to you too. When we see a child every week, whether it is 6 months or 6 years, we become emotionally vested in your child's progress and we take their therapy personally.
Now, your turn! As a parent, are there things you wish your therapist (PT, OT, or SLP) knew? Leave them in the comments!
Blessings,
Some times I think my SPL pushes Caia to much and she just shuts down. :( Its a home base vist and when she dose shut down I just feel like i wasted hers mine and caia time.
ReplyDeleteI love this post. I need to write one from the parent's point of view. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI wish my therapists would incorporate more technology in their routine - especially OT and Speech. The iPad is such a useful device.
I wish my PT would be more creative with the exercises making it fun and challenging at the same time.
I would like to see my OT and speech work more on feeding and oral motor exercises.
I could go on and on, but mostly I'm grateful for their love and hard work. Truly, the profession is one to be applauded and admired.
I think I have more of a question: When is the right time to call a SLP? We had our eldest tested, and he almost met the criteria to receive therapy. However, he's fine now and was just delayed with speech (as we've bene told most boys are). Now with our littlest, I'm again pondering if it's time to call (@20M still not able complete a word, like the ending sound, but tried to put two beginning word sounds together to make a sentence). After our first experience, we felt like we had wasted the SLP's time, but I also don't want to wait too long where it may affect his schooling.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, ask your SLP why she is pushing? Does she just not realize your child's limits/the point where shut down is happening or is she pushing because she feels Caia is close to a breakthrough?
ReplyDeleteFar above Rubies~~I am so happy to see you stopping by my little blog! I would love to read a post on this from the parents point of view and i would post it over here also! I also wish more therapists incorporated technology as the kids are easily engaged in those activities and if nothing else, they are great motivators for therapy! Depending what state you live in, the OT or SLP may not have authorization to work on oral motor/feeding. When i lived in FL, that is all i did and was one of my specialy areas; when i moved to CA, we weren't allowed to do it. Now in AZ, it depends on the company you work for...I love being a speech pathologist; and I'm hoping to be a blessing to those who visit here!
ReplyDeleteMInimalist Mommi; it depends. email me at homeschoolfam@gmail.com and tell me how language is and how speech is (sounds and structure) along with age and i can tell you if i think an SLP is meritted yet...
ReplyDeleteThank u for writing this. Over the last 3yrs my son has had 2 speech therapists, 1 ot and 1 pt. Would it be intrusive if I sent them an update about my son with a picture? I feel like their hard work and time teaching me has helped my guy immensely. I am a RN so I understand ending therapeutic relationships, but I also know what its like to see someone doing well after u cared for them. What's your opinion?
ReplyDeleteThanks for this post. I really was encouraged with it. I'm not a therapist, but a mom trying to do the above. LOVE our SLP that we've had for the past 4 yrs.
ReplyDelete-MaDonna
We love our SLP and it took quite a while to find the right person. My daughter is very emotional and new people are sometimes scary. What I wish all of them knew was that if you don't tell us parents why you're doing something specific we don't know. And by the end of session our kids don't have enough stamina left to let us talk. So please tell us your plans when we walk in the door.
ReplyDeletePS Thank you so much for your blog it's wonderful! And yes I realize after reading what I wrote I need to say something to our therapists :)!
I found your block through a FB friend. I love it! I have a child with special needs . I was glad to know I do and recognize all of the points mentioned in this post. Thanks for sharing it so generously. I think you may become one of my must read blogs!
ReplyDeleteKatie, I spent a bit more time searching your language blog and discovered that you also homeschool and that we have something else in common--I am an SLP as well, though I'm not sure I can say that anymore since it's been over 12 years that I practiced. Anyway--glad to follow you here as well as The French Language Cafe!
ReplyDeleteI've never worked with a speech pathologist, but my almost 13 year old son tested severe on the dyslexia spectrum. One thing that amazed me about the lady we worked with was how she sat in a room with my son for less than an hour on our first visit, and at the end she was able to give me information about him that people who have known him for years never picked up on! I loved that she really gave her self to the sessions and didn't act like it was the same old stuff, just with a different kid. Actually, come to think of it, I miss her!
ReplyDeleteKatie, that is good to know. My state does allow it, so I do hope to see more of it with my little one.
ReplyDeleteBlessings,
Jasmine
Great post!
ReplyDeleteWow, I just found your blog because you had tagged mine (itty bitty farm in the city) on FB. My daughter was diagnosed this last year with a receptive and expressive language disorder at the age of 8. We are now seeking outside services for her as the public school services are so minimal (2x 30 minutes/per week) that we are seeing little progress. We love the speech therapist, but it's just not enough. This was a great reminder to the basics of making speech therapy effective and productive. Thank you! And thank you for tagging me so that I now know about you and all the fabulous things you are doing :)
ReplyDelete