Parents are Crucial to Supporting Language Delayed Kids!
But we’ll support you through every step!
If you are (or were) a parent of a baby/toddler, I’m sure you’re well versed in all of those developmental milestone checklists! With every pediatrician’s visit, we’re grilled about whether or not our kiddos are ‘checking off the boxes’ for each and every fine motor, gross motor, cognitive or communication milestone they ‘should’ be meeting by that age. If you’re a parent, you may also know that our kids don’t always check those boxes when they ‘should’. You also know that that can be scary and worrisome. I’m a parent so I get it!
As a speech pathologist, I focus on the area of communication and I must admit, I do use those developmental milestone checklists. Milestones exist for a reason and help all of us who work with young children to better understand when a child is on track, ahead of his/her peers or delayed. When it comes to communication, there are very clear markers we use to determine where a child falls along that range. We look for things like. . .
Gestures, pointing, vocalizing, babbling, interaction, first words, word combinations
. . . just to name a few! We also know, as speech pathologists, that there is a wide range of ‘normal’ for a child’s developing communication skills. We don’t panic when a kiddo doesn’t ‘hit the mark’ with their communication but we do dig into just ‘how delayed’ they are. And then what? My personal philosophy is never to ‘wait and see’ what will happen in 3-6 months. These early months/years are so critical for our children’s development that it’s rarely (if ever) a good idea to ‘wait’. So then what? Speech therapy? Possibly, but I think there’s a much more important and critical piece that is often overlooked. . . .PARENT INVOLVEMENT IS CRITICAL in this birth-3 age range (and beyond)!
So what does that mean? The parent is supposed to now be parent AND speech therapist?? Not exactly! But if you’ve never heard the phrase ‘Parent Implemented Intervention’, I’m going to tell you a bit about it now and explain why this approach is SO IMPORTANT to your child’s developing communication skills!
Here are the facts. . . when your child sees a speech therapist (either in clinic or in your home), that usually occurs 1-2x/week at 45min-1 hour. Over the course of a month, that translates to 8 hours of direct therapy (at most). Now let’s break down the time a parent spends with their child. If they are working parents, you may get 1 hour in the morning and 3-4 hours in the afternoon/evening with your child, plus a 12 hour day on Saturdays and Sundays. Over the course of a month, that translates to 176 waking hours that a parent spends with their child. That more than doubles if you’re a stay-at-home parent! 8 hours vs. 176 hours. . . I ask you, who can make the biggest impact??
What I learned very early on in my work is that when you empower PARENTS to lead and support their child’s language development, children will flourish and soar. The biggest leader in our field, when it comes to supporting parents/caregivers of language delayed children (in my opinion!), is the Hanen organization (hanen.org). Disclaimer here, I am a Hanen certified speech pathologist because I believe in the enormous benefit of empowering parents! Hanen has all of the research to support what they do but I have my own clinical experience to tell you that these strategies work. The best part? They really ARE parent-friendly to implement in your day to day activities and routines.
So what does this type of ‘therapy’ look like, you might ask? Well, for me in my practice, it varies. When I work one-on-one with families and their children (providing direct therapy with child), I ALWAYS require the parent is right there with me. I help parents understand what stage of communication/development their child is currently at and what communication goals are ‘realistic’ as next steps. I then model (through child-centered play, daily routines, etc.) various strategies to increase interactions and turn taking, in whatever communication form is appropriate for that child. For one child that might be establishing joint attention/eye gaze while taking turns with a toy and doing that as many times as possible to increase their interaction and engagement! For another child that might be using a sign or 1 word to request ‘more’ of something or to tell me what to do in a game of chase (ready, set . . . ‘GO’). I’m teaching/educating parents through every step of what I’m doing. I’m asking parents to jump into the activity themselves and to practice the strategies they’ve seen. I’m helping to make a plan with parents for the week by brainstorming activities and strategies to target so that we can regroup in our next session and discuss what worked/what didn’t and why. And ultimately, I’m helping parents tailor these strategies around their child’s interests because THAT is when you get your child ‘hooked’. That is when the interaction and communication really thrive and where growth happens. That is also what parent implemented intervention looks like. I educate and support. Parents take the ball and run with it!
In addition to direct therapy with the child, I also work directly (and only) with parents to train THEM on these strategies. As a Hanen certified SLP, I now offer parent education programs to small groups of families to teach and support families on this journey. Again, if you refer to my above calculations of time spent with child, we know that the quicker PARENTS learn these strategies and feel empowered to implement them in their daily routine, the faster kids progress. These programs not only offer support from me but also the support and camaraderie of other parents who are going through similar challenges and experiences as you. Click here to find out more about my online It Takes Two to Talk programming for parents of children with language delays.
So parents, when I say that YOU are the linchpin in this early intervention strategy, don’t freak out! Learning effective interaction and communication strategies isn’t rocket science and you don’t have to have your master’s in speech pathology! What is helpful, however, is to find an SLP who is knowledgeable and on board with supporting YOU on this path of learning and discovery. You’ll be amazed at what big changes you can see in your child from the relatively basic but EFFECTIVE changes that YOU make in YOUR interaction style. Parents, you are your child’s first and most important teacher. When you have the confidence to support their communication development yourselves, everyone wins and your connection with your child grows in amazing ways.
To learn more about my online parent program, It Takes Two to Talk (a Hanen program). Also under the 'Services’ section of my website
To learn about research on parent involvement in early intervention, click HERE