My 6 Quick steps for Speech therapy at home:

My 6 quick tips on Speech Therapy, ideas to do at home:

Important Note: Before you start with my 6 quick tips speech therapy ideas to do at home –

IF YOU SUSPECT THAT YOUR CHILD HAS SPEECH DELAYS, CALL A LOCAL SPEECH PATHOLOGIST TO HAVE YOUR CHILD ASSESSED AND WORK ON A PLAN TO HELP YOUR CHILD REACH SUCCESS. You can find one through your local -GP or Child development Health nurse.

l love to share the knowledge l have gained as a parent, of a child with special needs. Speech delay was one of our many challenges to overcome. l believe as the a child's parent the best speech therapist is YOU, l am an (AHA) Allied Health Assistant - Speech Therapist, l also run essential life and social skills workshops that have had many speech delayed or children with special needs.

So l believe these activities will have great success for them.

1. Spend a min 20 minutes through out the day several times a day if you can just being in the moment and “playing“ with him or her . Use small simple words such as

“Doll Drink” or “Train Blue”.

2. Keep it simple with basic visual picture flash cards. Naming the object & have the child then repeat it. Help your child by Labelling as this has such a Massive benefit for a child with a speech delay, as l found this eliminated a lot of frustration, in our home

l found having pictures of every day items and his / her favourite toy was a great start.

3. Don't leave your TV on if you aren’t watching it.

4. l can't stress this enough but PRAISE THEIR EFFORTS! These are just some things that I practise with my speech delayed clients & that I have done with my own children.

5. Use a straw for drinking as this a great tool as is it build the oral muscles, up fro speech. (Novelty ones make it just a little bit more fun)

6. A balanced Diet, sufficient Sleep a key to helping a child with Speech delay.

A reminder always consult a Certified Speech and language therapist if you have concerns about your child's speech along with a GP or Nutritionist before changing your child's diet or substitute nutritionally supplements and always seek help. l know in our case cutting out certain foods and additives and artificial preservatives, helped my children. But again this doesn't always happen for everyone.

Evidence - based books,

"Additive Alert " - by Julie Eady, Second Edition

"Cure your Child with Food" - The hidden connection between nutrition & childhood Ailments - by Kelly Doorman, MS, LND

Note: This is a personal weblog. The opinions expressed here represent my own.