How to Support Your Child’s Speech Therapy Progress at Home 

Fifteen minutes of exercise a day could help your child tell you what they need to say! Home exercise programs (HEPs) are tailor-made for your child to improve speech and language outcomes, encourage long-term habits, and graduate from speech sooner. 

At Associates in Pediatric Therapy, we pride ourselves on being family-centered. We believe all parents are co-therapists and want to empower you and your child to carry out therapeutic skills outside of the treatment room. With daily practice, you reinforce your child’s goals in natural environments, such as at home with family members, at the park, and at the grocery store…every place can be a learning opportunity! Research shows that some children must target skills 70-100 times weekly to begin seeing progress. Parents– you can speed up progress and build that confidence by setting up time to drill speech sounds, model language in play, or practice navigating your child’s augmentative and alternative communication device (AAC).  

Not every learning environment is going to look the same. For newer skills, reducing distractions and creating routines are a must. This could be as simple as practicing in a room without a T.V. or tablet in sight, playing one-on-one with mom or dad, creating a dedicated time to practice daily, or having two to three preferred toys to practice with. For progressing skills, increase the complexity by targeting speech sounds while playing a board game…promote language acquisition in play with siblings and peers…or try encouraging social skills at the park or splash pads. The most important thing is that your child feels safe and comfortable where they are practicing.  

You may ask, “How do I create a daily practice routine?” Set clear intentions and practical durations. Five minutes of practice a day is better than none. For some, setting an alarm or timer for routine daily practice can be helpful. For others, you may find it easier to integrate your home practice into established routines such as morning or nighttime routines, bath time, car rider commutes, or meal times. It is important that you set goals that are practical for you and your family.  

Practicing should be FUNctional! Make it fun by targeting skills using motivating activities and characters. Give your kiddos some control by letting them pick a book or game. Keep the language positive – remember, this is practice. Praise them for their efforts and attempts and celebrate mastered skills! Some of my favorite specific praises are, “That was great trying!” “I like how you XX” “You made a great XX sound!” Practice with a buddy, invite friends and siblings to join in on the fun. This can help practice turn taking, model sounds in play, and encourage generalization with new conversation partners.  

HEPs are made with you and your child in mind. Follow up weekly with your therapist on things that are going well and areas of improvement.  As Mark Twain says, “Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.”  

Rachael Alter, MS, CCC-SLP