What is the Goal of Parent Coaching in Speech Therapy?
What is covered in this article:
Importance of Parent Coaching: Parent coaching in speech therapy is crucial because parents and caregivers spend significantly more time with the child than the speech therapist, allowing for continuous learning and reinforcement of communication skills at home.
Impact of Parent Involvement: Studies show that children whose parents actively engage in speech therapy techniques at home make more significant progress than those who do not, highlighting the effectiveness of parent coaching.
Role of Parents in Speech Development: Parents are the child's first teachers and play a vital role in speech development by using everyday interactions to practice and reinforce communication skills, complementing the work done in therapy sessions.
Practical Strategies for Parents: We outline specific ways parents can support their child’s speech development, such as sharing relevant information with the therapist, setting goals, modeling consistency, narrating daily activities, and maintaining open communication with the speech therapist.
Collaboration with Therapists: The success of speech therapy is improved when parents and speech therapists collaborate closely, turning routine activities into learning opportunities and achieving goals more efficiently, potentially reducing the need for long-term therapy.
What is the Goal of Parent Coaching in Speech Therapy?
In the world of speech therapy, the role of early intervention and parent coaching is highly important when supporting the development of communication skills in children. While working with a speech and language pathologist provides specialized intervention and professional support to children, parents, family members, and caregivers also play a critical role in the early development of speech and language skills.
Parent coaching in speech therapy is essential to the success of the child, as parents and other family members spend much more time communicating together than is possible with their speech therapist. While the child may see their therapist once or twice a week for 30 minutes at a time, this is a very small window of time relative to how much time is spent at home with caregivers and family members.
This is where parent coaching and integrating education and information for parents into a speech therapy treatment plan is the best way to ensure steady progress and optimal support for the child and their development. Parents have time each day to communicate with their children, provide learning opportunities, and observe where the specific strengths and challenges lie. This type of engagement and connection cannot be replicated in speech therapy, so by providing effective strategies and activities that can be conducted at home by parents and other caregivers; the child is able to continue to learn and grow each day.
If you think your child might benefit from working with a speech and language pathologist, or you as a parent could use some more support, don’t wait to reach out. Connect with us and get the support you and your child need by scheduling your free introductory call today!
Is There a Significant Impact From Parent Coaching?
Studies that have been conducted in the speech therapy field have shown that parent coaching and the use of strategies and skills at home are highly beneficial to the overall success of speech therapy for children. Recent research showed that speech therapy sessions that are specifically dedicated to parent coaching and providing instruction and education on specific techniques are much more effective than a brief overview provided at the end of each session.
Results from many recent studies showed that children of caregivers and parents who were specifically coached to employ speech and language facilitation techniques at home made significantly more progress than those who weren’t. This evidence points to the importance of parent coaching for optimizing the results and progress achieved from speech therapy.
The first step to start your child on their speech therapy journey is to schedule your free introductory call today!
How Can Parents Help with Speech Development?
While speech therapy has existed in some form since the 18th century, it has changed and evolved significantly, especially over the past five to ten years. Parents used to observe speech therapy sessions or simply drop off and pick up their child at the end of the appointment. These days, it is more common to have parents and other caregivers actively participate in speech therapy approaches and participate in sessions that are specifically designed to provide them with helpful tools and strategies to support their child’s learning at home.
Parents don't need to be experts at speech therapy to help their children, as their assigned speech and language pathologists can provide all the information they need to facilitate the development of communication skills at home. Parents are most qualified to help their child because they are the child’s first teacher, have the opportunity to engage with the child every day, and generally spend more time engaging with and talking to their child than anyone else. In addition, parents know their children better than any other adult and understand their specific learning styles, likes and dislikes, and how to encourage participation during speech therapy activities.
Any routine activity can provide an opportunity to develop and strengthen speech and language skills, and for many children, weekly speech therapy appointments aren’t sufficient to achieve significant progress. Developing any new skill is difficult when only practiced once per week, and the same is true for communication.
When parents work collaboratively with their child’s speech and language pathologist, the child is in the best possible position to reach their goals and master specific skills. Small moments such as meal time, taking a bath, going to the grocery store, or reading a book together offer valuable opportunities to practice and reinforce communication and literacy skills, which in turn will help them achieve social and academic success.
What is Speech Therapy Coaching for Parents?
While speech therapy sessions dedicated to parent coaching are recommended for most parents of young children undergoing speech therapy, there are specific ways that parents can be involved in the process and support their child on their journey. At Great Speech, our team of SLPs encourages all parents to:
Share Information: Sharing relevant information with your child’s therapist, specifically in regard to their personality, preferences, and learning style, can be helpful for motivation and encouraging participation both during sessions and at home.
Set Goals: While your child’s speech therapist will help them set specific goals for their sessions, it is also recommended to set goals with your child at home to encourage daily practice and promote progress between appointments.
Model Consistency: Parents can help their child develop communication skills and get the most out of speech therapy by modeling consistency and encouraging daily practice at home. This may include creating a daily routine or schedule for speech therapy practice.
Narrate Your Day: By describing routine activities and daily tasks as you do them, your child is exposed to speech and language, facilitating the expansion of their vocabulary, enhancing comprehension skills, and encouraging their own speech.
Communicate with Your Child’s Therapist: Open and ongoing communication between parents and SLPs is paramount to the success of speech therapy. Parents should monitor progress closely and report any changes or developments that occur between sessions. The more information your child’s SLP has, the better they are equipped to support your child.
By working closely with your child’s speech therapist and engaging in parent coaching between sessions, you can be at peace knowing you are doing everything you can to support and encourage your child. When speech therapists and parents collaborate, everyday interactions become important learning opportunities, and goals are reached sooner, reducing the need for long-term speech therapy.
Get your child started on the path to improved communication skills by scheduling your free introductory call today!