Now that you understand why home practice is important for children who stutter, let’s chat about the FUN part. How can you make stuttering therapy engaging at home?
Your goal: To make stuttering home practice one of the most exciting and enjoyable parent/caregiver bonding experiences of their day! However, what this looks like, will depend on how old your child is, WHAT treatment approach is being implemented, and what stage of the program your child is in. Therefore, the aim of our blog is to give you some general ideas and inspiration for home activities for preschool children and school-aged children. We strongly encourage to you chat with your therapist about these if you want to learn more, and to help you further tailor these ideas based on your child’s individual needs and interests.
PRESCHOOL CHILDREN
Pretend play (e.g., shops, dolls house, playing doctors & nurses etc.)
Engage in arts & crafts activities (Tip: Ask your child to give you instructions, or ask them to respond to you)
Look at fun picture scenes or through their favourite (busy) picture books (e.g. Where’s Wally)
Engage in building/construction-based activities (e.g. blocks).
Create a story using felt books or felt scene boards (e.g. farm animal set)
SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN
Read books & magazines with your child
Play memory and matching games (e.g., Go-Fish, Snap)
Play guessing games (e.g. What am I? Guess Who?)
Play observation games (e.g., I spy – this is a great one to play while travelling to and from school!)
Play trivia games (e.g. Disney trivia)
Play board games (e.g. Snakes and Ladders)
Engage in arts & crafts activities (Tip: Ask your child to give you instructions, or ask them to respond to you)
Narrate what you are doing or watch YouTube videos (We love Simon’s Cat here at Bambini Health!)
Further Tips for Implementing Stuttering Home Practice Activities
1. Try to implement home practice activities at the same time each day - preferably when your child is more likely to appear calm, attentive, and self-regulated with you guiding them. Why?
a) Routines are KEY to homework success! If play or homework tasks are difficult to initially implement, we encourage you to KEEP TRYING and modelling the use of these consistently, every day. If home practice, at any point is a struggle, please don’t be afraid to chat to your therapist to help implement different strategies tailored to your child or family’s needs. Reward charts are not always used in stuttering therapy, so it’s important to have a discussion with your therapist before thinking about taking this approach.
b) We know children who experience fatigue are more likely to exhibit stuttering behaviours – and our goal for home therapy is to reduce or eliminate their stuttering.
2. While we want your child to have FUN engaging in home practice with you, it is important they don’t become TOO EXCITED. Why? Being in a very excited state, can also potentially increase stuttering behaviours in some children. The trick is to find an activity they will engage in they enjoy, but not something that will over-stimulate them.
3. During your therapy sessions with your speech pathologist, involve yourself in the therapy sessions as much as possible. Practice implementing home practice activities and any verbal feedback your therapist has suggested and modelled to you in front of your therapist. We are here to help you, and your child achieve success as quickly as possible – and like we say to every client, it is all about practice, practice practice and learning how we can improve.
4. If you can find a space at home where your child is not distracted by their siblings, this would also be preferable. This is so your child is less likely to become upset or overly excited, which may trigger stuttering moments and behaviours, we are trying to directly reduce or eliminate.
5. After you have completed your daily home practice session(s) with your child, don’t forget to take data using your daily severity ratings form, if your therapist has asked for this. You are our eyes and ears at home, so any changes to your child’s stuttering moments or behaviours in invaluable to our treatment planning.
If you would like to learn more, or have any further questions, please get in touch with your therapist or our friendly Bambini Health team!
Reference: Australian Stuttering Research Centre – University of Technology Sydney, Stuttering Treatment Activity Guide (February 2021).