Halloween speech and language tips 

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays! Trips to the farm, haunted houses, costumes, face painting, decorations, baking, and candy! Each family seems to have their own traditions.

Traditions offer predictability, an ideal environment for children to learn language skills. 

And, because halloween is filled with an abundance of visual supports, which help children make connections between words and their meanings, it really is the perfect time to focus on language. Here are some tips and fun resources to enhance your children’s speech and language development this season.

Supporting sequencing and narrative skills

Help your child build sequencing and narrative skills by talking through the main events.

  • First we choose a pumpkin.
  • Next we take out the pumpkin seeds.
  • Then we carve a face on the pumpkin.
  • And last, we put a candle inside the pumpkin.

HERE is a visual with sequencing photos.

Modelling past and future verbs

When moving on to the next activity, remind your child of what you did together and introduce what you will do next.

  • We chose our pumpkin, next we will cut it open.
  • We opened the pumpkin, next we will take out the seeds.
  • We took out the seeds, next we will bake the seeds.
  • We baked the seeds. next we will draw a face.
  • We drew a face on the pumpkin, next we will carve the pumpkin.

Building descriptive vocabulary 

Use contrasts to describe what you are doing.

  • Look at all the pumpkins, find the biggest… now find the smallest.
  • One pumpkin has many seeds.
  • The outside of the pumpkin is hard and bumpy, the inside is soft and gooey.
  • We cut the top off, but we leave the bottom as is.
  • The pumpkin was full, but now it is empty.

Answering “where“ questions

Set up your decorations together. Name each item and ask your child where they think it should go. If you’re setting up a spider web, ask where the spiders should go. Asking these questions and making it clear that the location is up to them will help build their understanding of “where” questions and how to answer them.

HERE is an activity where your child can choose and drag a face on to their pumpkin. Talk about where the face goes… “in the middle”.

Halloween is more than just a time to put on a costume, decorate and indulge in candy. This is a season when you can be anything you want to be… let your imagination run wild and help your child to do the same.

Teletherapy as a service delivery model

weighing

In March 2020, after over twenty five years of face-to-face speech and language therapy, I took the leap into virtual online therapy. Unlike past career choices teeming with limitless possibilities, it was clear there was only one option. To continue supporting my clients, I would have to make the switch to Teletherapy. Challenge accepted!

Transitions are a good time to take stock.

  • I had experience offering online accent reduction training.
  • I was familiar with the Zoom platform.
  • I owned a high quality microphone and noise-cancelling headphones.
  • I was a member of a profession dominated by creative, resourceful and collaborative colleagues.

We were (and still are) in a global pandemic. The air was heavy with anxiety and uncertainty. I informed each client of my plan to pivot my service delivery model to Teletherapy keeping them updated and supported every step of the way. I was committed to providing them with high quality intervention. I used the next two weeks to research, train, and prepare for a transition to the lesser known world of Teletherapy.

Many other SLPs had already taken the dive into Teletherapy years back. The research was promising. Studies confirmed that word learning and generalization to different contexts was equivalent across face-to-face and virtual interactions with toddlers. And young children with autism improved their vocabulary and sentence length equally whether their parents received coaching face-to-face or via Teletherapy.

I quickly learned…

That I could do almost everything I did in face-to-face sessions using an online platform.

  1. Provide direct therapy incorporating a client’s interests.
  2. Individualize therapy approaches to suit each family’s needs.
  3. Create interactive activities allowing clients to control or mark up the screen.
  4. Teach clients how to pronounce new speech sounds.
  5. Parent/caregiver consultation and coaching.
  6. Track progress.
  7. Develop and review customized home programs.

That there were many advantages of Teletherapy.

  1. Clients receive services in familiar and comfortable spaces.
  2. Simplified schedules result in improved attendance and more consistent therapy.
  3. Therapy is provided using a medium children and adults are comfortable with.
  4. We can access any number of activities with a computer.
  5. Increased accessibility to services for families living further from city centres.
  6. Increased parental involvement and thus increased carry-over of new skills.
  7. Therapists can do almost everything they did previously while helping to protect clients’ health and safety.

“It’s not where you take things from, it’s where you take things to.”  
Jean-Luc Godard

The transition to a new service delivery model was an opportunity to learn new skills, but has turned out to be so much more. Pivoting allows for a fresh start . It opens new doors and possibilities. The potential for growth is unlimited. I experienced more patience, curiosity, understanding, excitement, creativity and flexibility over the last six months than I ever expected. And, becoming professionally accessible to a more extensive region is exciting. 

Click HERE to learn more about my Teletherapy services.