Parents often wonder what they can do at home to improve their child’s communication skills.

Here are 10 activities to promote your child’s speech and hearing skills:

Treasure hunt with words or pictures. You can do this around the house or garden. Keep it simple. Give your child some hints. When he finds a card, have him say the item written or drawn on the card while looking at you. Continue until all the cards have been found. This helps develop eye contact, communication, pronunciation and symbol or word recognition.
Involve your child in activities of everyday life. Any interaction between parent and child is an opportunity to improve communication. Housekeeping, cooking, grocery shopping are all activities that a child can actively participate in. Talk through your process, and ask your child questions about what he sees or does.
Public places I-Spy game. Parks, malls and beaches are all great venues for people-watching. Point out people, objects and actions you notice. Have your child take turns with you, and turn it into an “I-Spy” game. This activity will promote social observations, descriptive vocabulary and turn-taking.
Tell Me What to Do. This game is fun for kids. Pick an activity your child knows how to do. Tell your child that you need to do the activity but you don’t remember how. He has to tell you exactly what to do. The activity can be a game you play, or an object you have to seek and fetch. Get him to give you detailed instructions.
What’s that sound.  This is a great listening game. Take turn making an animal sound and the other person has to guess what animal the sound belongs to. You can also cut out images from magazines of things and animals that make sounds and glue them onto little cards. These can be used as prompts for the game.
Finish the story. Come up with a simple story, and take turns adding to it with your child. For example, you might open with “Once upon a time there was a prince.” The child would then add something about the prince. You might follow with something about the setting. Your child could then say something about the plot, and so on…
Talk, Talk, Talk. When it comes to babies, experts agree that parents should spend time face to face with their child, talking and sharing the world in a descriptive and engaging manner. Babies love to have their sounds echoed back at them. It’s also important to speak about emotions. Children need to see their emotions reflected back to them, and they need to hear the words that explain how they feel. This simple technique can help them develop an emotional vocabulary and regulation.
Swing and talk. If your child tolerates swinging, consider working on speech skills while he swings. You can sing the alphabet song. Face him so that there’s eye contact, every time he comes towards you say one letter, or take turns with him saying one letter at a time. You can do the same thing with songs like “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” counting from 0-10, or touching a part of your body that your child then has to name.
Flashlight game. This is another favorite! Tape pictures or words (if your child reads) on a wall. Make the room dark. Take turn with your child holding a flashlight and lighting up a picture or word. Have your child say the word he sees. 
Bubbles. Children of all ages love bubbles! Therapists love them because it’s a fun way to work on many essential skills. Bubbles promote eye-contact through anticipation. It can be used to promote speech by making the child request more or telling you where he wants the bubbles. Teaching how to blow bubbles also works on your child’s oral-motor skills.

Understanding Academic vocabulary?

Academic vocabulary includes words used in academic dialogue and

texts. It does not include words students use in general conversation,

but academic vocabulary relates to other familiar words that students

do use.

 For example, rather than using the simple verb watch, an

academic term would be observe. Academic vocabulary words help

students understand oral directions and classroom instructions as well

as comprehend text across different subject areas.

Why is it Important?
Speech Language therapist can help students understand complex sentences and vocabulary, comprehend written and oral information, and compile thoughts for speaking and writing. These skills are essential for students to feel confident in their work, perform their best in school, and be on a career pathway that they want, not one that is decided for them because of a disability.

Parent Need to KNOW: Testing vocabulary includes active verbs and concrete nouns. The active verbs direct students to think more deeply about their subject matter (identify, explain, organize, retell, illustrate, etc.). The nouns tell students what they are to use to present their comprehension of the subject material for an assessment or assignment (i.e., outline, graph, chart, essay, theme, analogy, Venn diagram, etc.)… 

How to Encourage Special Needs Students

Here are seven ways that you can activate the strengths of your students with special needs, whether you run a full-inclusion classroom, a self-contained special Ed classroom, or anything in between:

• Discover your students' strengths.  Find out about your students' strengths and abilities by talking with previous teachers and looking at cumulative files (focusing on the highest grades and test scores and any positive comments from teachers). Then, fill out a strength-based inventory for each student—and have parents fill one out as well. 

 • Provide positive role models with disabilities. Students with special needs need to learn about individuals with disabilities who have become successful in life. This way, they can hopefully come to the conclusion that "If they can do it, so can I!"

• Develop strength-based learning strategies. Once you know your students' special strengths, design strategies that utilize those abilities.

• Use assistive technologies and Universal Design for Learning tools. Learn about apps that capitalize on the gifts of your students with special needs. For a student with autism who loves to use an iPad but has difficulty communicating is a great alternative communication device.  

• Maximize the Power of your students' social networks. 

Create a graphic representation of a student's peer network, identifying both strong and weak relationships. Then, pair the student with classmates that he has the most positive relationships.

• Help students envision positive future careers.  Encourage special needs students by helping them make links between their strengths and the requirements of specific jobs or careers.

• Create positive modifications in the learning environment.   Think about how you can create changes in your classroom that brings out a particular strength of your students with special needs. For example, provide a student with ADHD who learns best by moving, for example, with a stability ball that he can jiggle on while doing his class-work.