.png)
Tips to Try at Home
Looking for simple, practical ways to support your child’s speech, language, and literacy outside of therapy sessions?
These tips are designed for families to use in everyday routines, making practice fun, natural, and stress-free. Whether it’s building vocabulary, practicing speech sounds, or encouraging storytelling, these strategies give parents easy ways to reinforce skills at home and feel confident helping their child grow.
1
Encourage your child to expand their sentences by modeling slightly longer phrases. If they say, “Want cookie,” try responding with, “You want a cookie!” This gentle expansion helps build vocabulary and sentence structure naturally.
2
Turn everyday moments into language-building opportunities! During meals, car rides, or playtime, describe what you’re doing, ask open-ended questions, and encourage your child to share their thoughts—even a little chat goes a long way for growing communication skills.
3
One simple yet powerful way to support your child’s language development is by reading aloud together. Take turns reading pages, talk about the pictures, and ask your child questions about the story. This helps to improve vocabulary, comprehension, and conversational skills. Plus, it’s a great way to bond!
4
Pause for power! After you ask a question or make a comment, pause and give your child a few extra seconds to respond. This gives them processing time and encourages expressive language by creating a clear opportunity for them to communicate with you.
5
Go on a walk with your child and describe what you see, hear, and smell, modeling rich vocabulary along the way. Try phrases like “I hear the leaves crunching under our feet” or “That flower smells sweet and fresh.” Everyday moments like these help children build descriptive language, listening skills, and awareness of the world around them.
6
Read the pictures, not just the words. Pause during reading to talk about what’s happening in the illustrations—who the characters are, what they’re doing, and how they might be feeling. Discussing pictures builds vocabulary, comprehension, and storytelling skills while making reading more interactive and enjoyable for children with a range of speech, language, and literacy needs.
These tips are from our bimonthly newsletter! Click here to sign up and get news, updates about availability, and more tips delivered to your inbox every other month.