As parents we read books on how to resolve our child’s sleep problems, how to discipline our child, and how to get our child on a healthy diet. We rarely read books on communication training, or how to play with our children. Believe it or not, there is an art and a science to raising strong, healthy communicators. Our children will imitate about 80% of what we do whether we want them to or not. So, we might as well start on the right track by being the absolute best language models we can be for our children.
To do this, all you need to know is that children learn language in back and forth turn taking routines with their caregivers, and that we can accelerate their communication development by using the same strategies speech pathologists use with developmentally delayed children. So whether your child is right on target with their speech and language development, or seems slightly behind, you have the ability to optimize their language-learning environment. By working on conversational interactions with your child now, you will strengthen a lifetime bond with them, and set the stage for higher level conversational language learning as your child progresses in school.
The philosophy behind adult-child communication training is that if parents and caregivers can learn to incorporate strategies to accelerate speech, language and social development, then the child will progress much more rapidly as compared to just receiving speech therapy one hour per week without involving the caregivers.
At King’s Speech and Learning Center we incorporate the Adult-Child training model into most of our services, and individualize the extent that caregivers are actually present for the treatment session depending on many different factors such as type of speech problem, behavior with caregiver present, etc.