How To Finish Your Therapy Quickly!
As much as I wish I could work with my clients forever, my goal is always for them to not need me anymore. “Graduating” from speech therapy is a bittersweet time – we love your kids and don’t want to say goodbye, but our goal from day one was to say goodbye to each other as fast as possible.
Parents regularly ask the question at our first session: how long will my child need speech therapy? This is the magic wand question. If I could wave a magic wand and read a crystal ball and give you an answer, I absolutely would. But the reality is, every single child is unique and the answer depends on a wide range of factors, including age when you start therapy, severity of a disorder, and hundreds of other considerations.
I know that’s a lame answer, but it’s unfortunately the truth. Your child will be done with therapy as soon as their goals are met and they don’t need us anymore. That being said, there are trends to which families tend to finish therapy fastest. YOU and YOUR FAMILY are very large factors in how long you’ll be in therapy. Let’s talk about what you can do to get in and out of therapy ASAP!
1. Get in early. Don’t wait; studies show that children that start therapy sooner don’t need therapy as long. I’ve seen students that were 10 years old whose parents reported having slight concerns since their child was 4, but their doctor or school convinced them to wait a long time before seeking treatment. If they had been able to get treatment at 4, they likely could have been in and out much faster, but since they waited, they are likely going to need to do a lot of catch-up work. Don’t panic – you can’t time travel and you were making the best decisions you could with the information you had every single day. But if you are currently on the fence about scheduling an evaluation or considering waiting another year, I encourage you to start sooner rather than later. The worst that will happen is the SLP will find no issues and will encourage you to follow up if needed! But you’ll KNOW that your child is within range and not needing services vs. wondering and waiting and potentially wasting precious months and years.
2. Do your homework! If you want to finish therapy fast, you need to be following your SLP’s recommendations for homework. Every session, a Top Sail speech therapist will always prescribe homework to aid in generalization and carryover. We can spot families that are diligent with their homework recommendations from a mile away! Those kiddos make lightning-fast progress compared to the families that put speech homework on the backburner. We know life is crazy and you will never be penalized or judged for not completing speech homework, but if you want to make progress and make it fast, homework needs to be prioritized between sessions. That’s where the magic happens!
3. Communicate and team up. Communicate with your SLP and share concerns, questions, and thoughts. The more we work as a team, the more we can get your child the exact prescription of the techniques and strategies that they need to make progress. If you tried the homework and aren’t getting anywhere, or if you think your therapist is focusing on the wrong thing, communicate with us so that we can fine tune our approach and ensure that you know exactly what we are doing and why.
4. Get others involved. When practicing, doing homework, and targeting skills at home, don’t let only one parent be involved. Get everyone that is willing to be involved! Have mom tackle lunchtime practice and dad tackle evening practice, or practice as a whole family. Get brothers and sisters and friends involved, too! You can also FaceTime Grandma or Grandpa and practice speech skills over the airwaves! It takes a village sometimes to make the fastest progress.
Follow these tips and you’re guaranteed to shorten your time in therapy as much as possible!