Ready to Go Speech and Feeding Handouts
Over the last year both of us (Kim and Mary) have been growing our individual private practices. Kim’s is primarily focused on seeing early language and speech sound disorders, and Mary’s is heavily focused in the area of feeding and swallowing, along with some early language. Quickly into our journeys, we recognized the importance of 2 main things when being on the go These were being organized and being prepared.
We decided to create handouts we were consistently needing in order to help streamline our practice. It was important for us to:
Have efficient and quick references readily available at all times.
Create something that empowers teachers and parents with easy to understand information, and also helps streamline communication between therapists and educators/parents.
Encourage consistent collaboration and a proactive approach in school and home settings.
Create a layout that is structured and familiar across handouts.
Provide information on specific topics that ties to our podcast episodes for additional information.
First, we created a main handout that showed all of the areas a speech therapist addresses. This handout has been very helpful, especially in the preschools we visit. Being able to let teachers and other professionals know that “yes, we can help if there are concerns in the areas of feeding” or “no, that consistent, raspy voice might not be normal” has opened up lines of communication and opportunities to offer resources and information. Along with the handout, we have a podcast episode that goes into more detail about each area a speech therapist addresses. That episode can be found here.
We then created resources in 6 of the main areas where parents, teachers and other professionals can feel confident in understanding how they can be proactive in intervention. These resources help give them a role by offering tips and strategies to work with their child either before a full speech and language evaluation is needed, or alongside speech and feeding therapy. The handouts cover the following topics:
Speech Sound Checklist - speech sounds and at what ages they should be coming in. Our podcast episode titled How To Know When a Speech Sound Should Be Developed goes more in depth about where these sounds are made in the mouth and at what ages they start to come in.
Tips to Encourage Play and Social Interactions - these skills are needed in order for language to be developed! Sometimes it’s easy to go straight into focusing on speech with little ones, but the importance of play and early social skills are the foundation of communication and can’t be overlooked. We talk more on the podcast about play in this episode, Why is Pretend Play So Important?.
Supporting Your Child’s Stuttering - This resource is one of our most asked for resources! When a child starts to stutter, parents and teachers want to know what to do and when to be concerned. Our resource offers great strategies, and our podcast episode How to Support Stuttering in Kids really breaks down what is developmental and when speech therapy should be considered.
Tips for a Healthy Voice - sometimes overlooked, our voices and the health of our voice is important! Episode 49 of The Speech Source Podcast talks about how we can encourage kids to keep their voices healthy.
Tips for Supporting Happy, Healthy Eaters - Do you have a picky eater? When is picky eating a concern? Does my child need feeding therapy or are they a typical 2 year old? Why can mealtime be so emotional? This handout offers strategies for families to try at home to help tease out some of these questions. We also have two episodes talking about 8 Tips for Picky Eaters by our own SLP and feeding expert Mary Brezik. These can be found here on Part 1 and Part 2.
Tips for Late Talkers - Another one of our most asked for resources. This is such a great starting point for parents and teachers unsure if speech therapy is needed yet. Dont’ wait and see…be proactive in your role as a parent, teacher or other provider in understanding what you can do to encourage communication, and when to seek out a speech and language evaluation. More in-depth conversation can be found on our episode Late Talkers and How to Help.
As we finished up creating these resources and corresponding podcast episodes, we decided to bundle everything together for quick and easy access. These are great if you are an SLP on the go or want to have access to these in your current setting. They are also great to have as a teacher or other provider working with kids when parents want specific resources and information. And of course as a parent, these handouts and podcast episodes give you the power to be your child’s first point of intervention and the knowledge to know when additional intervention is needed. Get your complete set of Speech and Feeding Handouts here.
Whether you are a SLP, a parent, a teacher or another provider who is invested in early intervention and success of kids, we hope the creation of these handouts offers efficiency, consistency and value in whatever ways you need.
Thanks for being here!
-Kim