Tag: schedule

How to Survive After School Routines: A Guide for Parents

The after-school hours are a crucial time for reinforcing what your child has learned in school, but they’re also an opportunity for growth in other areas. We’ll share some practical tips to help you and your child navigate these busy hours.

New School Year: A Guide for a Smooth Start

Preparing for a new school year can be both exciting and overwhelming. With a bit of planning and some practical tips, we can make this transition smoother and more enjoyable for both you and your child.

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Daylight Saving Time: How to Helping Children Adjust

Tips to help children adjust to the time change.

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Following Your Schedule: How to get Back on Track

Holidays can be a time when the normal routine is disrupted. It’s time to get back on track and follow your daily routine.

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5 Teletherapy Tips for Families – What You Need to Know

drawing of therapist performing teletherapy

As we are all beginning to adjust to teletherapy as well as online or elearning, we thought it best to share some tips to make you and your loved ones time in therapy, albeit significantly different than ever before, more successful.

Count on some sort of technology failure – if you count on the fact that the mic won’t turn on or your wifi will be running slow, you won’t panic when it does happen. If there is a technology failure (on your side or on the therapist’s side), the first thing to do is breathe. Next calmly begin to troubleshoot. Prior to the appointment, you may want to trial the mic and speakers on the device you intend to use for therapy. If your bandwidth on your wifi is slow, as those in your home to stay off the network or not engage in activities (streaming videos) that use a lot of bandwidth. If the session can’t happen, you can reschedule. Flexibility is key.
Create a “Therapy Space” or designate a “Therapy Space” for the duration of the session. You may want to create a ‘Therapy in Session’ sign with your loved one and hang it on the door of the room you are in for the session. If you will be in a shared living area, you may want to consider the use of a headphone and mic combination. This will decrease the amount of background noise your loved one will hear as well as the therapist. Consider scheduling therapy at a time when others in your family would be napping or engaged in more quiet activities as well. Creativity is key.
Count on staying with your loved one for the onset of the therapy session. For individuals that may need support to pay attention, consider this time extra snuggle time. Have your loved one sit on your lap or very close to you during the session to help guide her/his attention to the therapist. This is time for your loved one to receive the critical therapy services needed as well as a time for YOU to better understand the techniques used to elicit specific behaviors, actions, and sounds from your child. Teamwork is key.
Listen to the therapist and therapy session. Remember, this is your loved one’s therapy time, not necessarily yours. While it may be hard, refrain from answering the therapist’s questions for talking for your loved one. You may consider the situation/task that the therapist is asking your loved one to do is too difficult, but creating these situations to ‘push’ your loved one to the next level is necessary in progress towards mastery of goals. Trust is key.
Carryover of all the new skills learned during the therapy session (both for you and your loved one) is extremely important for everyone! You will have new skills to support your loved one as he/she works on speech-language skills. Share what you have learned with others in your family. Help everyone realize the necessary supports to help your loved one succeed. Practice is key.

Keeping in mind the importance of flexibility, creativity, teamwork, trust and practice will ensure your loved ones success with this different approach to speech-language therapy.

More information about the telepractice services offered at Lakeshore Speech can be found at www.lakeshorespeech.com/telepractice or by calling 1-440-417-4190.

Yours in Speech,
Lakeshore Speech Therapy, LLC

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It’s All Routine

This month we’ve focused on schedules and free activities to fill those schedules. This week we are discussing routines and the importance of routines related to speech-language development. Personal, familial, classroom, or therapy routines provide a framework of certainty. Within these routines are the skills and expectations that help to introduce and maintain speech-language skills, social pragmatic skills and increased independence with executive functioning skills.

Take a moment and replay your morning routine back in your head. Do you brush your teeth before you wash your face? Do you take a medication right away or do you take it with your first cup of coffee? It’s easy to picture yourself completing your morning routine and if something is off, you know it immediately.

Routines for infants and toddlers provide a number of opportunities to practice important speech-language and social skills. Anticipating the steps, sequencing steps, learning the vocabulary associated with the steps are all skills infants and toddlers need to develop meaningful associations with language and action. Daily routines provide the repetition of vocabulary and actions leading to independent participation in these routines.

Routine for school aged children can provide a calming environment for anticipating activities as well as expectations throughout the day. Similar to infants and toddlers, sequencing steps, learning vocabulary and making associations provides the foundation for increasing successful independence throughout the day. Routines also give the child the opportunity to learn the expected behaviors and unwritten social rules in a repeat practice setting. Daily routines facilitate conversations between child and adult to specifically explain and model appropriate social and behavioral expectations.

Routines for older children and young adults create a setting where focus can be more on new skills and independence versus the actual steps. These routines are not only part of the day, but provide the opportunity to increase independence and demonstrate expected behaviors and social skills which should be the focus of mastery for young adults. Routines at this age also provide opportunities for increased independence imperative for vocational and secondary education settings.

Individuals who have tendencies to become rigid regarding implementation and execution of routines, such that any variation creates adverse behaviors need to have their routines continuously changed. This does not mean the target task or activity needs to change, however change when the task or activity occurs. For example, night time routine might go tv time -change in pjs – brush teeth – book time – lights out. Consider changing to book time – brush teeth – change in pjs – tv time – lights out or some variation. You know your loved one best and will be able to determine how often the change needs to occur.

If you have any questions or need a sounding board regarding routines, please reach out to your speech-language pathologist.

Yours in Speech,

Lakeshore Speech Therapy, LLC

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Plan for the Day

It’s finally here…. JUNE! Days are longer…much longer. Weather it warmer…. much warmer. Everyone is home… school’s out…..everyone’s home…. all day. Did we mention the days are longer?

While June ushers in a time a carefree days and weeks, pay attention to just how important a daily routine (dare we say schedule) is for your loved one’s success, ease of mind, and ability to manage behaviors.

“But we just finished a school year worth of schedules!”

We hear you, but these summer routines and schedules are a lot less time specific. Summer routines and schedules make the ‘unknown’ day more concrete. They also provide the adults with a reminder or recap of the day.

Resources for creating schedules are available online. Use simple pictures of places and events or if your loved on is literate, use text.

There are many different types of set-ups for schedules or routines you might want to consider. Ultimately, create a combination of different types that suits your family’s needs best.

Object schedule: Using objects that represent the events throughout the day may give your loved on the visual support needed to easily transition from one activity to the next. This also provides a concrete explanation of the expectations throughout the day so there is no ‘arguing’. It’s so much easier to ‘blame’ the schedule for completing a non-preferred task. “I’m sorry, but the schedule says it’s time to clean-up. Check the schedule.”

Picture schedule: Simple clipart pictures or actual photos can serve as visual reminders for the schedule or routine of the day. Providing a method of indicating the event is complete provides a very concrete message for your loved one. Some suggestions to show an event is complete include turning the picture over, removing the picture from the schedule, or placing a check-mark next to the picture.

Text Schedule: If your loved on is literate, consider a simple checklist for the day’s events or using a white boards to catalogue the schedule for the day. These types of schedules can include exact times as well as specific locations.

High Tech: If your loved one is more comfortable using a ‘smart’ device, consider using the calendar built in to the operating system or a daily planner app (free ones are the best when trialing this support). Work with your loved one to set up the calendar, make sure to include alarms or notifications for each event. Using a ‘shared’ calendar provides everyone the flexibility to add or change items accordingly.

Providing visual supports and schedules to loved ones gives everyone the opportunity to enjoy the lazy days of summer more successfully and with much less stress. The speech-language therapist at Lakeshore Speech Therapy, LLC will be happy to provide more ideas and assistance with developing visual supports specific to your loved one’s needs.

Yours in Speech,

Lakeshore Speech Therapy, LLC

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Use Social Stories to Create Thanksgiving Memories

Schedules and social stories are supports your child with special needs may need this Thanksgiving.

Create lasting memories by providing your child the supports they need to successfully navigate Thanksgiving. Learn how social stories and schedules can help.

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Friday Night Lights

Friday night lights! High school traditions! Go Team!

Fall is the time of year to grab your favorite sweatshirt and enjoy an evening of high school football. “Enjoy” – that’s the difficult part especially for some. The many sounds and smells as well as the number of people all in one place can cause loved ones with integration issues difficulty in large crowds. There are a number of proactive steps families can take to help loved ones adjust to these situations.

Paint a picture of what the individual will experience during their time at the game. For example:

We are going to park the car in the parking lot (or, in some instances, the – field, street, etc.)
We will walk to the gate or entrance of the field.
We will have to stand in line to get our tickets.
- Note: if available, please consider purchasing tickets ahead of time. Less time anxiously waiting, the better.
There will be a lot of people around us; you will hear them talking and shouting.
We will walk to our seats
We will walk up or down the stadium steps
- Note: if the stadium steps are open (meaning you can see the ground below) you may want to consider sitting in an area closer to the ground or where the steps are solid.
We will sit in our seats
- Note: if the individual is sensitive to pressure – consider bringing a blanket or stadium chair to decrease the sensation of the ‘hard’ stadium bleachers.
Etcetera
- Don’t forget to include what will be
  - heard (band, horns, cheering, etc.)
  - seen
  - smelled

Carry an ‘important tools’ bag. This bag should contain items that calm the individual, items that may distract attention from an unpleasant sensation and items that will help to diminish non-preferred sensations. The bag may include noise canceling headphones, headphones and a music source,ear plugs, fidget toys, extra blankets, weighted blankets, etc.

Plan your arrival and departure around preferred events. If the individual loves watching the marching band, but is bothered by all the whistles during the game, arrive at the game 15-25 minutes late. If the individual does not appreciate the marching band, make arrangements for an activity or get special permission to leave and re-enter the the stadium during halftime. If the individual does or does not like the mascot, plan your seats in the location accordingly.

Give your loved one a voice during the game. Pre-record a cheer or a special message on a voice recorded switch. No need to get too high tech, this is a high energy exciting time, it’s more important to get the message out! If a device is not an option, make a sign that shares the message or use a horn or bell for the individual to be part of the roaring crowd. If you need more information or ideas, please do not hesitate to ask any speech therapist at Lakeshore Speech.

Friday night lights shine brighter when everyone is involved. Go Team!

Yours in Speech,

Lakeshore Speech Therapy, LLC.

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Getting out the door in one piece: Ideas for Every Family

Build strong executive functioning skills this school year with simple speech therapist tips for stress-free routines, organization, and family success.

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