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5 Tips for Halloween for children with communication disorders
Halloween is right around the corner and the excitement level is rising! Trick-or-Treating is a rite of passage for most children as they grow up. But, if your child has a communication disorder, it might be a cause of anxiety for him or her. Here are 5 tips to help make Halloween and Trick-or-Treating less stressful for your child with a communication disorder!
- If your child needs help understanding what trick-or-treating is all about, create a social story or read books about Halloween as the night approaches. This will allow your child to become familiar with the trick-or-treating routine and with Halloween-related vocabulary and phrases!
- If your child has a speech sound disorder and has trouble saying “trick-or-treat” clearly, practice this phrase ahead of time to see if he/she can get a close approximation. If not, come up with your own unique phrase to use instead of “trick-or-treat!”
- If your child has complex communication needs and uses alternative methods of communication, add some Halloween related phrases to his/her communication system! “trick-or-treat!” “Happy Halloween!” “boo!” or even a cute Halloween joke! “How do you make a Witch itch?” “You take away the w!”
- Help your child really prepare for trick-or-treating by practicing! Let your child practice knocking on the door and saying trick-or-treat and thank you!
- If Trick-or Treating is too much for your child, consider staying home with him/her and handing out candy instead. This still allows your child to be a part of the Halloween fun without being overwhelmed by everything that comes with trick-or-treating.
We hope these tips help your child prepare for and enjoy Halloween!
Summer Speech Fun
I know it’s summer and everyone is enjoying the beautiful (HOT) weather, playing outside and cooling off at the beach! But, it’s still important to think about speech and language skills during the summer! Here are some tips to include some work on speech/language skills at the beach!
- Give/follow directions while playing “Simon Says” in the water
- Take a walk along the beach and talk about the shells and sea-life you find
- Pick up some of the things you find on your walk and use your describing words to talk about them (wet/dry, rough/smooth, hard/soft, color words, etc..)
- Jump into some imaginary play by while building sand castles
- Grab a stick and practice writing letters/words in the sand
- Have a beach scavenger hunt for objects containing your child’s target speech sounds (ex: find all of the things at the beach that start with “k”)
- Bring your summer reading books and relax on a towel while reading
- Work on pragmatic/social language while making new friends at the beach
Don’t forget that once you are done with the summer sun and fun, give Golden Speech Therapy a call to set up an evaluation for the fall!
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