All For Speech is committed to helping children develop and have extensive educational training that enhance their ability to do so effectively. However, we rely upon our parents to help the process along by engaging in a positive manner!

 All parents want what is best for their children, but simply "enrolling" in therapy is not enough to make changes. Therapy is a family's commitment to their child's success.  Parental involvement is critical in meeting any goals of therapy.  After all, parents spend the most amount of time with their children, even outside a regular school setting.  Siblings and grandparents are also be encouraged to offer positive reinforcement, but older sibliings should be discouraged from doing it "for" their sibling.

   Parents "set the tone" of expectation with children of all ages.  It is not enough to sign up because of a physician's recommendation.  Children need repetition to progress.  And since practicing for 1 hour a week is seldom enough, it falls upon parents to learn the therapy techniques, practice with your child work to carryover what they have learned outside the therapy setting. Parents who have little expectation or interest in improvement subtly send those messages to their children.  In other words, if you are not vested, how can you expect your child to be? 

    This issue becomes especially true for children working on motor planning issues or those with an underyling orofacial myology disorder (OMD).  Motor memory will not change without significant repetition of movement.  Practice in short spurts of time will reinforce the neuroplasticity of brain development and begin to automate movement over time. Attending sessions with your child, asking questions, and even practicing with the child has been shown to effectively reduce the length of overall treatment time.  

    Constant positive encouragement is an absolute must!  Gentle reminders, games, stickers, and other reward programs work best.  These systems can be altered for all ages to encourage the child to engage, remember what they have learned, and WANT to change.