Speech and language difficulties are very common in young children. They often face many challenges when trying to communicate and express themselves. We as parents and caregivers can help children build the confidence they need to thrive in their environment. This blog post will explore many strategies to help your child become more confident when expressing themselves.
Create a Supportive Environment
Children need constant support from caregivers when they are faced with speech and language challenges. This can be done by being patient and attentive when your child is speaking. Encourage them to express themselves! Even if the communication is not perfect, praise the child for the effort or the progress they have made.
Celebrate Small Victories
There are many milestones that are meant to be celebrated when learning speech and language skills. Celebrating each small victory is a great way to boost their confidence and motivation to keep communicating. You can use verbal affirmations or physical gestures like a high five or thumbs up to show your excitement. For older children, sticker charts are also a great way to track your child’s progress. For each small victory let your child place a sticker on the chart so they can visualize their accomplishments.
Positive Self Talk/Self Advocacy
It is important that children learn how to talk positively about themselves. This can result in them believing in themselves to achieve goals. To have children gain confidence, parents and caregivers need to be aware of the statements they make. One way to encourage more positive self-talk is by being a positive role model. Parents can show them how to speak kindly to themselves. Children will often mimic this behavior and start to do the same about themselves. Another way to promote self-confidence is by creating positive affirmations that they can say to themselves. This could be done by using affirmation cards or by modeling your own affirmations. This will encourage your child to speak highly of themselves and fight back against negative thoughts they might have.
Recognize Strengths
Parents and Caregivers can help children identify their strengths. These can be related to language skills or not. Once they recognize their strengths, children can use them to overcome challenges they are faced with. To find strengths, start to focus on activities they enjoy doing. From there you can start to identify what they are good at. Once compiling a list of strengths emphasize how these are unique to each child. It’s okay to be better at something and be able to recognize weaknesses as well!
Set Goals
Teaching children goal-setting is a critical life skill. If your child has speech and/or language difficulties, you can start your own goal-setting at home. Start by writing each goal down. Make sure each goal is specific and able to be measured and tracked. From there, help your child understand what steps are needed to be taken to achieve the goal. To start achieving the goal setting, plan out a time each day/week they can work the goal. Once they reach the goal, celebrate your child’s accomplishments and start working towards a new goal!
Speech-language therapy will help your child feel more confident by providing the tools they need to express one’s self as best as possible! Contact Seedlings for more information on how to get started with speech therapy in the Twin Cities!
Comentários