Welcome to our first blog for Speak About for 2016!
Last year I, Emily, had every intention of regularly blogging, but as everyone knows well, time gets away from you and before you know it, it’s the end of the year! This year I am going to be blogging regularly, sharing lots of tips and advice covering all areas of children’s communication development.
If you have any topics or questions that you are interested in or would like more info on, feel free to message me on FB- Speak About Speech Pathology, or chat to me or the team in the clinic.
Lately, I’ve been asked by a few parent’s similar questions along the lines of;
“What is best way to make sure that my class teacher knows my child is having speech therapy?”
It is a question that most parents ask at the beginning of each school year, particularly when their child starts kindergarten.
First of all,
it is extremely important that the class teacher knows that your child is having speech therapy. The main goal of school is; everyone wants your child to learn. They will learn when they are placed in the best possible environment for them, weather that is in a mainstream, composite, support or a specialised class.
It is so important that the teacher knows if there is anything that may impact on your child’s learning, such as pronunciation difficulties, difficulties following instructions or using correct words in a sentence. Sometimes, a child’s difficulties may be misread in the classroom, as being naughty- and no parent, speech therapist or teacher wants this to happen!
To ensure that your teacher knows,
- Set a meeting time with them as soon as possible to start of the year. Take to the meeting your most recent speech report, your child’s therapy book and your speech therapists contact details.
- Before you attend the meeting, write a list of:
- Your concerns or things you want to raise with the teacher.
- How your child behaves in difficult situations
- Strategies that can be put in place in the classroom to help your child e.g. sitting at the front of the class.
The list can be made in conjunction with your speech therapist. It’s a good idea to do this, so you don’t forget anything and are prepared.
- At the meeting, talk through your speech report and tell your teacher specifically what your child has difficulties with, such as- following instructions, attention, writing, saying sounds.
- Tell your teacher how your child may behave when faced with difficult tasks. This may be very obvious such as cry, scream, distract others, be the class clown or be subtle such as not complete any of their work as they shut down or zone out in activities.
- Ask your teacher how they feel they can best help your child. This may be groups the school offers, placing visuals around, breaking down instructions, providing them with extra activities or programs etc.
- Inform your teacher of when your speech appointment is and if your child needs to leave class early or may come late.
- Inform the teacher that your child has a speech therapy book with new work and resources placed in it at each appointment (usually this is weekly). You place the book in their school bag, so they can be aware of what your child is working on. This book can also act as a communication book, so if the teacher needs to communicate, they can write it in the book for their speech therapist.
- Ask the teacher to keep your informed of your child’s progress and each term have a revision meeting to catch up.
- If they have any further questions, they can email or chat to your speech therapist.
After the meeting, remember that we are all a team working together and want the best for your child. It may take some time for child to settle into the new school year with so many new things happening, especially if they’re in kindergarten! But hang in there, your child and you will get there!
