After over twenty-five years in the field of speech, language and feeding therapy, a lot has changed! My hair style and clothing, not to mention my taste in music; but what hasn’t changed is the importance of parents in their child’s speech, language and feeding therapy success.
When parents initially seek out speech, language or feeding therapy, they rarely are thinking about how services will be delivered; but, as your therapist, I regularly am thinking about how I can deliver the best and most effective services possible. For young children this almost always means a parent coaching model. Why? Because as a parent, you are your child’s superpower!
What is Parent Coaching?
Parent coaching is a collaborative, family-centered way of delivering therapy where the speech and language therapist coaches parents and caregivers in specific techniques and strategies to support their child’s communication and feeding development during everyday activities.
As a speech, language, and feeding therapist, I want to maximize a child’s opportunities to practice their new communication and feeding skills across their day. The best way to do this is to teach parents and caregivers how to create opportunities and interactions throughout the day that support their child’s communication and feeding learning; voilà, ‘parent coaching!’
Does it Work? Yes!
Children spend significantly more time with parents and caregivers compared to the time they spend with their speech and language therapist; so it makes sense that in order for a child to make the most progress, a child’s parents and caregivers need to understand how to use therapeutic strategies with them during everyday activities. A meta-analysis in 2019 found “… a positive association between parent training and child (development)… suggesting that parent training should play a primary role in intervention… (in order to maximize) outcomes for children….1 Notably, the meta-analysis found that children whose parents and caregivers were coached to use specific strategies made more progress than children whose parents and caregivers were not taught these strategies.
Findings supporting a parent coaching model for young children are repeatedly duplicated in the research and the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT) recommends a family-centered model of service delivery, such as parent coaching, when working with children.2 3 Not surprisingly, parent (and caregiver) coaching has been shown to be effective across settings (home, community, education) and with a variety of individuals (parents, grandparents, teachers, nursery staff, etc.).4
What Can I Expect from Parent Coaching with South Lakes Speech & Language Therapy?
Parent coaching with South Lakes Speech & Language Therapy can take place in your home or in the community and can be in-person or via teletherapy. In-person sessions involve us playing together with your child during which time I will model and teach you specific therapy strategies and help you use these strategies with your child to support their communication skills. If we meet over video, I will rely on you to tell and show me how you and your child play together, and we will talk about specific strategies to support your child ‘s communication during play and every day activities.
If we are working on feeding, South Lakes Speech & Language Therapy parent coaching sessions usually occur during a mealtime. Either in-person or via teletherapy, I will sit with you and your child and observe a milk feed or mealtime while trialing specific feeding techniques and strategies. We will practice new feeding techniques and strategies together so you are confident using these to support mealtimes with your child.
If I see your child at school, whenever possible your child’s teacher, teaching assistant, or one-on-one will be involved in the session and directly coached in strategies to support your child’s needs. Following the session, I will leave a detailed note for you and the school describing what was covered during the session and ways to practice and carry-over skills in the classroom and at home.
For more information about parent coaching and communication and/or feeding therapy for your child with South Lakes Speech & Language Therapy, please get in touch, and sign up to our newsletter if you would like new posts sent directly to your inbox.
- Roberts MY, Curtis PR, Sone BJ, Hampton LH. Association of Parent Training With Child Language Development: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. JAMA Pediatr. 2019 Jul 1;173(7):671-680. doi: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2019.1197. PMID: 31107508; PMCID: PMC6537769.ggjll ↩︎
- RCSLT SLCN Resource Manual ↩︎
- RCSLT – Placing Children and Young People at the Heart of Delivering Quality SLT ↩︎
- Rush, D.D., and Shelden M.L. (2020).‘
The Early Childhood Coaching Handbook’,
2nd ed. Paul H Brookes Publishing Co., Baltimore, MD. ↩︎