How to Help Your Loved One at Home With Their Speech and Language Therapy

“How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these.”

– George Washington Carver

Whether it’s your child who is receiving therapy for a stutter or your elderly father who is receiving speech therapy following a stroke, there are practical ways you can help at home to assist them in progressing toward their goals for improvement and to show your love and support.

With people of any age – but particularly with children, consistency is important. To ensure the best possible outcome, it’s critical that the homework or techniques and strategies recommended by your loved one’s Speech-Language Pathologist be practiced and completed between each session.

Focus on your family member’s strengths and preferences when choosing practice activities and remember to be flexible. There will be days when even the preferred techniques simply won’t work. On those days, it’s best to move on and try something else.

Young or old, everyone will benefit from maintaining a positive attitude. While frustrations can emerge when acquiring new speech and language skills or reclaiming lost ones, it’s important to remember that improvement is a process. Success typically isn’t seen overnight. Achieving good results from an exercise program takes tenacity and determination and so too does achieving a positive outcome in speech and language therapy.

S.L. Hunter SpeechWorks provides a complete range of assessment and treatment services for people of all ages with challenges in speech, language and communication. Any person with such concerns is welcome to contact the clinic to set up an appointment.

The offices of S.L. Hunter SpeechWorks are located at 5195 Harvester Rd. Unit 4B. To make an appointment, call 905-637-5522 or visit them online at www.slhunter.ca.