As an SLP, you understand the frustration with caregivers who don’t follow through with speech therapy suggestions after they’ve asked. You KNOW progress would be so much faster if carryover was happening at home! This can be especially challenging, but it’s important to consider why this breakdown is happening and consider what you can do to help.
Why Aren’t Home Activities Happening?
There are a few different reasons why caregivers may not be following through with the home activities you suggest after therapy sessions:
- Caregivers may be overwhelmed.
- They may not understand what their child’s goals are or how they fit into their own goals for their child.
- The home activities may not fit into the family’s lifestyle.
- The home activities may be too difficult.
Because each of these reasons is different, your approach to helping families work through them will be unique. Let’s keep talking about easy ways you can address this dilemma.
3 Ways to Address the Lack of Follow Through
- Educate Families
- Encourage Honest Communication and Realistic Expectations
- Adjust Homework Activities
Educate Families
For caregivers who feel overwhelmed or aren’t clear on what’s going on in therapy, it is well worth your time to provide much-needed education for them.
Some families may be unsure about what a diagnosis means, and you can share more about Autism Spectrum Disorder, Speech Sound Disorders, or Childhood Apraxia of Speech to help them find clarity.
For others, they may not see the connection between your therapy goals and the goals they have for their child at home. In these cases, you can take time to discuss foundational skills with them.
Examples of these conversations you might have:
- Receptive language skills come before expressive language skills.
- A child must have an awareness of his disfluencies before applying strategies for more fluent speech.
- The need to produce speech sounds intelligibly at word levels before addressing conversational speech
- The importance of developing imitation skills at action and sound levels before working on words and sentences
Other parents may not understand the importance of home practice since their child is already practicing skills with you during the week. Take time to help them understand why home practice is so important for their child’s progress and generalization of skills.
*Check out this Parent Education Handout Bundle to make your life easier!
Encourage Honest Communication and Realistic Expectations
Next, encourage caregivers to be honest with you and realistic with themselves. Remind them that you both are equal members of their child’s “therapy team”, and without 100% honesty on both parts, the progress will not occur as smoothly or quickly.
Adjust Home Activities
If homework activities aren’t working for a family, adjust them! There’s no need to waste anyone’s time reinforcing something that just will not get done.
Every family’s situation is different and homework is likely to look different for everyone.
Some families will be able to sit down and focus on completing an activity page with their child while others need your permission to practice in shorter spurts. Speech activities can be just as effective when done during daily activities just a couple of minutes at a time– sometimes this is the most effective way!
Children’s interests and abilities to attend can change throughout the year. Consider switching things up with engaging activities like these:
- One-player articulation games for elementary students
- Articulation story worksheets for upper elementary (targeting /r, s, ch, sh, th/)
Ultimately, let parents know that it doesn’t matter how they choose to practice at home, the important thing is that they ARE doing something with their child to carry over the skills you are working on at school or in the clinic.
Don’t Take it Personally!
Despite your very best efforts, there will be some families who just do not follow through with your speech ideas no matter how much you try to educate them, work on honest communication, or adjust activities. You can’t take it personally!
A family may have the best intentions but be unable to give speech the current priority in their lives. This could be due to:
- Sick family members
- Divorce
- Job loss
- Financial stress
- Other therapies
Whatever the reason for a family’s lack of follow through may be, you must release the responsibility of this burden from yourself. At the end of the day, you are responsible for therapy and providing information so caregivers can support their child at home IF THEY CHOOSE TO.
Carrying unnecessary stress can lead to burnout, and no one wants that!
Looking for More Ways to Support Your Families?
Finally, consider taking “Connecting with Caregivers” to learn more ways to get caregivers to buy in to therapy without breaking a sweat.
This webinar includes nearly 5 hours of professional development filled with practical step-by-step guides and handouts to help you feel reenergized in your purpose as an SLP!
Do your best to educate families, encourage honesty, and adjust homework as needed, but remember, speech is a team sport and not your sole responsibility! There will continue to be caregivers who don’t follow through with speech therapy suggestions, and that’s okay. You are doing a great job helping your students succeed!
You may also be interested in reading:
4 Tips for Pediatric SLPs When Talking to Caregivers
How to Support Caregivers with Research Strain
How to Support Caregivers with Guilt
