Speech Therapy Wins! Building Progress Power in Kids

• Visual Triumph Charts: Create engaging charts where children can track their progress with
  stickers or markers. Think "graduating" levels or silly monster drawings that grow with each success! Even young children understand the joy of seeing progress visualized (and the power of stickers, obviously). Here's my free pocket graph chart, simple enough for young minds to understand.
• Positive Reinforcement: Celebrate even minor improvements with specific praise and encouragement. Tailor your praise to the specific effort the child is making. For example, "I see how hard you're working, even when it's tough. That's super-duper brave!"  For the trickiest goals, use matrices or rubrics, to show even a small amount of progress.
• Connecting Therapy to Everyday Goals: Help them connect their therapy work to real-world goals, like confidently ordering their favorite food at a restaurant without accidentally asking for a side of socks (because let's be honest, that's a conversation nobody wants to have). This connection boosts motivation and makes them feel like therapy is all about unlocking superpowers, not just mastering sounds.
  
  
  
• Superpower Spotlight! Speech therapy isn't about making everyone the same. We celebrate how each child uses their unique strengths to conquer communication challenges. Teach them about Multiple Intelligences (check out this article explaining on Psychology Today) – some whizzes with words, others shine with numbers, and some are body or nature superstars! Help your child discover their own superpowers and celebrate their differences. Have them create a poster of their talents and start a bulletin board!✨

"I Can Do Hard Things": Fostering a Growth Mindset

• The Power of Positive Affirmations: Model positive self-talk like "I can do hard things" or "I'm getting better every day." Encourage them to repeat these affirmations themselves. Hearing and believing in their own potential is empowering (and way cooler than a boring old pep talk).
• Equipping Them for Challenges: Provide coping mechanisms for dealing with frustration. Techniques like deep breathing exercises or a calming mantra (maybe something funny like "Sock monster go away!") can help them navigate difficult moments. Pointing out your own mistakes or frustrations and how you deal with them models coping mechanisms and realize that no one is perfect! I recommend these fun YouTube videos to demonstrate:
• The Backwards Brain Bicycle - Smarter Every Day - highlights how the brain creates "ruts" and has to relearn new habits, great for children learning new speech sounds.

• OK Go - This Too Shall Pass - Rube Goldberg Machine - I have students watch for the multiple broken TVs and pianos to highlight that our first attempts may have a lot of mistakes but if we keep working we will get it.

• Visualization Techniques: Encourage children to visualize themselves successfully mastering sounds or speaking fluently. Visualization strengthens their belief in their ability to achieve their goals (think of it like training for the communication Olympics!). For more information on this, see my previous blog post "Rethinking Practice: The Power of Mental Rehearsal."  Or check out this blog post on using mental rehearsal in the classroom.