Play and Its Role in Speech Therapy
How Role Play Game Ideas Enhance Communication Skills
If you have a child who is starting their speech therapy journey, you might have noticed that a lot of time is spent on playing. However, just because your child plays don’t mean the therapy is not ongoing. In fact, play serves as a potent tool in speech therapy. It allows for creative and interactive ways for children, and even adults, to nurture important communication skills. Play in speech therapy can range from the individual playing by themselves while the Speech-Language Pathologists oversee the activity to having role play, game ideas guided by the SLP.
More than a Form of Amusement: Play as a Tool
Using different techniques in therapy, play is used as a tool in speech therapy to improve communication skills. Construction plays, for example, can help with vocabulary, articulation and improve cognitive skills. Whereas role play game ideas help in practicing social interactions. These interactive games not only make learning fun but also provide an avenue for children to express their thoughts and ideas with less inhibition. It creates authentic situations wherein speech and language competencies can be honed.
Role Play Game Ideas That Target a Specific Impediment
Aside from the generalized use of play to make children comfortable during therapies, it can also be used for specific purposes. Role playing, for example, can be modified and target a certain speech challenge depending on the goal. For example, in a scenario where the child is a shop owner can help them practice the use of correct greetings, use of courteous requests and salutations. Similarly, it helps them use eye contact and gives them an avenue to take turns in a conversation. Such an activity provides a lot of benefits while the child is enjoying the activity. Furthermore, a more engaged child leads to a more effective therapy outcome.
Social Language Opportunity in Role Play Game Ideas
Engaging children in role play games provides an avenue to practice and enhance their social language skills. While playing these games, children undergoing speech therapy can try taking turns talking in a conversation. Additionally, the child is in a safe situation to analyze social cues and encourage empathy. By having a chance to step into different roles in the dame, the child gets to experience different points of views, which can be very challenging for some children like those with Autism or issues in social communication.
Guided Role Play Game Ideas by a Professional Speech-Language Pathologist
Having a professional Speech-Language Pathologist to guide you child through role plays helps a lot towards achieving the goals in therapy. Roles are customized by the speech therapist during sessions to fit the developmental needs of the child. This is in concurrence with the expected outcomes of the speech therapy journey. Simple roles can be assigned to younger children whereas older or more advanced kids can get more complicated roles. Here at Speech Link, we acknowledge the importance and make use of play as an important tool in our sessions. Although not used exclusively, our team of expert speech therapists makes every session enjoyable as they are fruitful with these games. Should you like your child to experience a stress-free, enjoyable yet effective session, call us today and schedule your consultation.