Summer is vacation time!
On the flip side, summer is a time when many valuable skills gained from the school year are lost. This is a normal phenomenon known as regression. This is why schools should spend the beginning of the school year focusing on the recoupment of skills lost during the months of June, July, and August.
In the therapeutic process we see the influence of regression and recoupment on client progress. Cancelled or missed sessions begin to take their toll. Therefore many speech therapists continue to service their clients during the summer months.
We can’t ignore the fact that everyone else seems to be on vacation. Or that we feel burned out and ready for physical stimulation, exercise, and socialization. Let’s embrace that feeling and incorporate it into our sessions. Allow yourself to enjoy the feeling of summer while continuing to address the goals and objectives to continue to make progress.
Below are some ideas to keep ourselves fresh and cool this summer- in our sessions:
- Work outside: Sit on a picnic bench or on the grass in the shade. Allow the beautiful weather to enhance the work that you are doing with your client. Try not to sit in a distracting location (ie:next to the pool/daycamp house/basketball courts) which can detract from what you are trying to accomplish
- Incorporate fun summer toys: Buy Kinetic sand and water beads. Allow the client to play with these activities as a reinforcement or as part of the lesson. Beware these items do get messy. Summer’s more laid back so relax and have a 2 minute clean-up time at the end of each session.
- Summer themes: Center your lessons around summer items and themes. Don’t reinvent the wheel- there are tons of summer themed speech therapy lessons available for Free and for Purchase.
Free Teachers Pay Teachers Summer Downloads
- Make your sessions somewhat physical: Take a walk,use a ball or jumprope as reinforcement, or draw a modified hopscotch board instead of an overused board game or the ipad.
- Change the routine: Switch something, actually anything around to make this session feel different from the sessions throughout the year.
- Dress for success: Wear something that fits the terrain. If your working in a chilled out camp environment don’t dress to kill and sit uncomfortably. Follow the dress code and dress as casually as possible.
- Learn something new: If your schedule is more laid back take the time to do some research for a puzzling client. Buy a book or get some advice. Learn something new so that you can head back from the summer feeling empowered for the coming year.
Best wishes for an incredible and safe summer!!
Schmoozeadmin