Speech Therapy Tips for Children with Down Syndrome

Speech therapy tips for children with Down Syndrome.

When you have a child with Down Syndrome, you become very familiar with Early Intervention, Physical Therapy, Occupational therapy, and for some the most important, Speech Therapy. I came across Molly from the Speech Teacher on social media and being that I am still learning so much about how to help my son reach his full potential, I asked her to share some sage advice with us all. So here are her top 5 Speech therapy tips for children with Down Syndrome.

As The Speech Teacher, I post daily ‘Pops of Knowledge’ on Facebook and Instagram that consist of facts, tricks of the trade, at home activities, and product recommendations. I believe that the more you know – as a parent or caregiver – the stronger you will be in supporting your little one’s speech, language, and feeding development! To help you achieve this, my focus is on providing you with FUN & FUNCTIONAL suggestions.

Check & Recheck Hearing

Proper hearing is critical for speech and language development. Some of our little ones tend to get ear infections multiple times per year. When ears are infected, sound is blocked from reaching the inner ear and hearing greatly diminishes. If your little one is unable to hear speech and non-speech sounds, it will be harder to understand the world around them. For example, they may not be able to make associations such as a knock on the door or a telephone ring. More importantly, they will be unable to understand the language being spoken around them. Our receptive language skills are our ability to understand language and these skills come before expressive language (our ability to communicate language). Therefore, it is critical to ensure that your little one can hear in order to understand language and in turn communicate language!

Start With Gestures or ASL

Gestures and sign language are an incredibly powerful tool to provide your child with before, during, and after they are able to produce their first word! When you provide your child with skills such as gestures or sign language, you are giving them the gift of communication! Many parents worry that teaching sign language or gestures will prevent children from learning spoken language, but in fact research shows the opposite! It has been proven that teaching gestures and sign language can actually improve children’s language and cognition. One of the first communicative milestones is learning that you must do something in order to get something. When you teach your little one gestures or sign language, you are teaching them that they CAN do something (e.g. sign ‘milk’) in order to get something (e.g. milk). You can start with 3-5 basic signs (e.g. more, milk, me, etc.) and add more as your child starts to use the signs consistently in order to communicate.

Context Is Key

Children learn most from their daily routines for a reason! Daily routines provide the quickest and most stable learning because of the context and the repetition. That is, your child probably knows the word, “shoes” from having to take them on and off each time they leave and enter the house. The context around “shoes” is very rich because of all of the clues (e.g. you may have a bucket or mat near the door where the shoes are, which provides a visual clue, etc.) This action of putting on and removing shoes probably happens at least 1 time per day, which provides excellent repetition. Children with Down syndrome need repetition in order to learn new information and retain it. If you work within your daily routine, you will automatically be providing a wonderful amount of repetition! More examples include: working on body parts in the bath, working on food during meals and at the grocery store, working on clothing items while getting dressed, etc.

Work With What is Motivating

When building speech and language skills at home, it is best to follow your child’s lead in terms of what is motivating! The more excited your child is by an activity, the more likely they will stay engaged and attentive, which will allow learning to occur. Build language into your child’s preferred activities by getting down and dirty and playing with them. I like to “chunk” vocabulary during play. That is, if we are playing with trains I will target 3-5 specific words such as, “go” “stop” “more” “train” “track” and if we are playing with a dollhouse I may target, “house” “door” “open” “bed” “baby” etc. That way, you are following your child’s lead, playing with an activity that is motivating, and providing them with some key vocabulary words as you go.

Don’t Forget The Rest!

Often times we become hyper-focused on our children producing many words and we forget about their receptive language skills and pragmatics! Children with Down syndrome tend to have stronger receptive language skills (i.e. understanding of language) than expressive language skills (i.e. ability to communicate language). However, that does not mean that we shouldn’t target these skills. Make sure you are playing fun games that involve following directions, as this is one of the easiest ways to assess your child’s understanding of language. Some of my favorite games include: Simon Says, scavenger hunts, and board games such as, The Cat in The Hat I Can Do That.

Pragmatic language skills include using language appropriately, adjusting language as necessary, and following the conversational rules of language. Pretend play is my favorite way to target pragmatic language skills! It is best to follow your child’s lead and initiate games that are motivating (i.e. dress up vs. dollhouse vs. playing veterinarian etc.) You can build your little one’s attention to task slowly. That is, if they currently focus on an activity for 1 minute, target 1 minute and 30 seconds, and then 2 minutes, etc. Timers can be your best friends as well. Turn taking is another pragmatic language skill that occurs during play and language. Some of our little ones may need verbal reminders not to interrupt and others respond best to visual cues (i.e. a picture of 2 friends talking, a stop sign and a go sign, etc.) The more your child understands turn taking during play, the easier it is to teach the concept in conversations. You can also target basic social skills (knowing who is appropriate to talk to, how close to stand when someone is talking, demonstrating proper eye contact, etc.) Playing with stuffed animals or puppets is an easy way to target these basic social skills by creating varying scenes and conversations that your little one can participate in.

Molly is a New York City based Speech Language Pathologist and Feeding Therapist. She is ASHA (American Speech and Hearing Association) Certified and trained in the SOS (Sequential Oral Sensory) Approach to Feeding. She received her Masters in Speech Language Pathology from Teacher’s College, Columbia University, and her Bachelors in Speech and Hearing Science from George Washington University. She currently works with the birth-5 population conducting evaluations & providing speech and feeding therapy in NYC. Molly provides therapy in the home as well as in a special needs preschool setting.