Dear Parents,

It has been a pleasure working with you and your child over the past school year. I wish you all a happy, safe, and fun summer! Below are some suggestions for what you can do to help your child avoid the “summer slide” for speech and language skills.

• Go to the library and/or read with your child!
  • For Articulation Students:
    • Read a book loaded with your child’s sound to them while exaggerating the sound to provide models
    • Have your child read the book aloud to you practicing production of their speech sounds
  • For Language Students:
    • Read a passage and ask wh-questions about it
    • Ask your child to summarize the story using sequence words (first, then, next, last)
    • Talk about features of items in the story to help build vocabulary (function of the item, description, location it is found in, etc.)
    • Talk about what might happen next in the story and read together to see who is right
  • For Fluency Students:
    • Have your child ask the librarian for help finding a book or checking out
    • Have your child practice using their fluency shaping and/or stuttering modification strategies while reading aloud and/or when asking and answering questions about the passage or story
    • Talk about the problem found in the story and ask your child to share with you how they would respond in the given situation
• Play "I Spy" during a long car ride ! Have your child describe items inside or outside of your car
• Go to the movies! Have your child request/buy the tickets and/or snacks and after the movie talk about their favorite part
• Go out to eat! Have your child order their own food and drink

I hope you find these suggestions helpful, please reach out if you have any questions!

See you in September,

Ms. Bradshaw