3 Speech Therapy Strategies for the Holiday Break

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We all know how stressful the holiday season can be – parties, traveling, visiting family members, and the list goes on! These ongoing events can certainly change up your regular routine. Now imagine tackling the entire holiday season without knowing which event was coming up next! Being prepared is essential, which is why providing your children with tools such as a visual schedule, social stories, can help them adjust and prepare for changes to their routine.

Once the schedule has been made, it is important to reset the activity cards each day and to discuss any upcoming events that might disrupt their routine. Feel free to include “typical” things on the schedule as well (i.e. meals, iPad time, grocery shopping, etc.). Being away from school and therapy during the holidays can be stressful, but a visual schedule will help mentally prepare your child for what comes next during the holidays!

Another suggestion is creating schedules and step-by-step directions or social stories for all of the activities that occur during the holidays so that children know what to expect and what to do to help for activities such as : decorating the tree, putting up lights, opening gifts, wrapping gifts, and taking down decorations and cleaning up when the holidays come to an end.

Engaging in role-playing games can also be helpful! Discussing with the child who is going to be attending the holiday festivities and then acting out scenarios in which they might find themselves. For example, having the parent pretend to be a family member and handing the child a present. Modeling the appropriate way to receive the present would be helpful for the child. Also the role playing can help with practicing conversational skills such as turn taking and making eye contact with relatives.

For those long car rides or travel days, make sure to have fun speech games and fun activities to practice speech and language on the go! Some examples: “I spy (spy different items they see on the drive), guessing game (describe items for the child to name), or play/sing familiar songs (practice verbal fill in/auditory closes).