Your Positioning Aids in Successful Speech Therapy Sessions

This might be my biggest tip and something I’m often sharing with my grad students and CFs I supervise. What I often observe is children leaving activities, children getting into unwanted spaces/toys, and children flat out leaving the room. Think about what your position in the room and to the child is allowing.

Here are a few tips:

• Make your space smaller!
• Big open spaces are inviting for children to want to run around and explore. Move furniture around or simply position yourselves where you block them into a corner or designated area. You are an invisible wall where they are less likely to get up (and if they do, it’ll be much easier to redirect back to their spot. Sidenote: It also helps if you have a visual place marker where they know they should sit).

• Sit in front of the door
• If you have a student that wants to leave the room, simply sit in front of the door! They can try all they want but they'll be unsuccessful in opening the door. Redirect to the activity in front of you.
• Sit in front of the desired area
• Some rooms have open shelves with toys on them, cabinets to open, etc. This can be a distraction and if a student has access to it, they often won't engage with your activity. Position yourself in front of shelves/cabinets where you can block and easily redirect when the child goes to explore it. 

Positioning helps, but it sometimes doesn't solve all of our problems if we are using a room that is very visually distracting. In next week's blog post, I'll give tips on how to limit visual distractions.

Happy Speeching!

~Erin