Make it FUNctional: The Importance of Generalization and Functional Communication Skills

We know that speech and language therapy is a beneficial and proven for giving children, teens and families’ skills and strategies to increase language and social communication skills. In my office I’ve seen children and teens accomplish great things!

But how do we make sure all those improvements and skills are working outside the treatment room? Yes, the progress we see during a structured therapy is an important starting point, but it is just a starting point. When communication skills make their way to the dinner table, the car ride, the playground and the classroom—that’s when we know speech and language is effective and functional. (Dare I say FUNctional?) Here are a few pointers for making sure therapy skills are making their way to “real life.”

For younger children:

1. Make it quick and simple. Don’t feel like you need to add “speech homework time” to your day. I know you and your family have enough to do! Sneak speech and language practice into those five-minute routines. Have your child request foods when you’re serving dinner, name toys and characters when you’re playing on the floor, have them tell you the steps to brushing teeth. Opportunities to talk exist all day long – so use them.

2. Repetition is good. Do you feel like that same books and games are always chosen at your house? It may drive parents a little batty, but repetition helps children learn. If you’ve read “Monsters Love Underpants” 30 times—have your child tell the story using the pictures. What does he remember? How does he or she describe the monster?

3. Act it out and get silly. I once heard an SLP say if you can “do it like a monster, you can do it like you.” Can your child maintain accurate speech sounds in silly voices? In different volumes? When pretending to be a robot can your child maintain good eye gaze and share clear ideas when acting out a story or play pretend? When he or she pretends, they are generalizing those language skills to different characters and contexts.

For teens and young adults:

1. Track your own progress. Make sure your teen knows WHAT we’re tracking. How did that sentence sound? Did my partner understand me? How many days did I record my assignments? Make the target easy to measure—count the number of assignments in the planner, record a conversation and play it back, ask for feedback. If a teen is motivated to track progress, he or she is more likely to continue.

2. Write your own goals. While we are talking about goals, I ALWAYS asking my preteens, teens and young adults to write a goal for themselves. If they want it, they’ll practice it. Be prepared—sometime the goal is “I never have to come to therapy again.” That’s OK, my job is to help you find a small steps to achieve that goal.

3. Practice in real life. Working on conversation with a variety of people? Encouraging your teen to advocate for him/herself? Try putting your teen in charge of ordering their own drink at Starbucks. Have him organize a family field trip to the movies- getting times and buying the tickets. By practicing communication and sometimes communication repair skills in real life, skills will generalize more quickly