The holiday season is a wonderful time for family bonding and language building, but it can also be a period of stress and chaos for many families. Here are some simple yet effective tips for supporting families during the holidays, ensuring that everyone can enjoy the festivities while nurturing connection and communication.
1) Support Families During the Holidays by Embracing Incidental Routines
Incidental routines are those small things that happen all the time and often go unnoticed or dismissed as being actual “routines”.
For example, an incidental routine could be a child shaking their dirty hands at their parent while vocalising. We can be detectives in our coaching sessions, by observing these small moments (which probably occur frequently) and pointing out strengths and opportunities for strategy use. For example, we might tell a caregiver “he’s vocalising while gesturing, and you’re so great at reading his cues” or, “he’s vocalising while gesturing, what words do you think would be useful to model to him here?”
So, this holiday season, we can use support families to use these tiny everyday moments and integrate language and learning opportunities without adding another task to the caregivers’ ‘to-do’ list. So, whether it’s putting the child in a high chair, wiping their hands, or even getting in the car, each moment can be a chance to engage and learn together. Coach caregivers to use strategies during these small moments, so they can support their child’s language and communication development, without adding more tasks to their already busy plate this holiday season!
2) Support Families by Simplifying Your Suggestions During the Holiday Season
Be mindful of the family’s holiday schedule when suggesting strategies and ideas for home practice this holiday season. Trying to add one more thing may seem overwhelming. So instead, work with the caregivers to identify 1-2 strategies that naturally fit into their existing routines or holiday traditions. A key thing for success here is to encourage caregivers to identify the strategies they want to focus on and when they want to do it. This will support carryover and home practice, because they’ve chosen things that work for them, rather than you choosing something which may be overwhelming right now. Read more about engaging caregivers in coaching sessions here.
3) Acknowledge the Season’s Challenges
Be sure to check in with caregivers during your sessions to see how they’re coping with the holiday season, the therapy plans, etc. It’s important to listen to caregivers and validate the stress that comes with the holiday season. Make sure you also take time to celebrate the efforts they’ve made to support their child’s language and communication skills, while also focusing on spending quality time together. Remind them that it’s not easy to juggle it all, but they’re doing it great job. You can also remind and reassure them that it’s perfectly fine to scale back on expectations. Focusing on family time and building connections is just as important as any skill development.
4) Provide Handouts to Encourage Carryover at Home
One evidence-based way you can support families with home practice and carryover during the holidays is to provide handouts (see O’Toole , 2021) Handouts are useful for caregivers to refer back to in-between sessions, so they can remember the strategy, how to implement it, and remember the agreed plans. These Early Language Handouts for Winter include simple, caregiver-friendly ideas for supporting language skills throughout winter. These Early Language Handouts provide simple, caregiver-friendly explanations of common language facilitation strategies. Great for educating and supporting families without overwhelming them during the holidays.