It is important to highlight all of the positive changes and successful moments in a session and reported at home at the beginning, during, and end of each session with parents. It is so important to meet children where they are at. As the therapist or the parent, we get excited when we see progress and we often may want to push these amazing moments into full force, accelerating the child as much as we can. This is understandable! We are eager for them to be talkers and see them soar in their communication.
But when our excitement too heavily focuses on where we desire them to be rather than celebrating the little achievements along the way, it becomes more challenging to recognize all of the progress that is currently happening RIGHT NOW! Sure, some sessions there are big YES! THAT WAS HUGE! moments and other times we conquer baby steps. Both are awesome and both are worth recognizing and celebrating. Continuing to focus on what went well and understanding how you may have supported your child in a successful moment allows for more of these moments to further flourish.
A little daily task to help with this crucial recognition is a daily log. At the end of each day, or throughout the day, write down at least three things that your child did that was an accomplishment. Maybe it was making eye contact with you, maybe it was imitating a new word or sound, or maybe it was recovering from a tantrum in a less amount of time.
Another area to acknowledge is what you did as the parent or caregiver to support the child in this successful moment. Perhaps you were using varying vocal intonation and big, encouraging facial expressions, providing effective verbal prompts, positive reinforcement, OR maybe it was taking some deep breaths on your own and remaining calm during your child's tantrum. Take a moment each day to give yourself the space to recognize and celebrate what you did well.
By increasing our awareness of the little steps or successes throughout the day, we intuitively create more space to provide more amazing steps forward in your child's speech and language growth.