The Importance of Carry-over

Carry-over is a term used to describe an individual's ability to take the learned skills from speech therapy to other environments and situations outside the therapy room. It's generalizing the new information across a broader range of contexts. Carry-over is important because time spent practicing a skill will improve a child’s abilities and rate of mastery. It signifies a child's understanding of the material and demonstrates their independent functioning as they transfer what they have learned to each part of their life.

Tips for Teachers to Support Carryover

Model clear/understandable articulation: It has been found that the more time a student hears a sound produced correctly, the more likely they are to produce the sound correctly themselves. Use activities in the classroom that may include target sounds your student has difficulties with and make sure to produce those sounds as clear and natural as possible.

Put an emphasis on speech sounds: Put more focus on the sound a letter makes compared to the letter itself. As an example have the student focus on producing the "sh" sound rather than the "s" and "h" sound.

Highlight target sounds in activities: Make the target sounds more noticeable for your student when completing activities. This will provide more awareness of target sounds in different contexts for your student.

Ask your student for repetition: This allows the student to understand that speaking clearly is important without putting them in the spotlight to say a target sound correctly. You can also encourage your student to use their communication strategies that they learn in the speech classroom with their SLP.

Make sure to give your student feedback: Avoid criticism and use encouraging language when providing feedback to your student. An example of encouraging language is "That was great, I heard you use Two sounds at the beginning of the word "stop".

Tips for Parents to Support Carryover

If the child makes an incorrect production do not tell them that they are wrong as this will discourage them. Instead model the correct production by repeating the word to the child emphasizing the correct speech sounds.
- Do not pressure them to repeat the word, instead focus being a good model for speech production.
Model target words in context during natural conversation to emphasize the importance of producing words correctly.
Comment on what your child is doing to promote use of speech rather than overwhelming the child with questions.
Have your child watch your face when you talk so that they can learn the correct motor movements for speech.
Use mirrors when your child is focusing on practicing speech sounds so that can see what they are doing.
Help your child complete homework if your speech language pathologist sends some home.
Communicate with the speech language pathologist working with your child to determine strategies that will help your child specifically.
Learn the cues that the speech language pathologist uses with your child to support the use of them in the home environment.

Tips for Listeners

Talk in a quiet environment with good lighting
Pay attention when your child is talking - watching while they talk
Try not to pretend that you understand when you don’t.
Let your child know when you misunderstand their message
Repeat back what you did understand from your child so that they don't have to repeat their entire message
If you are still having trouble understanding, ask yes or no questions or ask them to point

References

5 tips for articulation carryover in the classroom. @ASHA. (2017, August 3). Retrieved December 4, 2021, from https://leader.pubs.asha.org/do/10.1044/5-tips-for-articulation-carryover-in-the-classroom/full/.
American Speech Language Hearing Association. (2021). Activities to encourage speech and language development. ASHA. https://www.asha.org/public/speech/development/activities-to-encourage-speech-and-language-development/
Morgan, L., Marshall, J., Harding, S., Powell, G., Wren, Y., Coad, J., & Roulstone, S. (2019). ‘It depends’: Characterizing speech and language therapy for preschool children with developmental speech and language disorders. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 54(6), 954-970. https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.12498