You know the feeling of the first few weeks of a new school year.  There is the shopping for backpacks and school supplies.  Clothing and shoes and if you are like my son, a great number of very specific shirts.  Even if your child is in a preschool setting, there are still so many things to get and do.

And once you accomplish them, once you get their new schedule and they are on their way, you breathe.  Right?

Right!! …….for about 30 seconds.

And then comes the homework, after school sports and classes. The“Hey Mom, where is my (insert name of lost object here)?” or the “Mom, did you know class pictures are today?”  Yes, it is all there!

For those who have all the above fun stuff (and I truly mean fun, because those crazy, busy moments are what life is truly about), and a child with special needs, well!  You are managing therapies as well as all that after school stuff.

It really is a balancing act because you know you have to keep up with the therapies for you child but you know you want to do those sports or lessons with all your children as well.  But how do you make sure that you are keeping up with it all?

I thought I would offer some thoughts out to those who have 17 balls in the air this Fall.

Sounds simple right?  But sometimes in the heat of the moment, you say: Sure, I think that karate three nights a week would be fun.  And it probably will be, for about a week or two.  But then you realize it is 25 minutes there and back, and then there is a therapy one night that you now see you will have to move, and then the therapist can’t do it the night you can, and so now you are double booked, looking at your child in his karate outfit and you watch at the same time.

So best to get a calendar and really think, marking down the WHOLE time it takes to accomplish any afterschool activity.  And mark down the therapies…all of them.

Then look and ask yourself…can I do this schedule in a month?  Two months?

I am SOOO not saying to do nothing but therapies…No, No, No, Just that sometimes it helps to remember that therapies and life with your special child as well as typical siblings if that is the case, is a marathon, not a sprint and as such, bursting out of the gate may feel great but really cannot be sustained.  And you want to have your child(ren) both typical and special needs to have the chance to do these things long term.

So an exhausting schedule will take its toll pretty quick.  And if you think I am not talking from experience, I will happily share with you my Fall of 2003 as a prime example.  I think I am still catching up on my energy from that time.

I always wanted Elizabeth’s sister, Emily to have choices for her after school times.  Elizabeth would come with us.  I always tried to have something to do with Elizabeth that was “work.” For those who have read previous blogs from me, you know “work” is my reference to any homework given to me by our therapists.

So I would plan what I would attempt to do with Elizabeth while we were waiting for Emily:

• Maybe it was to bring her speech folder along and go over sounds
• Maybe it was to look at a magazine and have her try to name new things and verbally highlight sounds.
• Maybe it was talking a walk around the building and stomping our feet for sensory input or twirling her as if we were dancing.
• Maybe practicing cutting or coloring or even spelling their name of a wipe off board.

I am using some easy examples here but the offering is that this time, while occupied for one can be open homework time for your special child.

Just remember to tell your child what you are planning to do, this way they can anticipate correctly.

Yes, I said it ….enjoy.  Time passes quickly and to enjoy all moments is a gift.  We are 19 years in on our journey with Elizabeth, and I can truly say we tried to enjoy all the good that we could.  So even the crazy times have those really good moments.

Good luck with the start to all the new school years.  I wish you peace.

-Michele Gianetti

Michele writes for TalkTools Blog every month about her experience caring for Elizabeth, her daughter with Sensory Processing Disorder and Dyspraxia. Follow her story since the beginning here.

So many parents, at this time of year, find themselves throwing out old notebooks, half used crayons, semi-dried-out markers, ripped folders all with the excited feeling that it is summer! Time to just relax. Right?

Well, if you have a child with special needs, that time of sheer freedom does not arrive in quite the same way.

True, you have a bit less of a rigid schedule, a bit less to prepare for each day, but to simply throw out the old school stuff and grab a magazine, lawn chair and plan what to grill for dinner is not how it plays out, at least in my experience.

If you ask anyone who knows me what I love the most, they would answer when my children are home. So of course, I greeted summer with a happy heart, and of course I tossed many a backpack into the corner of the hallway, but then I turned my thoughts on how to make summer fun while still meeting the goals and needs of Elizabeth.

So how did I do it and truthfully continue to do it?

Well, I think one thing I do is to spend some time thinking about some of the goals from Elizabeth’s new IEP that I would like to focus on during summer. And since we adjust her IEP in the Spring, I could use it as a bit of a guide. Once I have some ideas I try to visualize how I can slip them into the day.

Then I think of the things I wish to put into our everyday schedule, like instead of the TV in the afternoon, we would have some music time or some quiet reading time. For those who are younger, we would color or do play dough. Just something to calm ourselves, especially Elizabeth who needs this calming time, and to take a break from the “go” of the day. This is usually around three or four in the afternoon.

We also build in a bit of rest time. So after lunch, we all go to our neutral corners to either watch a video (them, not me) or rest (me, not them).

Of course, there are trips to the park, pool and friends’ houses in our days but I like having this loose structure because then you can build in the therapy play around it.

Something that I think is important is to know that therapy can be built into the play or activities of the average day. And this holds true for speech therapy as well. It’s just that you have to see each thing you do as a potential learning time and/or find ways to incorporate therapy without making it a “therapy time.”

For example, something we did to help with Elizabeth’s oral motor work was to blow horns. We would get a number of different ones like the ones of TalkTools Original Horn Kit.  We would sit on the driveway, put a CD in the player and have fun blowing horns to the songs. I would encourage deep breaths and proper lip placement but after that, it was just fun to do this. Emily, our oldest, loved it too and she and Elizabeth would especially love Horn #4, that has the little spinney thing on top.  So we actually bought Emily her own set of horns to use to eliminate any fighting amongst the ranks.

So see, you get the oral motor work, breathing, fresh air and all the while it is fun.

Something else that is fun is to be on the driveway or deck and to bring out the bubbles.  We used to have the largest supply of bubble soap in the neighborhood and ours were even scented! Anyway, we had big wands to use standing up and this would work her whole body to turn and twist and to run after the bubbles to pop them. Then we would use TalkTools Bubble Bear to have her work on her ability to blow bubbles. The face of the bear made it fun. I would actually look forward to this because it was simply fun … but still therapy. One caveat is that you need bubble soap that makes good bubbles, like TalkTools Bubble Refill. This instant gratification is critical when a child is working so hard to make it work.

Even when bringing your child a fun, summer drink, remember that using certain straws, such as those of TalkTools Straw Kit, will help work with your oral motor goals.

If you are working on language skills, remember the rides in the car are great places to talk, to use descriptive language as you do errands, to ask questions of your child and to help verbally highlight words they may say incorrectly.

If your child needs help with knowing left or right, this can be worked on when driving as well.

For those times when more concentrated work needs done, say with oral stimulation like with Toothettes or lemon swabs and perhaps some work with letters or words, I have found that a visual schedule is so very helpful. It lets the child see just what you have planned for the session and allows them to see what comes next. Which will hopefully help with the transition from one thing to the next. And in the case of Elizabeth, knowing when she was DONE was huge to her.

I made my own schedule chart but one that I love and only wish I had when we were early on in our journey with Elizabeth is the TalkTools Schedule Board Kit.  I offer that using one of these is something that is so worth considering.

There really is so much you can do, these of course are just a few that we did. Maybe they will help get some ideas flowing. Please feel free to comment with questions or additional summer speech therapy schedule ideas below.

I wish everyone a happy, safe, productive summer. Ours begins tomorrow and I will again toss a backpack or two and then look to having a fun time as Elizabeth and I begin our 18^th summer together.

Blessing to all.

-Michele Gianetti 

Michele writes for TalkTools Blog every month about her experience caring for Elizabeth, her daughter with Sensory Processing Disorder and Dyspraxia. Follow her story since the beginning here.