I cannot believe it is the week before Christmas....
Here are 5 Christmas-themed speech therapy ideas to support children who stutter in your speech rooms, in your classrooms, and at home!
Self-Esteem Ornaments
Love this idea from Bright Futures Counseling! Head on over to her page to check out her idea for Self-Esteem Ornaments! Use empty ornaments and have clients/students write self-esteem statements ("I am funny, I am smart") on small slips of paper to put inside. You could also create your own ornaments that have self-esteem statements on them!
You could also utilize ornaments to put positive statements about stuttering and/or communication. There are lots of possibilities!
2. Santa's Mindfulness Sack
The holidays are wonderful - but they can also be dysregulating and stressful time for children (and adults!).
Stuttering Therapy Resources has a phenomenal blog post about stuttering & the holidays - check it out here!
Prepare your clients/students who stutter with strategies they can pull out of Santa's bag as gifts for themselves at the holidays. Need some help thinking of strategies for these moments? Check out:
3. Stuttering Gifts
LOVE this idea from Kristel Kubart (@thestutteringslp). Ask the open-ended question, "What gifts has stuttering brought you this year?" You could also print out Christmas gift templates and have the child decorate them while you talk!
This has lead to great discussion in my speech room, and helped to promote positive stuttering identity!
4. 12 Days of Stuttering
This idea is pretty open-ended! Some kids might really enjoy hearing the song and it gets everyone in a Christmas-y spirit! I love the Pentatonix version. It leads to such great conversation about all the cool things our voices can do - including stuttering!)
From there, you can decide if you want to select 12 stuttering facts, 12 tips for people who don't stutter about stuttering, 12 stuttering quotes, 12 things stuttering brought them... the possibilities are endless!
You can use the music as inspiration and make up your own lyrics - or just stick with the 12 theme!
5. "Santa Stutters, Too!" by Regan R. Espinosa
I love this quote: "Santa is known for saying 'Ho, ho, ho!' but he had much more to say and more words to go!"
This sweet book by promotes acceptance and empathy of people who stutter. It is a quick read and definitely geared towards young children. I could also see it being a good starting point for discussion about verbal diversity for older (K-2) students.
Hope you find these helpful! Happy Holidays!
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