Generalization is the idea that skills and ideas are transferred from one setting to another. This is a normal part of childhood development. A child comes home from school and demonstrates skills and knowledge learned and rehearsed at school to their parents. A child goes to school and demonstrates skills and knowledge learned and rehearsed at home to their teachers.
Generalization is a key component to successful speech therapy. We teach skills in a highly structured environment. When we start to observe success in these skills we then give parents the skills and resources to continue growth of these skills at home. True generalization occurs when we can observe a child utilizing these skills across all setting in which they participate.
Daily debriefing can be a link to generalize language skills across the school and home environment. Some kids can engage in this on their walk or drive home from school, some need time to do something else before fully discussing their days, others can have a meaningful conversation while doing homework or packing their backpack for the following day. Focus on open ended questions. Don’t ask questions that give your child the answer to say “yes, no, good, bad, fine” etc. Some of the language skills you may be helping to hone are narrative skills, verb tenses, pronouns, social skills, problem solving, and theory of mind.
Some days your child will have a lot more to say than others. But soon you’ll see your child transferring information across settings and it’s really fun to watch!