Setting realistic speech therapy expectations for your child’s speech therapy progress is an essential step in supporting their ability to connect with the world around them. At our practice, we focus on nurturing communication that builds clarity, confidence, and connection-building skills. While no two children are alike, having grounded expectations as a parent helps create a therapy journey that’s empowering for both child and family. Here’s how to stay hopeful and intentional as you navigate this process.
1. Setting Expectations Starts with Recognizing Uniqueness
Every child progresses at their own pace. Setting realistic expectations for your child’s speech therapy progress timeline starts with understanding that each child is unique. Our services are family-centered and tailored to each child’s strengths, needs, preferences, motivations, and developmental level, reflecting a whole-child perspective, that ensures we meet our clients where they’re at, every session, for optimized outcomes.
2. Communication Around Progress
Open, ongoing communication with your therapist builds trust and clarity. “Studies in which the clinician trains and coaches caregivers to implement supports have revealed positive effects on child language and communication outcomes” (Roberts & Kaiser, 2011). We provide regular check-ins about progress, challenges, and goal adjustments to allow us to work as a team—parents, professionals, and children—toward a shared timeline of meeting goals.
3. Celebrate Small Wins
Breaking long-term goals into clear, achievable steps helps build confidence and reinforces a growth mindset. At your appointments, you can expect your therapist to share their observations of goal progress from the session, and help you identify growth at home too. Small wins—like a newly mastered sound or a confident response during play—are big victories in your child’s development, and help keep expectations in check for achieving long-term goals. Be sure to celebrate small wins!
4. Consistency Beats Intensity
Progress thrives on repetition and routine, both in therapy and at home. Moreover, research shows that distributed practice (shorter, more frequent exposures) is more effective than longer, less frequent durations of learning. Together, we’ll find creative ways to integrate therapy techniques throughout your everyday life so that practice becomes part of the rhythm of your child’s day—not a time-consuming task.
5. Know Your Role as a VIP for Progress Beyond the Clinic
Your role at home is powerful. In fact, you are the VIP when it comes to predicting the timeline of speech therapy progress! “Intervention in natural environments, conducted by the family and caregivers, provides realistic social contexts and offers multiple opportunities for successful communication and learning throughout the child’s day” (ASHA, 2008). By weaving speech and communication goals into regular activities—like reading, mealtime, outings, and play—you help generalize skills and reinforce what’s learned in sessions. This means progress toward your child’s goals!
6. Practice Patience and Trust the Process
Meaningful change takes time and it’s normal to see ups and downs along the way. Embracing realistic expectations for your child’s speech therapy progress means reframing progress as a steady journey, not a race. What matters most is consistency, encouragement, and recognizing growth at every stage.
7. Know the Norms, Then Forget Them
Awareness of milestones (check out communication milestones from ASHA here!)— is helpful when learning what to expect as children develop. However, it’s important to keep in mind that these milestones represent general guidelines of what is typically observed. Parent guilt is real, and we are here to tell you that if your child is not meeting the milestones, you have nothing to feel guilty about. If you have concerns about your child’s development, our friendly team of SLP’s will gladly help squash that parent guilt and help outline next steps for your child.
8. Stay Flexible as Your Child Grows
Children’s needs evolve as they develop. Remaining flexible and adjusting things (like therapy goals, time of the day for their session, length of the session, etc.,) ensures the path is always aligned with the child’s growth, and the family’s priorities. At our clinic, we work with you to support changes along the way. A great example is the option to hold appointments virtually. Most kids do great with meeting online, and it can really help when scheduling changes arise. A collaborative, family-centered approach ensures that therapy remains consistent, relevant and effective throughout the process.
9. Zoom Out on Communication
Knowing that communication skills are just one part of the larger developmental equation can help frame the timeline for progress in speech therapy. Supporting your child’s overall development involves helping them with listening and attention skills, social interaction, and emotional regulation. We work with your family to foster holistic skill development, alongside individualized communication goals, to ensure a path to lifelong success.
10. Foster the Right Environment
A positive, nurturing environment is crucial for reinforcing therapy goals. Change is hard, and doing hard things often isn’t fun, especially for kids. We are proud of our therapists’ ability to get kids excited about coming to therapy, by using a strength-based approach. We will show you how to do the same thing at home — providing a supportive and consistent atmosphere, to reframe the work into something fun and something to be proud of.
TLDR;
Setting realistic expectations for your child’s speech therapy progress timeline is not just about your child’s development—it’s about empowering the entire family. By adopting a collaborative approach, staying flexible, and embracing the natural environments where children thrive, we create an atmosphere of trust and support. From this strong foundation, children reach their goals and graduate from therapy with the necessary communication skills of clarity, confidence and connection-building!
Questions? Reach out!
At Exemplary Speech Services, we believe that great therapy begins with great therapists. As Grand Rapids’ most trusted speech therapy clinic, we offer holistic, individualized treatment designed to foster clarity, confidence, and connection. Reach out today to get your questions answered and check availability for scheduling an appointment! We look forward to being a part of your child’s unique therapy journey.
