Should Kids Take A Break From Speech Therapy In The Summer?
When summer arrives, many families welcome the slower pace. School routines pause, schedules open up, kids finally get a chance to relax, and it’s natural for parents to wonder whether speech therapy should pause too.
In most cases, it is incredibly beneficial to continue speech therapy throughout the summer.
While summer should absolutely feel different from the school year, communication development does not stop when the school year ends. Speech and language skills can be worked on every single day, and for many children, summer can actually become one of the best times to make great progress.
Instead of viewing summer speech therapy as “more school”, it helps to think of it as continued support during a time when children are often more rested, engaged, and emotionally available to learn.
At Great Speech, our speech therapy sessions are fully virtual and our therapists keep it fun. This allows for children to attend sessions right from the comfort of home, or wherever is the most convenient location, even while on vacation! There are many benefits of virtual speech therapy, including the flexibility it gives parents to schedule sessions around summer activities. You can read more about the benefits of virtual speech therapy in our blog: How Effective Is Virtual Speech Therapy?
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Progress Doesn’t Pause During the Summer
Just like progress with working out, sports and reading, progress with speech and language development happens through consistency and lots of practice.
When speech therapy stops for multiple months, children can lose momentum, and in some cases, they may even experience regression in the skills that they worked so hard to build during the school year.
This is similar to what educators call the “summer slide”, and research has shown that many students' academic skills decline during the summer break when learning and practice are not done on a regular basis. The same is true for speech and language development as communication skills greatly rely on repetition, confidence, and regular use in everyday situations.
Summer Can Actually Be the Best Time for Growth
Many parents do not realize that children often make faster progress in speech therapy during the summer than they do during the school year, and there are many reasons for this.
Less Academic Fatigue
Children are balancing full school days, homework, extracurricular activities, and social demands during the school year, and by the time sessions happen, kids can sometimes be mentally exhausted.
Summer changes that dynamic as the stress of tests, homework, and busy schedules lessen, and therefore, children often start their sessions more relaxed and willing to participate. They usually have more energy, longer attention spans, and more willingness for learning new skills, which can then lead to better engagement and stronger carryover between sessions.
More Time for Practice
Summer naturally creates communication-rich experiences, such as family vacations, camps, playground visits, pool days, family outings, and time with relatives and friends, all of which create opportunities for children to practice their speech and language skills on a regular basis.
During the summer months, kids may work on:
- Asking and answering questions
- Social communication skills
- Storytelling and sequencing
- Articulation practice
- Confidence in conversations
- Following directions
- Expanding vocabulary
Because summer activities are often more relaxed and interactive, kids can practice these skills in ways that feel natural rather than forced.
Flexible Scheduling Helps with Consistency
Even though virtual speech therapy with Great Speech is very flexible and can be done from anywhere that you have an internet connection, some families still struggle to fit it into busy afternoons during the school year. Schedules are usually more flexible in the summer, which usually makes it easier to attend sessions and practice more consistently, and consistency matters!
Children tend to make the strongest progress with speech therapy when they have regular opportunities to practice their skills, and long breaks in between sessions can sometimes interrupt that momentum and make it more difficult for kids to hold onto the progress that they have already made.
Avoiding Skill Regression
One of the biggest reasons that families continue speech therapy through summer is to prevent skill regression. Children who are still developing foundational communication skills may struggle to keep their progress if they don't practice regularly or have support.
A child who is working on their articulation skills may begin to slip back into old speech patterns if sounds are not practiced consistently, and a child building expressive language skills may lose confidence in initiating conversations if communication demands lessen during the summer break.
Every Child is Different
Of course, every child has their own individual set of needs, and some children may benefit from reducing session frequency during the summer months while still maintaining support. Others, especially children who are working on newer or more challenging goals, may benefit from continuing at the same pace or increasing their pace regardless of the season.
For children with speech sound disorders, language delays, social communication challenges, or fluency disorders, summer can provide valuable uninterrupted time to strengthen those foundational skills.
Parents should work with their child’s speech-language pathologist to decide what level of support makes the most sense for their child.
Summer Can Still Be Fun
Continuing speech therapy in the summer does not mean that children should lose their break. Kids still need downtime, freedom, play, and rest, and these experiences are important for their development, too.
Speech therapy during the summer break does not have to feel overwhelming, as oftentimes it just means continuing with regular support while taking advantage of the relaxed pace and natural learning opportunities that summer already provides.
Children who get the right help over the summer break can return to school more confident, more communicative, and better prepared socially and academically because they stayed engaged over the summer. At Great Speech, our network of insurance providers makes staying engaged with speech therapy services over the summer months easy and keeps costs low. On average, families pay just $18 per session, all thanks to major insurance providers like Cigna, Aetna, Wellcare, Ambetter, Allwell, Priority Health, United Healthcare (some states), Curative, Centivo, and more!
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