How Can We Create Summer Homework Families Will Actually Use?
Have you ever dismissed a student for summer break with a thorough and well-planned home program packet only to find it untouched eight weeks later? Before you write anything, ask the family two questions!
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Have you ever dismissed a student for summer break with a thorough and well-planned home program packet only to find it untouched eight weeks later?
Should we even assign homework for summer? Is it unrealistic to think a parent can fit completing 12 pages of clinical strategies into a summer that includes camp, vacations, 3 other siblings, and a child who would rather do anything than sit at the table for "speech time."
Maybe. Or maybe our home programs just need to fit the family's actual life.
Start with the parents' reality, not the student's goals
Before you write anything, ask the family two questions:
- What does a typical day look like in the summer?
- What are the two or three moments in that day when your child has your full attention?
The answers will be specific. Bath time. The drive to the pool. Dinner. The ten minutes after little brother goes down for a nap. Those moments are your home program. Not a thirty-minute therapy block at the kitchen table. The ten minutes that already exist.
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