Speech Therapy in College
Speech therapy for teens and young adults ages 18+
Parents tell me,
“My child…”
“doesn’t know how to take notes in class.”
“has difficulty understanding long sentences and long words.”
“has difficulty sharing his opinions and ideas.”
“doesn’t know what to write in his essays, has trouble getting started, and in the end writes essays that don’t make sense.”
“has trouble prioritizing what is most important.”
“is insecure when she is talking.”
“can’t keep up with all the readings in her college classes.”
“has to read something multiple times in order to understand what it says.”
“uses incorrect grammar”
“uses vague words like ‘thing’ ‘that’ ‘it’ and ‘ya know.’”
“is struggling in college without supports.”
“has trouble getting started on work without reminders.”
Your child might be struggling with speaking, reading, writing, or executive functioning skills like organizing, planning, prioritizing, and attention. Your child might even be struggling in all of these areas at once!
In order to help your child best, here at Mindful Speech, we work on all of these skills together to help make life easier and more fulfilling for your child.
Read below for more information on what language, reading, writing, and executive functioning skills are expected for your teenager or young adult in college and how speech therapy can help them.
Speech Therapy for Language in College
Speech therapy for college students consistently focuses on reading and writing. Most college classes require students to independently read textbooks to learn by themselves. College professors often expect that students already know how to read and understand complicated textbooks and write coherent essays.
Not all college students have learned how to manage the many readings expected of them every week. Many college students struggle with writing essays and understanding lectures.
Together, we work on language in college by:
Managing their learning independently — Noticing when they need help, identifying resources, and getting help.
Using grammatically correct and complex sentences to confidently talk about all topics of interest, like science, friends, classes, current coursework, history, climate change, social justice, and politics.
Using complex sentences that help them grapple with the challenging ideas they are learning in college.
Understanding complex sentences found in textbooks, class discussions, and professors’ lectures.
Expanding vocabulary, specifically increasing their comfort using academic and professional vocabulary that is expected in internship interviews, class discussions, presentations, and essays.
Being able to summarize lectures in their own words.
Using language to connect to what they are learning in school and being able to summarize what they are learning.
Speech Therapy for Reading in College
Many young adults are surprised when they realize that most of the learning in college is done outside the classroom. College students are usually required to do lots of independent reading for their classes.
This is a big shift from high school and can be hard for teens who struggle with reading.
Together, we work on reading in college by:
Learning how to skim and locate the most important information in a text.
Visualizing the complex ideas they are reading about and noticing when they don’t understand something they are reading.
Reading textbooks and breaking down complex sentences and words in order to help the student summarize what they read into their own words.
Understanding and being able to describe the perspective and purpose of what they are reading. “Is this trying to educate me, persuade me, or entertain me?”
Making connections between what they are reading and:
topics they are passionate about,
what they’re read before,
their own life experiences,
and what they are learning in class
As well as building on foundational skills, like:
Making inferences and predictions while reading.
Understanding parts of words that have different meanings, like prefixes (re-do), suffixes (teacher), and grammatical markers (he walks).
Reading words automatically so teens don’t have to sound out every word that they encounter.
Forming and articulating opinions about what they are reading.
Reading sentences with a conversational tone, aka “reading fluently.”
Noticing when they need help and asking for it.
Understanding written directions.
Speech Therapy for Writing in College
In college, students are expected to know how to take notes during a lecture and write a coherent essay before they even start classes. However, many students still struggle with both note-taking and writing essays, as well as more foundational skills like spelling, punctuation, and writing complex sentences.
College students who struggle with these skills can easily lose track of lectures while trying to take notes. Many get frustrated and stop taking notes, making studying and learning even more difficult.
Together, we work on writing in college by:
Taking notes efficiently, often practicing note-taking while watching educational YouTube videos and TEDtalks.
Writing essays quickly because sometimes college students only have a few days to complete one.
Writing outlines to plan their writing - finding a system that works for them, not a one-size-fits-all worksheet. Having an outline helps them make sure they have a thesis, introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.
Adding transition words to connect sentences within a paragraph and to connect paragraphs within an essay.
Revising and editing their writing, making a personalized editing checklist over time that works for them.
As well as building on foundational skills, like:
Mastering the basics of writing paragraphs: having a topic sentence, supporting information, and a concluding sentence.
Spelling most words accurately.
Consistently following rules of punctuation and capitalization.
Practicing using more complex language by writing with different conjunctions: coordinating conjunctions like but, so, or and subordinating conjunctions like before, although, whenever, etc.
Speech Therapy for Executive Functioning in College
College requires even more independence than high school In most cases, parents aren’t around to help their teens and young adults remember to plan ahead, get work done, and avoid the plentiful distractions available in college.
Students should enjoy their time in college, making friends, learning about topics that excite them, and expanding their worldview, so establishing a balance is important.
Together, we work on executive functioning in college by:
Balancing multiple priorities: school work for multiple classes, fun with friends, and possibly internships and jobs.
Applying for jobs and internships. Developing professionalism in how they communicate with professors and bosses. Learning the unwritten rules of the workplace.
Juggling work in many classes including more readings and long-term projects than in high school.
Studying for tests that might make up 50% of their overall grade for the semester.
Organizing class notes.
Finding resources on campus for help, like making the most out of office hours and finding tutoring if they need it.
Planning ahead for big projects: group projects, papers, reading books, studying for midterms and finals.
Finding “hacks” that help them get started on difficult tasks they are tempted to avoid.
As well as building on foundation skills, like:
Visualizing what “done” will look like.
Prioritizing work by what is most important.
Developing self-awareness of when they are spacing out, focused, distracted, stressed, etc.
Building self-awareness about their feelings, strengths, and difficulties.
Developing a homework system that works for them.
Developing organization systems for their personal items, notes, and digital files.
Building independence with getting started with work, finding misplaced items, identifying when they are finished with an assignment.
Building awareness of what they can do by themselves and what they need help with.
Building motivation by thinking about their priorities and their parents’ priorities.
Hi, I’m Hollis, the owner of Mindful Speech.
I’m a speech-language pathologist licensed in Illinois and Colorado.
I specialize in providing speech therapy to help children, teens, and young adults to improve language, reading, writing, and executive functioning skills. Now offering in-person sessions in Chicago!
Learn more about me on my About Hollis page.