Back to School Communication Check-in

The backpacks are packed, the classrooms are busy, and a new school year is officially underway.

For many children, the first days and weeks back at school are exciting—but they also bring a major increase in communication demands.

Children are suddenly expected to follow classroom directions, introduce themselves to new teachers and classmates, ask for help, participate in groups, explain what happened during their day, learn unfamiliar vocabulary, navigate friendships, and communicate in a much busier environment than they may have experienced over the summer.

For some children, the transition happens smoothly. For others, returning to school may make speech, language, fluency, listening, or social communication challenges easier to notice.

The good news? Now is an excellent time for parents to pay attention, support communication at home, and recognize when a child may benefit from additional help.

At tuLIPS Speech Therapy, we help children and families build practical communication skills that support success not only in the classroom, but at home, with friends, and throughout everyday life.

1. Understanding Classroom Directions

A typical school day is filled with verbal instructions:

• “Put your backpack away.”

• “Take out your folder.”

• “Finish the first page, then join the group.”

• “Listen for your name.”

• “Line up behind the blue marker.”

Following directions requires much more than simply hearing the words. A child must pay attention, understand the vocabulary, remember the information, and complete the steps in the correct order.

At home, parents can strengthen these skills through everyday routines:

• “Get your shoes and bring me your jacket.”

• “First put the cup in the sink, then wash your hands.”

• “Find the red crayon and draw a circle.”

• “Before we leave, put the book on the shelf.”

Start with directions your child can comfortably follow and gradually introduce additional steps or concepts such as before, after, under, beside, first, next, and last.

Visual schedules, pictures, gestures, and demonstrations can also make spoken instructions easier to understand.

1. Expressing Needs and Asking for Help

One of the most valuable communication skills a child can bring into the classroom is the ability to let someone know when they need help.

Children may need to communicate that they:

• Do not understand a direction

• Need to use the bathroom

• Feel overwhelmed

• Cannot find something

• Need more time

• Are hurt or uncomfortable

• Want to join an activity

• Need help completing an assignment

Useful phrases to practice include:

• “Can you help me?”

• “I don’t understand.”

• “Can you say that again?”

• “Can you show me?”

• “I need a break.”

• “May I have more time?”

• “Can I play too?”

And remember: effective communication does not have to mean spoken language.

A child may communicate through speech, gestures, signs, pictures, an AAC system, or a combination of methods. What matters is that the child has a reliable way to advocate for themselves.

1. Participating in Conversations

Classroom communication involves listening, responding, asking questions, staying on topic, taking turns, and noticing when another person wants to speak.

These skills can be practiced naturally during:

• Family meals

• Car rides

• Board games

• Walks

• Shared reading

• Cooking

• Pretend play

One simple change can make a surprisingly big difference: try balancing questions with comments.

Instead of:

“What did you do today? Who did you play with? What did you eat? Was it fun?”

Try:

“It sounds like recess was pretty busy today.”

Then pause.

Giving a child a little extra time can help them process the conversation, organize their thoughts, and decide what they want to say.

1. Telling a Clear Story

Now that school is back in session, children are being asked to explain experiences constantly:

“What happened at recess?”

“What did you do this weekend?”

“Why are you upset?”

“Tell us about your project.”

“What happened first?”

Storytelling requires children to organize information while also considering what their listener needs to know.

Parents can help by practicing a simple structure:

1. Who was involved?

2. Where did it happen?

3. What happened first?

4. What happened next?

5. How did it end?

6. How did you feel?

Family photos are another wonderful storytelling tool.

Choose a recent picture and talk about the experience together:

“We went to the park with Grandma. First, we ate lunch. Then you climbed the tall play structure. At the end, it started raining, so we ran back to the car.”

The goal is not a perfect retelling. The goal is helping your child organize and communicate a meaningful message.

1. Being Understood by Teachers and Classmates

A child’s family may understand their speech very well because they are familiar with the child’s speech patterns.

A new teacher or classmate may not.

That difference sometimes becomes more noticeable after school begins.

Speech clarity can affect classroom participation, friendships, frustration levels, and confidence.

Parents can support clearer communication without turning every conversation into speech practice.

Try:

• Facing your child while speaking

• Modeling words naturally

• Slowing your own speech slightly

• Reducing background noise when possible

• Repeating your child’s message correctly without requiring them to repeat it

• Encouraging pointing, showing, gesturing, or rephrasing when a message is misunderstood

For example:

Child: “I wan the wed tar.”

Parent: “You want the red car. Here it is.”

You have acknowledged the message while also giving your child a clear speech model—without making communication feel like a test.

1. Understanding School Vocabulary

The classroom introduces children to words they may rarely hear during everyday conversations at home.

Words such as:

• Compare

• Describe

• Predict

• Explain

• Categorize

• Similar

• Different

• Solution

• Character

• Sequence

These words appear across many subjects and are often embedded directly into classroom directions.

Parents can reinforce them naturally:

“How are these two snacks similar?”

“Can you describe the picture?”

“What do you predict will happen next?”

“Let’s put these toys into categories.”

“What could be a solution?”

Connect unfamiliar words to real experiences and explain their meaning simply.

For example:

“Predict means making a thoughtful guess about what might happen next.”

Children benefit from hearing new vocabulary repeatedly and using it in different situations.

1. Navigating Social Communication

The return to school also means returning to group activities, playground interactions, new friendships, classroom discussions, and social problem-solving.

Children may need to practice skills such as:

• Greeting others

• Joining an activity

• Asking to share

• Taking turns

• Responding to disagreement

• Telling an adult about a problem

• Recognizing emotions

• Noticing when someone does not understand

• Asking a peer to clarify something

• Ending an interaction appropriately

Role-playing can make these situations feel more familiar.

Try practicing:

“How could you ask to join a game?”

“What could you say if someone is using the toy you want?”

“What could you do if you don’t understand what your friend said?”

“Who could you talk to if something happens at recess?”

Social communication practice should always remain supportive rather than rigid. There is more than one appropriate way to communicate, and children should never feel that successful communication requires hiding their personality or natural communication style.

1. Communicating With Confidence

Sometimes a child knows exactly what they want to say—but saying it in front of classmates or unfamiliar adults feels difficult.

This may happen because of:

• Stuttering

• Previous misunderstandings

• Speech sound differences

• Word-finding difficulties

• Anxiety

• Processing time

• Voice concerns

• Fear of giving the wrong answer

Parents can support communication confidence by:

• Listening without interrupting

• Allowing additional response time

• Showing interest in the message rather than only how it is delivered

• Avoiding frequent public correction

• Praising self-advocacy

• Helping the child identify trusted adults at school

Helpful responses include:

“I’m listening.”

“Take the time you need.”

“Your idea matters.”

“Thank you for telling me.”

“Let’s think of another way to explain it.”

Children benefit from knowing that communication does not have to be perfect to be valuable.

A One-Week “Back in School” Communication Check-In

Now that school has started, parents can use the first week or two as an opportunity to gently check in on how communication is going.

Day 1: Talk About the School Day

Instead of relying only on “How was school?”, try specific conversation starters:

• “What made you laugh today?”

• “Who did you sit near?”

• “What was something new?”

• “Was anything confusing?”

Day 2: Read and Retell

Read a short book together and talk about the beginning, middle, and end.

Your child can retell using words, pictures, gestures, or AAC.

Day 3: Practice Asking for Help

Role-play situations that may already be happening at school:

• A pencil breaks.

• A direction is confusing.

• A lunch container will not open.

• The child needs the bathroom.

• Someone is sitting in their usual spot.

Day 4: Play a Turn-Taking Game

Use cards, blocks, a board game, or a ball to practice waiting, requesting, commenting, and responding.

Day 5: Learn the Language of School

Ask your child whether they heard any unfamiliar words this week.

Choose two or three school-related words and explore what they mean together.

Day 6: Tell a School Story

Ask your child to choose one memorable moment from the week and help them organize what happened.

Day 7: Create a Communication Plan

Talk about:

• Who can help you at school?

• What can you say if you are confused?

• What helps you feel calm?

• How can you tell someone you need a break?

• What are you excited to talk about next week?

Write, draw, or create visual reminders together if helpful.

What Parents May Notice Once School Begins

Every child develops differently, and one difficulty does not automatically indicate a communication disorder.

However, parents may want to speak with a speech-language pathologist if a child:

• Is frequently difficult for teachers or peers to understand

• Becomes upset when trying to communicate

• Has difficulty understanding routine directions

• Struggles to answer questions

• Has difficulty telling or sequencing a story

• Regularly stutters or shows physical tension while speaking

• Avoids speaking in class or social situations

• Has difficulty joining play or maintaining conversations

• Frequently struggles to find familiar words

• Has lost communication skills they previously used

• Relies heavily on memorized phrases but struggles to create new messages

• Has communication differences that interfere with classroom participation or everyday life

Developmental milestone resources can be useful for understanding broad patterns, but they cannot diagnose a child.

A comprehensive speech-language evaluation looks at the whole child, including their development, hearing, language exposure, cultural background, learning environment, strengths, and everyday communication needs.

Supporting Multilingual Students

San Francisco and Bay Area classrooms are wonderfully multilingual.

Learning more than one language does not cause a speech or language disorder.

Parents should continue speaking, reading, singing, telling stories, and playing in the languages that feel most natural and meaningful to their family.

Strong communication experiences in a home language support family connection, cultural identity, and access to rich language models.

A multilingual child may know certain words in one language and different words in another depending on where—and with whom—each language is used.

Mixing languages or switching between languages can also be a normal part of multilingual communication.

When a communication evaluation is appropriate, the child’s complete language background should be considered rather than comparing them only with a monolingual English-speaking child.

School-Based Speech Therapy vs. Private Speech Therapy

The beginning of the school year is also when many parents begin wondering whether their child should receive speech therapy through school, privately, or both.

The services are not always interchangeable.

School-based speech-language services generally focus on whether a disability affects a student’s access to or participation in their education. Eligibility and service decisions are made through the school evaluation and IEP process.

Private speech therapy may address a broader range of individualized communication goals related to home life, social participation, developmental needs, confidence, family priorities, and community communication.

Some children receive school services.

Some receive private therapy.

Some may benefit from both.

We’ll explore these differences in greater detail in an upcoming article to help families better understand their options.

How tuLIPS Speech Therapy Can Support Your Child This School Year

At tuLIPS Speech Therapy, we provide individualized speech and language therapy for children, teens, adults, and families in San Francisco, Piedmont, and surrounding Bay Area communities.

Depending on the individual, therapy may support:

• Speech sound development

• Understanding and expressing language

• Stuttering and fluency

• Social communication

• Storytelling and organization

• AAC

• Self-advocacy

• Executive functioning

• Voice

• Communication confidence

Both in-person and virtual options are available.

Speech therapy should not simply help a child complete exercises in a therapy room.

The goal is helping them communicate more successfully where communication really matters—at school, at home, with friends, and throughout everyday life.

The School Year Has Started. Now What?

The first few weeks of school can tell parents a lot.

Notice what your child talks excitedly about.

Notice what seems difficult.

Listen for moments of frustration.

Ask whether classroom directions make sense.

Find out who your child feels comfortable asking for help.

And remember: starting school is a transition, not a test.

Children do not need flawless speech, perfect eye contact, or instant confidence to belong in the classroom.

They need meaningful ways to communicate, adults who listen, opportunities to participate, and support that respects who they are.

Start with one small step today:

• Practice asking for help.

• Read and retell a story.

• Talk through something that happened at school.

• Create a visual schedule.

• Identify a trusted adult at school.

• Give your child enough time to finish their thought.

Small communication moments can create meaningful confidence over time.

If the first weeks of school have raised questions about your child’s speech, language, fluency, or communication skills, you do not have to wait for the concern to become bigger.

Contact tuLIPS Speech Therapy to start the conversation.

Because every student deserves the opportunity to feel heard, understood, and included.

Frequently Asked Questions

What communication skills are important during the school year?

Helpful skills include understanding classroom directions, expressing needs, asking for help, answering questions, taking conversational turns, telling stories, and participating with peers. Children develop at different rates and do not need to master every skill at once.

How can I help my child talk about their school day?

Specific prompts are often easier to answer than “How was school?” Try asking about one funny moment, one new thing they learned, who they played with, something that felt difficult, or their favorite part of the day.

How can I help my child follow classroom directions?

Practice short directions during everyday routines, gradually increase the number of steps, and use visual supports, demonstrations, and sequence words such as first, then, next, and last.

Should I correct my child’s speech when I notice mistakes?

Frequent correction can sometimes increase pressure. Instead, model the word naturally, acknowledge the child’s message, and keep communication positive. A speech-language pathologist can help determine when more direct speech practice may be appropriate.

Does learning more than one language cause speech or language delays?

No. Multilingualism itself does not cause a speech or language disorder. A child’s entire language background should be considered when evaluating communication development.

What is the difference between school and private speech therapy?

School-based services focus on educational eligibility and participation, while private therapy may address a broader range of individualized communication needs. Some children may benefit from one or both.

When should I contact a speech-language pathologist?

Consider reaching out when communication difficulties cause frequent frustration, interfere with classroom or social participation, or create concern for you, your child, or their teachers. Families do not need to wait until a child is significantly struggling before asking questions.

Valuable Resources for Families

• ASHA Communication Milestones: Age-range resources for understanding communication development.

• ASHA Back-to-School Readiness Resources: Family-friendly ideas supporting communication, learning, and participation.

• National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders: Speech, language, and hearing developmental information.

• California Department of Education IEP Resources: Information for California families about special education and individualized education programs.

• tuLIPS Speech Therapy: Personalized in-person and virtual communication support for Bay Area families.

Works Cited:

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (2023, August 1). How to Build Back-to-School Readiness.

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Communication Milestones.

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Early Identification of Speech, Language, Swallowing, and Hearing Disorders.

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (2025). Eight Ways Families Can Support Their Child With Speech and Language Skills Over the Summer.

National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. (2022, October 13). Speech and Language Developmental Milestones.