The Summit DD Early Intervention Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) team recently hosted another successful community-centered playgroup for families-served. Back in 2023, the SLP group was seeking ways for families who receive Summit DD Early Intervention Services (EI) to begin reconnecting in the community post pandemic.
“Most kids had very few social opportunities as the pandemic was ending, so we wanted to give kids playtime with other kids. We also understand the value of parents and caregivers getting to talk with other parents who are working through similar challenges – kids not talking yet or kids who don’t yet know how to engage with other kids. It takes some of the stress of being in a community space away, knowing that the other parents understand the challenges and they don’t have to explain their child’s behavior to everyone,” shared Summit DD SLP, Ashley Hobbins. Ashley was one of the founders of the playgroup as well as Abigail Cureton, Lauren Mills, and Heather Welling.
“Overall, we’ve found the playgroups to be a great resource for parents to connect with other local families and have access to us for our speech and language knowledge. When your child is developing at a slower pace or not meeting milestones as expected, it can be a big source of anxiety and frustration. Families getting to see that they aren’t alone can help alleviate some of that, and we as SLPs also get the chance to point out a child’s strengths and provide ideas or strategies for the skills a family might want to work on more,” continued Ashley.
Several families throughout this initiative have shared that the playgroup was the very first time that their child had played with another peer. The Summit DD team considers this to be a massive success!
Want to know more about Summit DD Early Intervention services? Discover more here.
