Tips for Practicing Speech and Language
Some speech sound practice tips!!!
Are you running out of ways to practice your child's speech and stay motivated? Please try to practice each day for five to ten minutes. Change activities daily. Give your child choices of activities so they feel empowered for practice. Start each practice session by reading the auditory bombardment word list for the week. It only takes a few minutes and helps to increase your child's auditory awareness of the target sound. Have your child "listen only" for the auditory bombardment part. *Remember* During the course of the day, your child may produce a word incorrectly. Don't ask that the word be repeated. Instead, provide your child with the correct model. For example, if your child says, "Time for peech," say, "Yes, it is time for sssspeech." It is helpful to exaggerate the error sound when you are providing the model.
Some fun speech practice games for the children!!!
Put your cards under your pillow. Say them when you go to bed and when you wake up. Roll a ball over your cards. Name each one the ball rolls over. Hide the cards around the house and name them as you find them. While riding in the car, an adult says, "I'm thinking of ...." and describes a card until you guess correctly. Name your cards before and after you brush your teeth. Play Simon Says while naming your cards when you are riding in the car. Pretend to be a jack-in-the-box and name a card each time you pop up. String a cereal necklace. Put on a new piece for every card you name. Name your cards as you shine a flashlight beam on each one.
Some language building tips for parents!!!
Have conversations with your child throughout the day. Set up home routines and schedules. Doing things the same time every day helps organize your child's thoughts and language. Try to talk about what your child is interested in at the moment. Don't talk about blocks if your child is playing with a ball. Allow periods of silence when playing with your child. Don't fill every moment with talking. This will give your child opportunities to initiate (start) communication. Then, you can respond to his/her communicative efforts. Respond to all of your child's communicative attempts. If you know what she means or wants, don't ignore her gesturing/pointing because she didn't talk, or make her say something "correctly" because she mispronounced a word. Provide appropriate ("correct") models for her to hear, but don't require that she repeat these models. It's important to be a listener as well as a speaker. Take turns listening and talking. Let your child start a conversation about something he is interested in. Stay on your child's topic and talk more about what he has said. Provide appropriate speech/language models by repeating and expanding your child's utterances. Repeat back what your child just said. Expand what you just repeated to a slightly more adult-like phrase or sentence. For example, if your child says "truck fall" respond with "Truck fall?" (repetition), "The truck fell off the table." (expansion). Or if your child says "More juice," respond with "More juice?" (repetition) "You want more juice?" (expansion). Don't overwhelm your child with too much information at one time. Keep your questions and statements short and simple. Use the vocabulary words your child needs to learn over and over during your conversations.
Speech Sound Tips Credit: Speaking of Phonology and A Preschool Program for Severe Phonological Disorders. Language Building Tips Credit: Dr. Hiram McDade
Aphasia Acronym
A: Ask Simple Questions
P: Provide Choices
H: Help Communicate If Asked
A: Acknowledge The Frustration
S: Speak Slowly and Clearly
I: If You Don’t Understand, Say So
A: Allow Extra Time