I am working with a particularly astute set of moms lately who really want to participate in their child’s speech therapy, particularly my clients working on articulation. I explain that therapy will go a lot fast if they join their child in practicing daily so several of them have come up with their own ideas for practice.
One mom (I am trying to get her to write a book of her ideas!) makes up and illustrates books each week using the /k./ and /g/ sounds that her son is working on. She also rehearses funny songs and poems with him to repeat for me. They love to recite “Greasy Grimey Golpher Guts” for me as I squirm. After her child played with the new Playmobil Treasure Hunters set, she made up a book with him called “The Hunt for the Hidden Crystal Treasures.”
Another mom was helping her son with correct jaw placement for the /sh/sound. When he tried really hard, he tended to extend his jaw out incorrectly. I had tried to say take a bite to get the bite in the correct place but mom had a better idea. He said, “Make your fangs” (now it is near Halloween!!) which prompted him to keep his front teeth further out from his lower teeth. It worked.
3 year-old Jake’s mom was trying to help him make a /k/ sound. She told me that they were giggling about something and she noticed he was making the back sound when he laughed really hard. She kept the fun going for more practice. What a smart mom.
This week I came to a house where they had illustrated and cut out the figures in Fright Night Flight by Laura Krauss Melmed and illustrated by Henry Cole. The howling, growing werewolf, lurking smurking vampire and musty, dusty skeleton join in on a ride on the broom on this scary night for some great /k/ and /g/ practice.
