I find the easiest way to motivate kids working on sounds is to have a cache of fun, motivating games to play with them. Have them say several sounds, words or phrases before a turn and then make a move in the game.
Games need to have simple, discrete actions each turn, that take a short time so you can get back to work! Today I discovered another simple but challenging game to use for this type of therapy, Snap by Gamewright.
There are several levels but I have used it at the most elementary one with 4-6 year-olds. It is a puzzle game, where each player gets an equal number of puzzle pieces and takes turns “playing” their piece by snapping it into the collaborative puzzle. The rectangular pieces have two opportunities for a match on each side and one on each end. If you connect more than one part of a piece you have a double or triple snap and can get an extra turn. With interlocking pieces connecting red, yellow and green dragons, this game provides just enough interest for kids to keep working for that next turn. It works best with children who enjoy puzzles and aren’t challenged with visual motor issues.
On Friday I attended a continuing education course by BER (Bureau of Education and Research) on “Practical Therapy Techniques for Persistent Articulation Errors: Frontal Lisp, Lateral Lisp and Distorted “R” by Pam Marshalla, MA, CCC-SLP. I wanted to recommend it to speech-language pathologists who work with clients who have been tough to remediate when it comes to lisps and /r/.
Pam is a well-informed, entertaining speaker who was also encouraging to SLP’s on many fronts. She outlined the path our profession has taken, with its initial emphasis on articulation, voice and fluency therapy, to the present where there is a heavy emphasis on language therapy. Even though we have come to a place where many schools don’t provide services for children with simple articulation delays (unless it is educationally significant), there are still certain kids who can’t get the /s/ or /r/ and their parents want therapy.
Pam provided a comprehensive plan to help these children, reaching back to relevant literature and techniques from the godfathers of our profession, Van Riper, Nemoy, Scripture and others, to the present with the newest articulation norms and techniques.
Pam had a private practice until recently where therapists sent her the kids that stumped them. She clearly has a wonderful manner with kids and techniques that work.
Certain toys and games are winners as they amuse children and allow for discrete turns so a child can repeat your model, and you give them one more piece to make their masterpiece. Play-Doh’s EZ 2 Do Zoo is so popular with preschoolers, that many parents have asked where they can get it. Target sells it for under $10. Kids have the choice of making a bird, elephant, or giraffe. A bit like Mr. Potato Head in Play-Doh, this set has all the pieces to make some whacky animals! I use it to model sounds, questions, words and phrases, while the child repeats and gets a piece to add to his project.
There is always room for creativity as eyes are pushed in top of the head or tails stick out the side of the body. Today, a child sat the animal on a play car and sent it on its way. Their funny faces invite conversation and can be incorporated in any play scheme.
Put out the pieces when your child has a playdate and watch them create together or mix and match.
When I work with preschoolers, I always use toys and great books. Recently, I came upon A Frog in the Bog by Karma Wilson (the author of the fun series “A Bear Snores On.”) This is a clever story of a frog who sits on a log in the bog and eats ticks, fleas, flies and slugs as his belly grows. The precious illustrations (who can make a slug look charming?) by Joan Rankin, add a wonderful dimension to the story. The drawings of the gang inside the frog’s belly are hilarious.
I am using this book with preschoolers who have speech goals to include age-appropriate final sounds in words. What a wonderful opportunity to practice final “K” and “G” with the rhyming lines ending in frog, log and bog or tick and stick. Use the story as a counting lesson as the bugs and slugs are swallowed and counted in his belly and all escape at the end.
What books do you use in speech therapy with preschoolers to emphasize early sounds in words? Let me know in the comments below.
As speech therapists we are always looking for new materials to throw in our bag of fun to keep little ones engaged and entertained. I use toys as well as books to change up the action. I wanted to share 2 books that were authored and illustrated by speech-language pathologists for use with children with special needs as well as the general population.
I Can Say That and I Can Do That by Dr. Suzy Lederer, a professor in speech-language pathology with 25 years experience, are wonderful therapy tools for children learning beginning signs, gestures, nouns, verbs, sounds and single and two-word combinations. Each book has 2 stories each as well as an interactive CD ROM for your computer. The simple stories are aimed at beginning talkers with target vocabulary of common nouns and verbs, repeated in short rhyming lines to invite the child to chime in.
See my full review of these effective tools for preschool speech therapy.
Let me know what you find helpful when working with preschoolers. Leave a comment and share.
Tags: preschool speech therapy
First of all your preschooler should not be told he has to practice speech or any other direct way of implying that there is something wrong with him that he needs to change. I figure I am doing things right when I hear a squeal of delight when I ring the doorbell, or my little client thinks I am his playmate, bringing exciting toys, games and books each time. Speech practice should be play and above all FUN.
Your speech therapist should give you specific things to work on that your child is now able to do, whether it is to make the sound of a car going, a /p/ sound or use correct pronouns. Practice is for repeating tasks that your child has begun to master. The therapist’s job is to introduce and teach concepts, the parent’s job is to reinforce things learned. Learning a new word to use, or place to put his tongue when speaking takes many repetitions before it is generalized
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Recently I seem to be getting calls to test kids from 2 1/2-3 years old who have had a history of speech therapy for about a year. Their original diagnosis had been “apraxic like speech” or apraxia. Now that they have improved their ability to imitate and produce sounds at will, they don’t fall into that diagnosis.
I have also treated children starting at 16 months and older who appear to have motor programming difficulty in that they have trouble coordinating the movements of their body related to speech. They have difficulty imitating or initiating sounds, syllables and words that they want to make. In most cases, after several months of therapy, these children have been able to program the movements needed for speech and start to present as simply “developmentally delayed articulation,” meaning the child follows the typical sequence of sound development but at a slower pace. I say this because I think sometimes as therapists we are quick to label very young children as apraxic or apraxic-like when in reality we have to work with them for several months to determine if they truly are having difficulty with motor programming for speech.
That being said, there is a certain segment of the pediatric population that truly does have childhood apraxia of speech which is defined by The American Speech and Hearing Association (ASHA) as:
“Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is a motor speech disorder. Children with CAS have problems saying sounds, syllables, and words. This is not because of
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Throughout my career as a speech pathologist I have worked with children with varying degrees of nasality. Some were purely functional and responded well to therapy and others I referred to an ENT for evaluation for possible surgery to correct abnormal structure. My earliest experience was on the Cleft Palate Team at Northwestern University Hospital where a team of doctors and speech pathologists evaluated patients. Working in the schools and now in private practice I occasionally have a child who is hypernasal and needs therapy.
My current client is 3 years old and hypernasal on specific consonants. I found the following article by Ann W. Kummer, PhD, CCC-SLP on Speech Therapy for Characteristics of Velopharyngeal Dysfunction (VPD) to be very helpful, distinguishing between abnormal function and abnormal structure and when therapy is appropriate. She gives activities to encourage auditory, visual, tactile-kinesthetic and tactile feedback and activities to increase oral pressure.
Let me know what resources you have found to be valuable in treating children with velopharyngeal dysfunction.
I love to hear from parents and Speech Therapists with ideas to stimulate speech and language. Keep the e-mails and comments coming!
Today I heard from a former colleague of mine who is an excellent preschool speech therapist:
I always play with toys or games when I work with children so they forget that they are doing “work!” It occurred to me the other day that “Chocolate Fix” by ThinkFun is a great game for practicing the “R” sound. I have blogged on this game before because kids and adults like it. Using a puzzle of spacial clues to solve, the player has to put 9 chocolates in order for the customer. Just the language used to role-play, asking the customer what he wants, and saying, “Your order is ready!” is full of the “R” sound. Each chocolate is dark, light or pink in the shapes of circle or round, triangle and square. Use the game as a carryover activity or suggest parents play it to reinforce the sound you are working on.
