Initial B: Free Speech Therapy Articulation Picture Cards

Description

These articulation picture card sets are designed to be more comprehensive than the typical sets you might find elsewhere. The target audience for these sets are young children or children with more severe speech delays that need intensive practice with sounds at a one-syllable level or simple two-syllable level. No blends or vocalic /r/ sounds are included in these sets.

Key Features

• Initial and Final sets include 30 one-syllable words that begin or end with the target sound.
• The words are simple and are easily understood by or easily taught to young children.
• Combines the target sound with all possible vowel sounds at least once.
• Words are sorted by difficulty level for an easy progression from easy to hard.
• Describes the progression from most intense prompts to least intense.
• Provides a simple carrier phrase for every word.
• A gestural prompt for the target sound is explained.
• A list of therapy activities is included.
• Includes 30 therapy cards with the target word and a picture on the front,
  and the difficulty level and the carrier phrase printed on the back.

Permissions

I give permission to copy, print, or distribute these card sets provided that:

1. Each copy makes clear that I am the document's author.
2. No copies are altered without my express consent.
3. No one makes a profit from these copies.
4. Electronic copies contain a live link back to my original and print copies not for merely personal use contain the URL of my original.

Looking for Feedback

I would love to hear back from anyone who uses the word sets. Let me know if there is anything you would change. Comment on this page, or send me an email at testyyettrying(at)gmail(dot)com.

Where can I find more?

More sets are on my Free Speech Therapy Articulation Cards page.

Card Sets

To download click on the image to open it full size. Then right click on the image, choose "save as" and save the page to your computer.

Instructions for printing and using the cards are included in the set.

The Weekly Review: Week Sixteen

Best Blog Posts of the Week

• All and Sundry. Again. You should just start reading her blog yourself. First there are pictures of squirrels. I think squirrels are really cute. And then there are bonus pictures of a duck. On a roof. I kid you not. But it is her writing in between all the pictures that makes the post hilarious and ties it all together.
• Swistle writes a post that is short, but oh so true. Well, all true except at my house some of the messes are mine.

Weekly Wish Me Luck

Tomorrow morning we are going to depart on a road trip to Arkansas to visit my soon to be 80 year old grandmother for her birthday and the rest of the AR relatives for the 4th of July. Any suggestions for how to entertain a two and three year old for 7-9 hours trapped in a moving vehicle? And then keep them happy for three nights and two days in someone else's house. Followed by more happy during the return 7-9 hour trip home. Right now we're planning on making it up as we go along. That never ends well. So, wish me luck.

The Weekly Michael

We have a semi-regular playdate with my friend and her four year old daughter. Until recently, Michael has mostly done his own thing. They simply were not interested in the same things. This week they disappeared upstairs to his bedroom. Half an hour later, I noticed they were still missing and wondered what could possibly be keeping them occupied. I turned on the video monitor and all three children were in his bed filled with toys just happily playing and talking. 15 minutes after that they all came tromping downstairs asking for snacks for their "sleepover". By the time I finally halted the completely magical independent play it was an hour past their usual naptime. Altogether they had played by themselves in his room for an hour and a half. Turns out the "sleepover" involved snacks, blankets, pillows, flashlights, toys, and three children all stuffed in the bottom of his closet.

Ava's Cuteness of the Week:

My husband shared this one with me. He was singing that little children's song, "One, two, three, four, five. I thought I caught a fish alive." to Ava. Instead of saying "fish" though he replaced it with "Ava". After he sang the line about throwing her back again Ava interrupted him and said, "No, no Daddy. Ava hair get all wet."

Projects of the Week:

• I am continuing to work on free speech therapy articulation cards. Two more sets will be posted this weekend: Initial /b/ and Final /b/.
• I made a page of Toddler and Preschool Online Activities that I'm pretty pleased with. I'm going to add more to the page as I have time.

Another reality check.

Another piece of information I picked up this weekend from Ms. J. was the results of the test of phonological processing she did with Ava. Ms. A and I had already given Ava a basic articulation test several weeks ago and she did pretty poorly. I also wanted to give Ava a phonological processing test because that gives you a completely different set of information. Ms. J offered to administer the test and she had the test scored by the weekend.

I don't have all the specifics, because she had forgotten to make a copy for me, but I did get the bottom line. The test scores fall into one of five levels. The best is in the normal range, and the worst is a profound phonological processing disorder. Ava scored one tier higher than profound. Her score fell into the very severe phonological processing disorder range.

Sigh. Again, this isn't a huge surprise. Six months ago she had so little speech we couldn't even have administered the test. But it definitely puts things into perspective to realize that compared to other girls her age, the phonological processing patterns in her speech put her in the very severe range.

I'm looking forward to seeing the detailed results because that is where I'll get more clues about what exactly is going on.

K is here!

This past weekend was one of Ava's twice a month therapy sessions with Ms. J. When I walked in the therapy room at the end of the session, Ms. J very matter of factly told me that we'd be adding final /k/ to her list of things to practice because she can do it now. Then she said to Ava, "say, /k/." And she did. I was completely surprised and so pleased.

It is hard for her. She still substitutes a /t/ for the /k/ the vast majority of the time. I always feel mean when I tell her, "No baby, that's /t/. We need a /k/." and I have to ask her to say the word again. In order for her to even have a chance of getting it, I need a slight pause between the first half of the word and the final /k/ sound. So, I say, "boo - k". And when I make that final /k/ sound it has to be really guttural. If I just make a regular /k/ sound she'll repeat with a /t/ every time.

But /k/ is here and we can finally start to work on some back sounds. Progress!

Toddler and Preschool Online Activities

I made a list of some of websites Michael and Ava spend time on when we let them have computer time. Some of the sites have animated songs, some have animated stories, and some have simple games appropriate for young children. With some basic computer skills my kids are even pretty independent with most of these. I usually sit down and watch everything with them or play each game with them once showing them how it works, and they can take it from there in the future. Everything listed has a link that will actually take you to the site, so check them out and let me know if you enjoy visiting them with your little ones.

Toddler and Preschool Online Activities

I'll be adding to the list as I remember ones I've forgotten and as I find more. If you have some favorites I should check out tell me about them in the comments.

How the "Mighty" Have Fallen

I was one of "those" new mothers. I so wanted to do everything perfectly. I exclusively breastfed Michael for six months. I stubbornly continued for those six months even though it was miserable due in part to what I now think was undiagnosed reflux (his, not mine). Then I did the homemade baby food from organic fruits and vegetables thing and refused to let my parents give him anything else when they babysat.

By the time Ava came along I now had a 15 month old toddler. Well, I still did the exclusive breastfeeding which went much better the second time around. Ava was diagnosed with reflux and was on medication for it so perhaps that plus a more experienced mama made the difference. I tried to do the homemade baby food thing again even though it was crazy with two babies so young, but Ava just refused to eat it. Sure, she ate a little, but she just didn't like baby food. She wanted to eat the toddler food she saw her brother eating and so we switched over pretty quickly.

Skip ahead to yesterday morning and you find me feeding Ava a cookie for breakfast as we rush out the door to make it to therapy on time. Sigh. Guess I couldn't keep it up forever. And you know what? Now I realize that the cookie won't ruin her for life. Let her enjoy a cookie once and a while. Even for breakfast.

I suppose having a third baby just so that I can feed him or her cookies sooner is not an appropriate response to this epiphany.

Final P: Free Speech Therapy Articulation Picture Cards

Description

These articulation picture card sets are designed to be more comprehensive than the typical sets you might find elsewhere. The target audience for these sets are young children or children with more severe speech delays that need intensive practice with sounds at a one-syllable level or simple two-syllable level. No blends or vocalic /r/ sounds are included in these sets.

Key Features

• Initial and Final sets include 30 one-syllable words that begin or end with the target sound.
• The words are simple and are easily understood by or easily taught to young children.
• Combines the target sound with all possible vowel sounds at least once.
• Words are sorted by difficulty level for an easy progression from easy to hard.
• Describes the progression from most intense prompts to least intense.
• Provides a simple carrier phrase for every word.
• A gestural prompt for the target sound is explained.
• A list of therapy activities is included.
• Includes 30 therapy cards with the target word and a picture on the front,
  and the difficulty level and the carrier phrase printed on the back.

Permissions

I give permission to copy, print, or distribute these card sets provided that:

1. Each copy makes clear that I am the document's author.
2. No copies are altered without my express consent.
3. No one makes a profit from these copies.
4. Electronic copies contain a live link back to my original and print copies not for merely personal use contain the URL of my original.

Looking for Feedback

I would love to hear back from anyone who uses the word sets. Let me know if there is anything you would change. Comment on this page, or send me an email at testyyettrying(at)gmail(dot)com.

Where can I find more?

More sets are on my Free Speech Therapy Articulation Cards page.

Card Sets

To download click on the image to open it full size. Then right click on the image, choose "save as" and save the page to your computer.

Instructions for printing and using the cards are included in the set.

Initial P: Free Speech Therapy Articulation Picture Cards

The Initial /p/ set is finished and it is a significant upgrade over the previous sets (I will be updating those to the new format soon.) Here are the features of the new card sets. For those of you who read this blog regularly, I apologize in advance for the fact that this introductory section will be exactly the same for each new set posted. It is the only way to be sure that someone who finds this website by searching for a specific set gets the full set of information. In the future feel free to skip down to the actual pictures and skip the introduction.

Description

These articulation picture card sets are designed to be more comprehensive than the typical sets you might find elsewhere. The target audience for these sets are young children or children with more severe speech delays that need intensive practice with sounds at a one-syllable level or simple two-syllable level. No blends or vocalic /r/ sounds are included in these sets.

Key Features

• Initial and Final sets include 30 one-syllable words that begin or end with the target sound.
• The words are simple and are easily understood by or easily taught to young children.
• Combines the target sound with all possible vowel sounds at least once.
• Words are sorted by difficulty level for an easy progression from easy to hard.
• Describes the progression from most intense prompts to least intense.
• Provides a simple carrier phrase for every word.
• A gestural prompt for the target sound is explained.
• A list of therapy activities is included.
• Includes 30 therapy cards with the target word and a picture on the front,
  and the difficulty level and the carrier phrase printed on the back.

Permissions

I give permission to copy, print, or distribute these card sets provided that:

1. Each copy makes clear that I am the document's author.
2. No copies are altered without my express consent.
3. No one makes a profit from these copies.
4. Electronic copies contain a live link back to my original and print copies not for merely personal use contain the URL of my original.

Looking for Feedback

I would love to hear back from anyone who uses the word sets. Let me know if there is anything you would change.

Where can I find more?

More sets are on my Free Speech Therapy Articulation Cards page.

Card Sets

To download click on the image to open it full size. Then right click on the image, choose "save as" and save the page to your computer.

Instructions for printing and using the cards are included in the set.

The Weekly Review: Week Fifteen

Best Blog Posts of the Week

• Linda at All and Sundry makes the list again because she's just so funny. Seriously, given the following quote, how can you skip this post?
  Before beginning to work from home, she thought perhaps... "while I periodically take a break to wave at my cherubic children, who have naturally occupied themselves with some peaceful and industrious activity such as polishing the stainless steel appliances while independently serving their developmental needs, Montessori-style."
• Amy at Amalah wrote a post to tempt fate about her new baby and sleep. The pictures are a nice bonus.

Website Resource of the Week:

Ok, you're probably only going to think this is the "coolest thing ever" if you're a Speech-Language Pathologist and a particularly geeky one at that. Learning Fundamentals is a company that makes software for SLPs (apparently, I haven't actually checked out any of their software). On their website they have a tool that lets you specify exactly what types of sounds you want in what order and then it spits out a list of words that meet your criteria. Very, very cool.

The Weekly Michael

Michael is all of a sudden extremely interested in spelling words. He'll sit at the computer and ask for help spelling random words. If I help him sound out the word he can pretty much spell it himself. He'll even make editorial decisions. For example, he decided that "mommy" needed to be spelled "momme" because that just made more sense. He made the same decision for "dadde" We've also spelled Michael and Ava. He made the observation that his name is bigger. I believe cat, dog, and monster were also spelled. It's fun watching him explore writing. Well, typing. He loves typing things out but isn't the slightest bit interested in writing on paper.

The Weekly Ava

Last night as I was putting Ava to bed we got into a tickling game. Then she stopped me by saying, "Be careful Mama! No want to make hole in Ava!" I understood every word. I wonder, if I had an audiotape and played it for someone else if they would have understood it. Not that it matters if someone else would understand. I knew exactly what she was saying and it was wonderful.

Speech-Language Pathology Topics: The Flap

As I was working on my one syllable word lists I was reminded of two things: one rather obvious and the other pretty obscure.

The obvious: If you are not using blends, medial consonants are not used in one syllable words. So, if I want a list of simple words that use a medial sound I'll need to use very simple two syllable words (CVCV, CVC, CVCVC).

The obscure: I completely forgot about a rather obscure sound. When a /t/ sound appears between two vowels in connected speech it is produced as a flap. When a /b/ sound appears between two vowels in connected speech it is often also produced as a flap. Say the following two sentences quickly and naturally.

1. Look at the bike pedal.
2. Look at the flower petal.

The /d/ in "pedal" and the /p/ in "petal" are produced in almost exactly the same manner - as a flap instead of as a clear /t/or /d/.

My conclusion: If you want to practice the /t/ sound, it is not useful to try to practice it in the medial position of a simple two-syllable word (bottle, button) because when those words are spoken in natural speech a flap is produced rather than a /t/. Once your child has mastered /t/ in the initial and final position of words it would be a better use of your time to practice it in connected speech with short phrases (on top).

You might also be interested in the following articles:

Voicing Pairs

Random Example of the Complexity of Motor Planning

Random Story and Random Contemplation

It was raining as I dropped the children off at preschool yesterday morning. The dropoff at our school is a horseshoe and the entrance to the horseshoe is at the top of the hill so you can see the entire parking lot as you pull in. As I was pulling in, I saw the person in the spot closest to the door pulling out and thought to myself, "I actually got lucky!"

Now you have to understand that although I am very lucky in the big things in life (wondeful husband and children, home over our heads, food to eat, extended family to love us), I am not so lucky in the little things in life. I do not gamble because (as one of many reasons) it just isn't that much fun to spend three minutes putting $20 of quarters into a slot machine and then walk away. I'm never the person that wins the free soda when I take the cap off the promotional bottle. I never get the best prize in the scratch off in the mail. So, I was genuinely surprised and pleased that on a rainy day the closest spot to the front door magically opened up as I was pulling in.

Then I noticed that another car was leaving as well, so I slowed down to allow her lots of room to back up before I continued pulling around the horseshoe. Well, she backed up and instead of leaving, took the closest spot. There! Classic example of my luck. :-)

_________________________

Sometimes, as I am waiting at a red light at a busy intersection watching a river of cars pass in front of me I find myself thinking about their passengers. I think about how every one of those cars has a person (or people) in it. Every one of those people has a life just as rich, complicated, and interconnected as mine. Every one of those people is essential to the people who love them. I think about the web of connections that spreads out from this exact geographical point. And I very genuinely wish all of them a safe journey.

Windows

Speech is a window into someone's mind. For Michael that window is wide open. His mind forms a thought, his mouth speaks it, and I comprehend it. The process is effortless and easy. In fact, that boy's mouth has no filter. Every thought just comes out of his mouth in a continuous stream. I will admit that occasionally I wish for a pause button.

And then there is my daughter. It is painfully obvious that she has just as much to say. She'll come running in from the other room just bursting with something she wants to share. She'll tell me a one or two or even three sentence story and then pause excitedly for my reaction. In a typical conversation I would effortlessly understand her and immediately respond. Instead, I pause while my mind tries frantically to figure out what she said. Often I fail. So far, she doesn't seem too upset. She'll often just run off back to whatever she was doing. But I missed it. I missed that window into her mind and that opportunity to know her better and share her thoughts. And I'll never get that particular opportunity back. I just have to wait for the next one and try again.

Speech-Language Pathology Topics: Consonants

What are consonants and why are they important to speech?

Consonant sounds are produced by constricting or interrupting the air flow at some point during the production of a sound. In contrast, a vowel is a sound produced with a relatively open vocal tract. Consonants are combined with vowels to make syllables and words. When consonants are produced incorrectly, that makes speech very difficult to understand.

There are 24 consonant sounds used in spoken American English. These sounds may or may not match up with English letters and the phonics typically associated with those letters. Here is a chart of the 24 American English consonant sounds. The symbol on the left is the phonetic symbol most Speech-Language Pathologists use to represent each sound. On the right is an example of a word with that consonant sound. The letters used to spell the sound are in bold.

What are the characteristics of consonants

What makes a "p" different than an "v"? The consonants sound different from each other because they are made in different ways. They differ in their place of articulation, their manner of articulation, and their voicing status. Speech-Language Pathologists use a consonant chart to keep track of the consonants and their characteristics.

What are the different places of articulation?

A consonant is made by constricting the airflow between where it starts with the exhalation in the lungs and where it exits the mouth at some point. One reason sounds differ is because the point of constriction happens at different places. If the point of constriction is at the lips (/p/, /b/, /m/, /w/) then the place of articulation is bilabial. If the point of constriction is just behind the top teeth (/t/, /d/, /s/, /z/, /n/, /l/, /r/) then the place of articulation is alveolar. Here is a list of the places of articulation and a picture to help you visualize those places.

• bilabial - constriction between both lips
• labio-dental - constriction between top teeth and bottom lip
• dental - constriction between top and bottom teeth
• alveolar - constriction between the tongue and the alveolar ridge (top of mouth just behind top teeth)
• palatal - constriction between the tongue and the hard palate (roof of mouth)
• velar - constriction between the tongue and the soft palate (roof of the very back of the mouth)
• glottal - constriction at the vocal folds

What are the different manners of articulation?

A consonant is made by constricting the airflow between where it starts with the exhalation in the lungs and where it exits the mouth at some point. One reason sounds differ is because the method of constriction happens in different ways. If the airflow is completely stopped and then released in a puff of air (/p/, /b/, /k/, /g/, /t/, /d/) then the manner of articulation is a stop. If the the airflow is redirected through the nose (/m/, /n/, /ng/) then the manner of articulation is a nasal. Here is a list of the manners of articulation.

• stop - airflow is completely stopped and then released
• fricative - airflow is constricted causing slight hissing noise
• affricate - This is a combination of a stop and a fricative. First the airflow is completely stopped and then it is constricted causing a slight hissing noise with the consonant.
• nasal - airflow is redirected out the nose
• liquid - airflow is constricted significantly more than a vowel, but not enough to cause a hissing noise with the consonant
• glide - similar to a liquid, but with slight movement during the production of the consonant

What is voicing?

There is a third characteristic of consonants. /s/ and /z/ are made with exactly the same place and manner of articulation and yet they are different. /z/ is made while vibrating the vocal folds. If you place your hand on your throat while making a /z/ sound (buzz like a bee) you will feel the vibration of your vocal folds. /s/ is made without vibrating the vocal folds. If you place your hand on your throat while making an /s/ sound (hiss like a snake) you will not feel the vibration. So the third characteristic of consonants is the presence or absence of voicing.

Why are consonant characteristics important to understand when planning therapy for Childhood Apraxia of Speech?

First of all, understanding the characteristics of consonants can help you understand why some consonants are harder than others for your child. Affricates are going to be harder than stops or fricatives because they require more complicated motor planning. Words with consonants that are all produced in the same place (dot) are going to be easier than words with consonants that change place (pod). Words with consonants that move from the very front to the very back are going to be even harder(back). Voiced sounds are going to be harder than their coresponding voiceless sound because the motor planning is more complex. Speech-Language Pathologists take all of these factors into account when choosing targets for speech therapy.

You might also be interested in the following articles:

Speech-Language Pathology Topics: Vowels

Voicing Pairs

Random Example of the Complexity of Motor Planning

Let the Games Begin

We've had the game Don't Break the Ice for a long time. The children love it. They never actually played the game mind you. I would spend three minutes carefully setting it up and they'd spend 5 seconds frantically pounding out all the pieces of ice in a fury of excitement. They simply couldn't grasp that the concept of the game was to prevent the bear from falling down.

This weekend Michael asked to play Don't Break the Ice. I pulled it from the shelf and set it up and in a rather pessimistic way told him, "Now, you lose the game if you make the bear fall. You win if the other person makes him fall." He got it. He loved it. I even loved it. Now that we were actually taking turns and using strategy to try to keep the bear from falling, each "game" lasted longer and I had an opportunity to play too. So far, he's a good sport no matter who wins. Game playing finally became fun.

I got really ambitious and pulled out the Candy Land game I bought ages and ages ago when Michael learned his colors and I overly optimistically assumed that meant he was ready for Candy Land. Turns out he's also ready for Candy Land. We played 4-5 games in a row. He wanted to discuss every character and really wants to build a real Candy Castle. I have rediscovered the fact that I personally find Candy Land to be a little boring and I think I'll search out some other games that might be fun. Any suggestions?

Oh, and Happy Father's Day. Enjoy it everyone.

And to my husband: Happy 7th Anniversary! I love you. (And Happy Father's Day - You are an amazing Daddy.)

Simultaneous Relief and Sadness

Oh my goodness is she talking. The other day Ava commented that, "Daddy put peanut butter on Ava's really really big pancake." That's a 10 word sentence coming from my little girl who's only 27 months old. It is such a relief. 6 months ago she had only three words in her vocabulary and couldn't imitate. Now she's talking in multi-word sentences. Obviously her language is fine.

However...

More and more, I can't understand her at all. I'm pretty good if she's talking about something immediate and in front of us (like Daddy and the pancakes). If I have some context and we can see and point at it I can understand most of what she has to say. But if she's talking about anything else I'm clueless. You often can't understand a word of what she's saying. If she starts rattling off her opinion of a tv show I haven't watched or telling me about something she did at her grandparents' house I often have no idea.

As you would expect for Childhood Apraxia of Speech, the longer the utterance, the less you can understand. It's killing me. She has so much to say. Her little mind wants to tell stories. She wants to engage in back and forth conversation. Instead she says something which I hear as, "Garble, garble, garble, garble, garble" and I just look at her and reply, "Uh huh sweetie." And then I try to change the subject. Sometimes I say, "I'm sorry, sweetheart, Mama didn't understand you. Can you tell me again?" But I only do that when I think I have some chance of getting it. Otherwise, she just gets frustrated at trying to tell me over and over unsuccessfully.

I know we're working as fast as we can. I know she's made phenomenal progress in a relatively short time. I know she can communicate so much more than before. But honestly, I feel that it is terribly unfair that she's worked so hard, she's finally got so much to say and is actually trying to say it, and she still can't communicate successfully much of the time with her loved ones. That sucks.

The Weekly Review: Week Fourteen

Best Blog Posts of the Week

• Linda at All and Sundry writes an online column at CafeMom. She wrote an incredibly brave and honest post that is definitely worth reading.
• To continue with the more serious theme of the best blog posts of the week, Rob Rummel-Hudson at Fighting Monsters with Rubber Swords wrote a post this week about an outing his family had at the pool, the connection his daughter made with another child, and the feelings and observations he and his wife made during the experience.
• To finish with something lighter, at the end of this post, Swistle links to a site where people are posting really cool pictures. They take a picture from their past and go to that same location. Then they line the old picture up with the real life background and take a picture of the picture and write a caption. Hmm. That description doesn't make much sense, but the pictures are really touching somehow and you should definitely check out the site. It is Dear Photograph.

The Weekly Michael

"I'm going to get you with my slapula!" - Several hours earlier I had taken the toy spatula from the kids' play kitchen and was poking Ava with it making her laugh. Apparently Michael was unfamilar with the word spatula and given the context, interpreted the name of the device as Slap - u - la. My husband's parents were in town at the time and we all laughed long and hard. We made jokes about it for the rest of the visit.
• "Mama, are you making a baby?" - Wow, that one came as a complete surprise out of nowhere right before bed a few nights ago. Last week, Michael and I had a brief conversation about how you can't buy a baby at the store because mommies have to make babies in their tummies. In response to his question, I told him that, "No, Mama is not making a baby right now. Mama is probably done making babies. I have a Michael and an Ava and that is enough babies for Mama." At that point he promptly began begging, "Please Mama! Please make a baby." Ava jumped right on the bandwagon also chanting, "Please Mama, please!" Don't think I didn't hear my husband laughing as he eavesdropped from the other room.

The Weekly Ava

Ava is counting everything. She'll just randomly burst into sequences of numbers. They tend to go something like this: "one, two, three, five, seven, eight!" Eight seems to be her favorite ending number. So, we'll be climbing the stairs, or I'll be putting grapes on her plate, or there will be five (eight according to Ava) frogs in a book and the counting will begin. It's adorable. The teacher in me wants to correct the counting, but the Mama in me just smiles in adoration.

Project of the Week (or month, or year):

The card sets are definitely the obsession of the week. I do not use the word obsession lightly. I have been pretty much been spending every spare minute on them. I'm pretty sure that I will not be able to maintain this level of intensity for long, but I'm hoping to do about one new card set a week indefinitely. Let's do the math. There are 24 consonant sounds and theoretically I'd like to do an initial, medial, and final card set for each one where appropriate. (Not all of the consonant sounds appear in every word position so there will not be three for every one of those 24 consonant sounds). That's approximately 65 card sets. Hmm. Over a year's worth at one per week. We'll see.

Busy, Busy, Busy

This month we have had two sets of out-of-town visitors. My cousin (Michael's godmother) and her boyfriend came to visit from Louisiana first. It was an amazing visit full of our introduction to Erector sets, a trips to the zoo (the baby elephant was my favorite part), and lots of play.

After a brief, one weekend break, my husband's parents came into town. Their visit was perfect. The weather was beautiful. We went to the Botanical Gardens which has an absolutely amazing Children's Garden full of grand play structures, small creeks, and a water play area. We went to the Magic House which is a local children's museum.

Grandpa introduced Michael to the concept of building Erector Set cars purely for the purpose of an Erector Set Demolition Derby. Michael was also introduced to the fine art of "trash talk". The boast, "I'm going to crack your axles!" has been immortalized. After 20 minutes of each competetor designing and building their car, someone would play announcer and set up the battle scenerio complete with silly car names like "Roller-skate car" and "Derailer." After some trash talk, the furious 3 minute battle would commence and the competitors would bang their cars together until one fell apart. The car that managed to stay together would be declared the winner and then repairs would begin.

My husband has been rebuilding our old rotten deck. Demolition is complete. A contractor put in the new support posts and beams. We were able to salvage the old frame. In the evenings and weekends my husband is rebuilding the stairs and rail posts. Then he'll move on to the new floor boards and eventually the new rail. Of course, that means that the children and I are getting extended quality time together as I am watching them on my own during the evenings and weekends in addition to during the day. But the deck will be beautiful someday when it is done.

I've also been working on restarting structured speech therapy at home with Ava. It is going well, but I've been frustrated with the lack of materials that fit my needs perfectly. So in my spare time I've been making new card sets. That has pretty much been sucking up every last bit of available time.

And now you're caught up.

Free Speech Therapy Articulation Picture Cards: Final T

This version is out of date. Go here for new, easy to download, version and additional sets.

There are a lot of articulation cards available for working on just about any sound for your child. There are many commercial sets that you can buy and there are many that you can find for free online. I've done both. I was frustrated that most of those sets did not meet our needs very well.

When you are working with a young child who has Childhood Apraxia of Speech you need the words to be relatively simple in structure. Many of the lists were half full of two and three syllable words that are way too complicated for a young apraxic child to imitate. Also, children with apraxia need to practice their target sound paired with as many vowels as possible, and most sets are not designed with that goal in mind. Also, if you are working with a toddler, the words need to be relatively easily understood concepts for a young child. A word like "beg" is harder to understand and make a picture for than a word like "bed."

I have complied a set of 40 one-syllable words that I feel are easily understood or taught to a young child and I have made picture cards for them. I also have written out some directions for making the cards and some ideas for activities to do with the cards. The words are divided into levels by difficulty. I suggest you begin with the easiest cards and include the harder levels as your child is able to practice them too. I also describe the different levels of cueing you can use and provide suggestions for very simple one word carrier phrases you can use when you want to move to a two word level.

You are welcome to download the set for use with your child. I will be posting sets as I complete them.

For an easy to print version, download a .pdf of the five-page One-Syllable Final T Articulation Picture Cards file.

This is an old version of the card set. You can find the new version and additional sets in an easy to download format here: Free Speech Therapy Articulation Cards

Apraxia Therapy Materials: Kaufman Speech Praxis Kit 1 (Basic Level)

Therapy Materials Review: Kaufman Kit 1 (Basic Level)

This is a review of the Kaufman Speech Praxis Treatment Kit for Children (Basic Level). The kit was developed by Nancy Kaufman, MA, CCC-SLP. Nancy Kaufman is a nationally acclaimed expert in apraxia who has developed assessment and treatment materials in the area of apraxia. This kit contains a small manual that explains the treatment methods recommended and 201 picture cards sorted into category by syllable shape. The back of each card shows a hierarchy of acceptable responses for the picture on the card depending on the current performance level of the child.

Target Audience

The target audience for the Kaufman Kit Basic Level will usually be children between the ages of two and six. The pictures on the cards were designed with those ages in mind. These cards will be most useful for children who are struggling with producing simple syllable shapes and need to focus on the early emerging consonants /p, b, m, t, d, n, h/.

Description of the Kaufman Kit (Basic Level)

This kit is a boxed set of treatment materials including a 52 page manual and 201 stimulus cards sorted by type.

• Manual
  The manual is the same for both the Basic Level Kit 1 and the Advanced Level Kit 2 so some of the pages in the manual do not apply to Kit 1. The manual begins with a note to parents that describes Childhood Apraxia of Speech, gives an overview of the Kaufman Speech to Language Protocol approach to treating Childhood Apraxia of Speech, and briefly describes some things parents can do at home. The rest of the manual is pretty technical and written with a Speech-Language Pathologist in mind as the target audience for the manual. The rest of the manual describes the Kaufman evaluation hierarchy, treatment hairarchy, describes cueing techniques, gives examples of goals for IEPs and describes general treatment considerations.
  
  
• Stimulus Cards
  The cards consist of 201 full color 5" by 7" cards. The cards are seperated into sections that are color coded so that you can easily pull the cards, use them in therapy, and then sort them back into their sections. The early emerging consonants are included in kit one. Those consonants are /p, b, m, t, d, n, h/. Syllable shapes include CVCV, VC, CV, VCV, CV1CV2, C1V1C2V2, CVC, and CVCVCV. There are also more complex versions of some of those basic syllable shapes.
  
  

How to Use the Kaufman Kit Cards

Through formal or informal assessment, determine which syllable shapes are missing and which of the missing ones the child is stimulable for. Then work with the card sets for the missing syllable shapes that are easiest for the child. Remember that any of the responses on the back of the card can be considered to be correct. The responses on the back of the card are all acceptable, but get closer to the actual production of the word as you move from bottom to top. When you start working with a particular card, figure out which is the highest production the child can successfully imitate and start there gradually working your way up by using the cueing techniques described in the manual.

Therapy Activity Suggestions for Kaufman Kit Cards

• You can always simply drill the words offering a verbal reward, sticker, or turn at a game after every 5-10 responses.
• Make a laminated train engine and caboose. Line your cards up in between the engine and caboose making a word train and place a small reward (sticker, cheerio, etc.) on the caboose. Have the child say each word 1-5 times and when they reach the end of the train they get the reward. Then set up a new train.
• Tape the cards in a line on the wall. Make the room as dark as possible and let the child light up each card with a flashlight. They must say the word 1-5 times before they can light up the next word.
• Hide the cards around the room. Tell the child that you are playing hide and seek with the words and that they need to find 10 (or however many you hid) words. As they bring each word to you they need to say it 1-5 times before going to find the next word. Once they find all the cards they get a small reward. Then they cover their eyes while you hide a new set of cards. Or, you can trade and let them hide the words for you to find. They still have to say each word 1-5 times when you bring the card to them before you go find another.
• Lay the cards on the floor in some kind of pattern and play a beanbag toss game. They say the word the beanbag lands on 1-5 times before getting to throw the next beanbag.

Pros and Cons of the Kaufman Speech Praxis Kit 1 (Basic Level)

Pros: This kit provides materials for systematically building speech from least difficult to most difficult in terms of syllable structure. Within each syllable structure, there is also a hierarchy of acceptable responses from the least motorically complex to most motorically complex (and accurate). That makes this kit ideal for working with children who have Childhood Apraxia of Speech particularly those children who are minimally verbal.

Cons: This kit is very expensive. It is only Kit 1. There is another kit that includes the later developing consonants and more complex syllable structures that you might want when a child outgrows Kit 1. That kit is also very expensive. There are only a few words (usually 6-12) in each category so if you are looking for a wide variety of words to increase generalization, that is not the purpose of this kit. Also, if your child needs practice with a wider variety of consonants, they will not be included in this kit.

For the price, I expected a big manual that was designed to educate a parent or novice SLP with little apraxia experience about the disorder itself. Then I would would like for the manual to explain in an accessible way the theory behind the Kaufman method and why it is so appropriate for treating the disorder. The manual should make it very easy to understand how to use the materials with children and give concrete examples of therapy activity ideas. To put it simply, I was underwhelmed with the manual.

Bottom Line:

If you already have the knowledge and expertise to understand how to best use these materials and you have several minimally verbal children on your caseload, this kit would be well worth the purchase price. If you do not meet both of those criteria, I believe the price is prohibitive.

You might also be interested in the following articles:

Apraxia Therapy Materials: The Big Book of Exclamations

Apraxia Therapy Materials: Webber Jumbo Articulation Drill Book

Free Speech Therapy Articulation Picture Cards: Final N

This version is out of date. Go here for new, easy to download, version and additional sets.

There are a lot of articulation cards available for working on just about any sound for your child. There are many commercial sets that you can buy and there are many that you can find for free online. I've done both. I was frustrated that most of those sets did not meet our needs very well.

When you are working with a young child who has Childhood Apraxia of Speech you need the words to be relatively simple in structure. Many of the lists were half full of two and three syllable words that are way too complicated for a young apraxic child to imitate. Also, children with apraxia need to practice their target sound paired with as many vowels as possible, and most sets are not designed with that goal in mind. Also, if you are working with a toddler, the words need to be relatively easily understood concepts for a young child. A word like "beg" is harder to understand and make a picture for than a word like "bed."

I have complied a set of 40 one-syllable words that I feel are easily understood or taught to a young child and I have made picture cards for them. I also have written out some directions for making the cards and some ideas for activities to do with the cards. You are welcome to download the pictures for use with your child. I will be posting sets as I complete them.

For an easy to print version, download a .pdf of the four-page One-Syllable Final N Articulation Picture Cards file.

This is an old version of the card set. You can find the new version and additional sets in an easy to download format here: Free Speech Therapy Articulation Cards