Speech Card Set Activity: Speech Switcheroo (An Uno-Style Game)

I needed to slow the kids down so they could focus more on making quality productions rather than on simply making lots of sloppy productions, so it seemed like the perfect time to introduce a new speech card set game. I turned our /st/ cards into an uno-style game I called Switcheroo. The kids had a blast playing and I was really pleased with the experience. It should take you no more than 10 minutes to prepare any of the free speech sets for your own Speech Switcheroo set.

Directions for Making Your Own Speech Switcheroo Game

1. Print 4 copies of the free speech card set of your choice. (You probably need no more than 12-15 cards to make a large enough deck, so I recommend printing four copies of only one page of the sets.)
2. Print 1 copy of the special cards. (Found at the bottom of this page. Click to open full-size image then right click on that and save image to your computer for printing.)
3. Before cutting the cards out, put yellow stickers on each card of the first sheet and one one of the skip cards and one of the +2 cards. Then do the same for green stickers on another sheet, red stickers on the third sheet, and blue stickers on the fourth sheet. No stickers need to be placed on the Switcheroo cards. You could also use colored markers to make dots on the pages if you don't have stickers in the four colors.
4. Cut out all the cards and shuffle. Then deal 7 cards to each player and play the game uno-style. Have the child say the speech word as they play each card.

If you liked this card set activity you might also like:

• 10 Card Set Game and Activity Ideas
• Simple Speech Card Puzzles
• Speech Card Stories
• Speech Card Caterpillar
• Speech Card Game: What's Hiding?

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One year ago, during a speech session with our early intervention therapist, I encountered a very concrete example of the oral apraxia exhibited by both of my children.

Reading Eggs - An Online Reading Program

I am trying a free trial of Reading Eggs which is an online reading program. You can sign up for a free two week trial. After you sign up, you can add multiple children to the account. Then you can enter the code ABC1034 to extend the free trial by an additional 4 weeks (you can enter the same code for each child extending the program trial for multiple children). You have the option to have your child start at the beginning with letter recognition, or have them take a test to determine an appropriate starting level. Michael got 19 of 40 questions right and the program started him at the Level 4 Map.

Each map has about 10 lessons. Each lesson takes about 15 minutes to complete and has a variety of activities. The first lesson Michael completed was about the letter G and the second was about the letter L. He practiced letter recognition in isolation and in words. He practiced phonics with three letter words that included the featured letter in initial or final position. He practiced sight words featuring the letter. They even include an exercise that uses a connect the dots format to teach how to write the lower case letter. You can download a printable sheet of exercises for each lesson. He enjoyed the "game" and we've barely scratched the surface.

I haven't tried it yet with Ava, but given that the program starts with letter recognition, I may have her try it too beginning with the first lesson. She doesn't recognize all of her letters yet, so it might be really nice for her. She did enjoy watch Michael play through his lessons, so she might be interested in doing her own lessons.

If the children continue to enjoy playing with the program, I'll consider subscribing when our free trial is up. Has anyone else seen or used this program? Does anyone have recommendations of other online reading programs we should check out (particularly if they have free trials)?

Now I've Done It (Bad Speech Habit Acquired - Help!)

Ava has been doing so well with her blends. She went from simply eliminating the second consonant in an s-blend to being able to include both consonants almost every time. I was excited about that achievement and simply failed to notice that she began inserting a pretty prominent schwa to the end of the /s/. So, instead of saying "snow" or even "ssssssno," she's saying "suh no". (or "suh pin", "suh tep", etc...) I think it happened gradually and I just didn't catch it early. I really should have caught it, but I'm just not perfect. In fact, I'm only aware of it now because one of her speech teachers pointed it out to me. I was pretty embarassed. Now adding that schwa seems firmly ingrained in her motor planning for s-blends and I can't figure out how to get rid of it. Her therapist recommended shortening the /s/ and overemphasizing the second consonant when modeling, but that isn't helping.

Does anyone have any strategies they use under such circumstances?


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One year ago I reflected on my jealousy when watching other babies smile and the possible impact of oral apraxia on the infancies of my children.