Speech and Language Roundup: List 1

Occasionally I come across activities on the web that I think would be great in a speech and language room, but they really aren't full-post material. Whenever I put together five such resources I'll share them with you in a "roundup".

1. I found a post that has a great worksheet on homophones. Each pair of homophones is illustrated and used in a sentence example. The worksheet has 20 pairs of homophones. The full post gives some additional homophone resources.
   


2. This youtube video has a series of adorable, catchy songs - one for each letter of the alphabet. Find the sound you're working on and show the video to the kids for a musical video introduction to your speech sound.
   


3. Susie Q at Learning with Susie Q has an I Have...Who Has? free printable game for irregular plural nouns that is exceptional. The full (free) game has 23 irregular plural nouns.
   
   


4. Smile Play Learn has a very sweet graphic/Simon Says activity based on the book Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes. The book has an engaging story with exquisite black and white illustrations. This activity is perfect if you're working on action words with a language group. The post also has an art activity for making a soft kitty.
   
   


5. Digitprop has a set of super cute downloadable .pdf files. Cut them out, fold and tape and you end up with 3-D letters. They would look nice on a desk or bulletin board, or simply as an activity to get kids excited about their target sound.
   
   

Speech Therapy At Home: A Minimalist Approach

I've experimented with several approaches to home therapy. We've done 30 minutes sessions five times a week in addition to the therapy services Ava was receiving elsewhere. That was intense and a schedule that was hard to maintain even when the children were only in daycare two mornings a week.

We tried doing a 15-20 minute therapy session nightly after dinner. That was working well at least 3 days a week until summertime hit and our schedule was less regular. Then sessions dropped to once a week and then we got distracted all together.

When fall approached, Ava was switching from daycare two mornings a week to preschool five mornings a week. She was also starting her speech group again twice a week for 45 minutes after the summer break. I decided to postpone home sessions until we settled into our school-year schedule.

Things are finally calming down. Ava has transitioned well to preschool. She's doing fine in her speech group twice a week. Her speech group is wonderful. They have a group for preschool-aged speech-only children. The therapists use a cycles approach working on each sound for a week or two before moving on to another sound. After moving through all the targeted sounds they begin the cycle again. Ava has a somewhat unique spectrum of speech sounds she has vs. has not acquired though. She has (with the exception of /sk/) pretty much mastered the /s/-blends. /s/-blends are typically a sound most preschool children need to address, so the group spends quite a few consecutive sessions on /s/-blends Ava already knows. Therefore, I am feeling the need to supplement at home again.

I don't want to overwhelm her though. Already her schedule is at least three times as busy as it has ever been. So I'm taking a minimalist approach to home therapy right now. I've taken a card deck upstairs to her bedroom. Usually we do final /k/, but right now her speech group is working on /sk/ so I'm switching to /sk/ this week (extensive /s/-blend sets are currently available in the Testy Shop).

I keep the deck on her bedside table and we practice the deck before nap and again before bed. It takes no more than 5-7 minutes to do a speed drill consisting of at least 50 productions. I can tell she's fatiguing near the end of the 59 card final /k/ deck (coming soon in the Testy Shop) because she's at 90% accuracy for the first 20 and down to more like 30% accuracy by the final 20).

I like this approach. It meets the two essential criteria for getting it done in our house.

• It is quick.
• It is built into our routines (before bed and nap) in a hard to forget way.
• As a bonus, it is heavily focused on child productions which is essential for progress with motor-speech problems.

Isolation "Race to the Top" Game: Simple DIY

Race to the Top Game - Simple Isolation Practice

Preparation

Take a piece of paper, marker, die, and some stickers. Download and print my sample below if you happen to want to practice /t/ and /k/. (I have a child who substitutes /t/ for /k/ and so practicing those two sounds together is a great exercise.) Otherwise, use the paper and marker to make your own game sheet with whatever sounds you need to practice. Write one sound on three stickers and the other sound on three more stickers and stick onto a die. Put the die into a small container with a lid to allow kids to shake without chasing it all over the room.

Play

Have the child shake the die. Mark whichever letter comes up after the child makes the sound. If you have a young child, have them color the letter or place a sticker on it. An older child can trace the letter. Then roll again. Whichever "tower" is completed first "wins" the game.

Variations

• Have the child make the sound 3-5 times in succession before marking that sound off in the tower.
• Have the child think of a word that starts with the sound.
• Have the child think of a word that ends with the sound.
• Provide the child with an initial or final word and have them use it in a phrase or sentence.

(Inspired by this post.)