Super Low Cost Speech Therapy Tips and Tricks!
Activities such as blowing bubbles are excellent low cost speech therapy activities that you can do at home!
Speech and language disorders affect children of all races and social-economic groups. If left untreated, speech disorders can affect a child’s ability to interact and communicate with others. Parents are constantly searching for low cost speech therapy tools and ideas. But where do you begin? The Internet is jam-packed with tools, gadgets, whistles and websites that can be confusing and misleading for parents. We have narrowed down a few low cost speech therapy ideas for you to try. Of course, we always recommend that you check in with your pediatrician or licensed speech therapist first before taking on any therapies on your own.
These low cost speech therapy ideas and activities are meant to get your child speaking and communicating in a more effective manner. As with any activity, the more you practice, the more effective they become. Low cost speech therapy does not need to be complicated. Instead, look for common items you may have around the house and get started!
- Straws: This is an excellent choice in learning proper mouth position for clear speech. Have your child suck something thick like a milkshake through a regular or twisty straw.
- Whistle: Another low cost speech therapy tool designed to teach your child how to position his or her mouth for correct pronunciation. The whistle does not need to be fancy, instead how about a plastic kazoo or flute.
- Bubbles: Blowing bubbles is a good exercise for your child’s mouth. When he shapes his mouth to blow through the wand, he is training the muscles around his mouth to align for proper articulation. Make sure he or she actually blows rather than just waving the wand around.
- Twister: Instead of the real Twister game, make your own version. This is an excellent exercise for element recall and following simple directions. Place pictures of common household objects around the floor. Using the spinner, spin the dial and instruct your child to “Put left foot on the pizza, and right hand on the boat” for example. Think of fun objects that will engage your child!
- Stickers: There are so many themes of stickers and kids of all ages love to play with them. Try purchasing a few different themes and ask your child specific questions about each sticker. For example, “what sport is she playing?,” “what is he eating?”, or “what does this cow say?” Popular sticker choices that evoke response from children include sport themes, animals, cartoons and funny faces.
Additional Low Cost Speech Therapy Choices?
If at-home therapies and games are not sufficient and you would like additional information about low cost speech therapy resources, familiarize yourself with the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Under the Act, education and related services are provided at no cost to the families who have students with disabilities, including speech problems. Students may be qualified to receive federal financial assistance. Free appropriate public education qualifies all with disabilities in elementary and secondary education programs to be provided services by a school. If the school does not have a speech pathologist on staff, it must provide assistance according to the Act.
If you would like information about applying for Educational Grants, try the following links for additional information:
United HealthCare: The United HealthCare Children’s Foundation provides grants not exceeding $5,000 for children younger than 16 in need of speech pathology. In order to qualify, the parent or guardian must meet specific income guidelines, live in the United States and have a commercial health plan.
United Way: The United Way operates local organizations throughout the United States and provides financial support for those who are in need of help with medical services, including speech rehabilitation. In order to be considered for assistance, you must apply through a local United Way chapter.
Stickers are great for building up vocabulary, and I love the idea of using twister to work on following directions. But bubbles, whistles, and straws are very controversial. Much research has shown that these items do NOT help improve clarity of speech. Nonspeech actions like blowing bubbles or sucking from straws do not transfer over to speech skills because these skills (non speech vs speech) are controlled by different parts of the brain. For more information, look up Gregory Lof’s research.
Thanks Holly, I personally can’t speak to the research, but your comments echo many others who’ve voiced similar concerns. Here’s the link I found to Gregory Lof’s relevant research, thanks for the tip: http://slpath.com/oralmotorresearch.html