Fun, At-Home Speech Therapy Exercises for Children
This week, in the spirit of the Olympics, we thought we’d offer some of our favorite speech therapy exercises and activities to do at home. That’s right, exercises! While there will not be a half-pipe, blob-sledding track or a gold medal at the end of your session, the reward will be an opportunity to spend quality time with your child and help him or her with increasing speech and language skills.
How Do I Know if My Child Has a Speech Disorder, or if it’s a Simple Language Delay?
So you think your child’s speech and language development may be coming in a little slow? Those cute babbles have yet to turn into clear words, as she is about to enter pre-school. But, how do you know it’s a speech disorder, rather than a simple speech delay? And, if indeed it is a speech disorder, what does that mean? Will my child be able to communicate effectively, will she be able to read, participate in class and most importantly, gain self-confidence? These are just some of the questions parents face as their child begins to learn speech patterns and language skills as a toddler.
Song, Music and Melodies are Excellent Speech Therapy Tools for Kids!
We finalize our in-depth look at tools for speech therapy with Music. Yes…music can truly be an effective tool for speech therapy! Think about it, rhymes, patterns, sounds and movement all help bring about speech language comprehension and articulation. According to “Use of Music in Speech-Language Therapy,” an article by Mary B. Zoller, “Using music is a multi-sensory experience that enhances a number of other skills that impact on speech and language development.” The use of music as a speech therapy tool serves to energize and engage a child, and encourages the child to actively participate. And the good news? You do not need to be a musician or a great singer to reap the benefits of music as therapy! Even using a silly voice and acting out the lyrics is helpful in engaging your child and a way to get them to listen attentively and unknowingly engage them in speech therapy exercises. As we have mentioned throughout this series, this does not serve to replace a proper evaluation or treatment from an SLP, rather music as a tool for speech therapy that you can do at home or in conjunction with your current speech therapy regime. Continue reading
Worksheets and Printables Are Excellent Additions To Your Speech Therapy Regimen.
Our in-depth look at tools for speech therapy continues with a look at free speech therapy tools that you can use at home. Worksheets and Printable Handouts. We have searched the Internet for worksheets that you can use with your child to use as support material in your speech therapy efforts. There are many different worksheets and handouts to choose from, so we have narrowed it down for you and organized these activities into two categories: activities to help build speech and language skills and activities to help build literacy. And, as we continue to emphasize, these are not a substitute for proper evaluation and treatment from an SLP. These handouts are purely to provide your child with hands-on resources for improving articulation, language building and increased literacy at home and to help build a foundation for correct speech patterns and comprehension.
Reading to your children helps build language skills and encourages correct sound production.
Yes, Books are excellent speech therapy tools and effective way to improve articulation disorder. As we continue our in-depth look at tools for speech therapy, we take a look at books. Reading to your child is one of the most important things you can do as a parent or caregiver whether or not you child has a speech disorder. As we have mentioned before, reading to your child helps make connections with what he or she is hearing and functions as a building block to language development. Reading comprehension is an essential tool for a child’s future academic achievement and social well-being. Not only does reading books serve as an effective form of speech therapy, it’s an excellent way to engage and entertain your child. The books listed below are not intended to replace speech therapy with an SLP. Rather, these are books that you can read at home with your child, to encourage sound production and set them up for correct articulation patterns.
