If you liked my aspiration worksheets, you will like this Prevocalic Voicing Worksheet. It takes the “aspiration trick” and combines it with a hand cue. I use this combination of tech…
Tips for eliciting speech sounds, a series of surveys. Come over and leave YOUR tips for eliciting speech sounds!
Check out these VC, CV, CVC, and CVCV sets for Apraxia and Articulation! Just what you need for your apraxia and articulation toolbox.
Are you homeschooling with Apraxia or thinking about it? From symptoms to resources and encouragement we are covering everything you need to know about Apraxia.
I'll let you in on a little secret - you can use ANY activity in Childhood Apraxia of Speech treatment, as long as you are getting a LOT of productions and using the Principles of Motor Learning! Books, games, toys, and songs are all appropriate activities. Read to see how you can tonne of trials during your speech therapy sessions with your preschoolers, toddlers, and kindergartens with Childhood Apraxia of Speech. If you’ve been here for a hot minute, you know that I love natural, play-based t
My cycles for phonology toolkit will give you everything you need to provide assessment, progress monitoring, and intervention!
I have so so many R kids on my caseload right now. In that past, that statement would be followed with a mournful sigh, or possibly with me throwing my head back and shaking my fists in the air cursing, “why me!?” Let me tell you… I used to struggle with how to teach the R […]
This post is in response to a followers request. Thanks for your input and suggestions!One of the very first ways to improve intelligibility is to teach a child to use a slower speech rate. When children with articulation disorders use a fast speech rate, often times the number of omissions and sound substitutions increase, syllables […]
Articulation disorders are becoming more common. Learn what causes them and what to do about it in simple terms.
Articulation Therapy for S Your student has an interdental lisp– or maybe a lateral lisp– and you’re feeling stuck. This feeling is something I came across often in my speech therapy sessions. One day, I decided it was time to do something about it. I wanted to correct those lisps. I’m somewhat of a perfectionist...
Hello! We we put together a new freebie for our speech-language pathologist friends who are working on increasing intelligibility and overall verbal expression skills with their students. The first handout in this freebie packet is a poster titled: Six Speech Techniques For Clearer Speech These techniques are great ones to review often with our speech students with reduced intelligibility. Here is a description of each step to review before and during speech practice of multi-syllable words and sentence productions. 1) Increase loudness: This is a great cue for the soft talker who is hard to hear as a reduced voice intensity can be a big part to reduced speaking intelligibility. 2) Say each word slower: Decreasing the students rate of speech often improves their intelligibility. 3) Swallow: This is to help clear any built up saliva in the students mouth. Built up saliva or other food or liquid residue can impede speaking intelligibility quite a bit. 4) Say each sound in every word: This really helps to slow down the fast talker and to remind them that each sound is important to say. 5) Sit up straight: This helps increase breath support and improves the students ability to project their voice and be heard. 6) Look at your listener: This helps to provide additional facial clues to your listener and that improves overall understanding. This also shows that the student is an interested person in the on-going conversation and that they care about what is being said. The additional two pages in this freebie are pacing boards. Please have the student who needs to slow down and concentrate more on their individual sounds within words or the words within their sentences use them. They are to simply tap a penguin or number for each syllable or word that they producing out loud. The tapping on the page is a nice visual and tactile reminder of what it is like to slow down and to concentrate on each production while talking to others. It helps to remind the student that every sound and word is important and that they should not be missed when talking! Enjoy the freebie and best wishes for much success with improving the speaking intelligibility, and the overall multisyllable word and sentence verbal productions for all of your students. Click HERE to to grab your freebie over at Teachers pay Teachers today! Manda Riebel, M.A. CCC-SLP & Shanda Gaunt, M.S. CCC-SLP Speech- Language Pathologists Twin Sisters Speech & Language Therapy LLC
Make your speech therapy sessions fun and engaging with this GIANT Speech and language therapy activities bundle to take your speech therapy engagement to the next level. This Giant Speech and Language Therapy Bundle includes every resource from the Teaching Talking store! With over 1000 pages of speech and language activities, Boom decks, and crafts you will have everything you need for your young students no matter their needs! Your students will love working on their goals using all of the speech therapy worksheets and speech and language activities included in this Speech Therapy Bundle! This Speech and Language Bundle is ideal for the SLP that has a diverse case load including students at various ages and grade levels, and with differing goals. These speech therapy activities, worksheets, and language activities in this speech therapy bundle contain all the materials you need to ensure students and clients are engaged in working on their language goals throughout the year. Both printable and digital speech therapy activities are included giving you choice and options on how to best meet the needs of your students. The simple crafts and speech and language activities are designed so that students aren’t distracted from their language target, but have fun while working. The Speech and Language Therapy Giant Speech Therapy Activities Bundle is the perfect way to engage your speech therapy students while hitting those important language goals! **Download the Preview and View the Resources** The Speech and Language Therapy Giant Speech Therapy Bundle includes far too much to list ;-) Items such as: 300+ Printable Cards for articulation, phonology, minimal pairs, and apraxia Quick Print Homework sheets for all speech & language areas Interactive Notebooks - everything in my bestselling range for articulation, language, and apraxia Themed speech and language resources for 25 popular classroom themes and holidays. Vocabulary Resources including CCSS aligned packets Phonological Awareness Program materials for rhyme & syllables Preschool Language Program with parent letters & instructions Digital Speech Therapy Boom Card decks for language, apraxia and articulation Recent Customer Feedback on resources included in this Giant Value Bundle: “What an outrageously good deal! When deciding whether to upgrade, I looked through all the materials I would gain access to with this purchase and literally, my whole caseload would benefit from this resource. "I've been looking for a distance learning resource to target pronouns and I'm so glad I found this! I love how auditory prompts are included for my learners who are not yet able to read. This is perfect, thank you!" "So excited about this resource! Thank you for a great bundle. It has been a lifesaver during NTI and I can't wait to use it in person with my kiddos." "Love the print resources! So glad to see the digital version available. Perfect for targeting prepositions with preschoolers in distance learning." "Perfect for addressing concepts virtually! I was originally having parents come to the computer with objects and the students would often get distracted. This was a perfect alternative!" Follow Teaching Talking for more engaging speech therapy activities!
I recently attended the Colorado Speech, Language and Hearing Association Spring Conference and the speaker gave me a lot to think about. A...
We're still working on initial /s/ around here and I was trying to do something a little different. Here's a printable worksheet I made usi...
Vocalic "R" Here it is......vocalic "r." This product took me a lot of time to pull together. I hope you find it useful. Please share ...
Some of our students need movement to help them learn! Speech therapy and in particular, minimal pairs, can become boring... so inject movement activities!
There are different types of verbal cueing strategies that can support speech production for individuals with motor planning disorders.
I posted a picture of this volume control chart on Instagram today (even though it is a little blurry! I need to work on taking better p...
Most of you seasoned therapists know and use the techniques that I am going to share, so I apologize if you are disappointed that there’s nothing new for you. However, those who have less experience under their belts and feel frustrated with the lateral lisp will appreciate these “pearls of wisdom.” What is a Lateral ... Read more
Download the speech sound development chart and process of articulation therapy handouts from Mommy Speech therapy.com
Check out these tips for saying the “P”, “B” and “M” speech sounds here! I recommend books, activities, and my own products to help!
If your child struggles with articulation, fluency, voice regulation, understanding and expressing himself through language, or nonverbal autism, these speech therapy activities are a great place to start!
10 word-finding strategies to practice in speech therapy for anomia and aphasia after stroke. Free download & apps to help.
Here are my tips and tricks for moving from making sounds in isolation to working on the VC and CV syllables during articulation therapy.
Quick guide on how to implement the Cycles Approach for processes/patterns in speech therapy
Speech-Language Pathologists Carrie Clark and Nancy Kaufman explain how to do childhood apraxia of speech treatment, including what to work on in therapy.
I actually secretly love when my favourite tricks to elicit speech sounds DON’T work. It means that I get to problem solve, and try to figure out how that child learns. Now let me preface this by saying that just as every child learns differently, so to does every SLP. I’ve tried to appeal to […]
Ever need a way to help increase your student's ability to make sounds at the syllable level? I have several students on my caseload that struggle to move beyond making the sound in isolation. I made these webs and they have been an incredibly useful tool in showing my students HOW to make their sounds in CV and VC syllables. →To use, decide if you want to target CV or VC syllables. If targeting CV syllables, start from the inner green circle. Have the child make the sound in isolation. Then, show them how to drag their finger from the inner circle to one of the vowel circles. To work on VC syllables, start in an outer vowel circle and move inwards. In the bottom left corner of each page is a picture to help cue your child to produce the correct sound. For example, a ball is shown on the /b/ page (i.e., buh buh buh for bouncing) and a dog is shown on the /h/ page (i.e., huh huh huh for a panting dog). A table of all of these child-friendly cues is included as well! Included is a visual for the following speech sounds: b, p, m, h, w, y, d, n, t, k, f, g, j, sh, ch, l, v, r, s, z, and th. Additionally, I included 1 blank sheet in case you want to customize it with other sounds! I updated this packet to include three different versions for each consonant sound: the original version, a long vowel sounds version, and a short vowel sounds version. See the preview pictures to get a better understanding of what each page looks like. ☺One buyer said, "The best purchase I have ever made.." The same speech sound visuals are use in my Speech Sound Cue Cards freebie. Click here to check that out! Click here to read about how I teach syllable production and progress from producing sounds in isolation in my speech room using these visuals! If you have any questions, feel free to email me at [email protected]. Looking for other practical resources for children with phonological disorders, articulation disorders, or apraxia? Some of my favorites are: •Say It! Trains for Apraxia •Cycles for Phonology Toolkit •Articulation Menus •Articulation Words by Theme ☟ Follow me for TONS of fun! Giveaways, freebies, fun therapy ideas, musings, and more! ☟ ❤❤ SPEECHY MUSINGS BLOG ❤ FACEBOOK ❤ PINTEREST ❤ INSTAGRAM ❤❤
What is Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS)? Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is a neurological disorder that disrupts a child’s ability to move their articulators- tongue, lips, and jaw- to f…
I love pragmatic language evals. I even like to write the reports. Don't judge me, because I want to share my pragmatic language evaluation tools with you.
Prompting Hierarchies have been a staple in special education, behavioral methodology andcommunication therapy for some time. However, when it comes to children with severe apraxia, with or without coexisting anxiety, (Rett Syndrome, Angelman Syndrome, ASD, etc) the commonly used prompting hierarchy can complicate instead of simplify teaching augmentative and alternative communication. Many studies now support aided language stimulation or direct modeling as a primary intervention that should be ongoing and intense with child who are learning to use AAC. Given this knowledge we should move modeling from a step in the hierarchy to the umbrella that covers all of the other steps in AAC teaching. Another flaw in the commonly used prompting hierarchy in AAC is the use of direct verbal/requesting a response/giving a command as a "cue" or "prompt". Telling a child what to "say" with their talker isn't a cue or prompt. It is a command and usually it is testing. When we equate communication with testing we lose out on what drives communication (and humanity, when it comes down to it) - an inherent desire to connect with another person. Sometimes that connection is about meeting a need or want and sometimes it is about sharing information, being polite or socially being part of an interaction. But we negate that when we command child to say something specific. Furthermore, such demanding/testing type interactions increase anxiety (fear of getting it wrong, fear of disappointing, etc), oppositional behavior (the child's desire to prove that the he or she has power) and apraxia. Apraxia is a neurological disability that impacts the child's ability to follow a direction in spite of the directive being understood, a desire to follow the directive, the physical ability to follow the directive and sometimes, a previously shown ability to follow the directive. In short, the more the child WANTS to do something the more apraxia stops them. This is neurological, NOT a behavior. Anxiety and demands increase the apraxia. So the child might still be working through the previous levels of cues you have given but then you make the demand "show me_______" or "say_________" and all bets are off! It will be nearly impossible for the child to do as you say at this point. Creating a amicable bond, sometimes even an almost conspiratorial connection is much more likely to enable a child with severe apraxia to be able to communicate. Non-directive and non-confrontational is the way to go in apraxia if you want results! Finally there is the issue of "hands-on" cueing. What does "hands-on" cueing really mean? It basically means we MAKE the child press or activate buttons on their devices. (The child actively taking your hand is different than you taking the child's hand. Yet, this should still be faded as soon as possible.) Hand-over-hand and hand-under-hand both are hands-on. What does a hands-on, full physical "cue" this tell the child? It tells them that A) we have the right to manipulate their bodies or make them touch or do things whether they want to or not and B) that we have the right to force them to say things just because we want them to say it. It teaches them that if they don't comply with a directive (regardless of if they understood it or if apraxia stood in their way) we will make them comply with the directive. Our students are some of the most vulnerable human being anywhere. Consider this statistic: More than 70 percent of those with disabilities polled said they had been abused and over 60 percent of family members indicated that their loved one with special needs had been mistreated. (http://www.disabilityandabuse.org/survey/survey-report.pdf) Or this one: More than ninety percent (90%) of people (both male and female) with developmental disabilities will experience sexual abuse at some point in their lives. Forty-nine percent (49%) will experience ten or more abuse incidents. (Valenti-Hein, D. & Schwartz, L. (1995). The Sexual Abuse Interview for Those with Developmental Disabilities. James Stanfield Company. Santa Barbara: California) Now tell me again how is it ok to teach children who have significant disabilities that they should allow others to make them do things with their hands and that they should allow others to "put words in their mouths"? We have almost a sacred duty to do everything in out power as educators, therapists, caregivers, parents to prevent abuse of our students - now and in the future. And this starts with teaching them that they have the right to be respected in what they do (and don't do) as well as what they say (and don't say). It might be the most important thing we do. We must take it seriously. We must make it a priority. And that means finding new ways to teach and "cue"/"prompt" (it definitely isn't a prompt if it is hands-on). We are an intelligent, creative and compassionate field, certainly we can find other ways? Additionally a "full physical" or hands-on situation, where we make the child "say" something with the device, teaches the child that language/words are something put upon them by others. If we want our students to see the power of their AAC systems we must let them see, in both our modeling and in how we teach and respond to their AAC, that the power of language/words is that it comes from INSIDE us and can affect those OUTSIDE us. Children can't learn that if we are constantly putting them in a position where the words come from someone else who is physically making them access their communication system. In teaching AAC we are setting the child's attitude about using their speech system for the rest of their life. It is so much better that we teach them the value of their system from the beginning instead of having to combat a negative attitude about their communication system that is created by how we taught them in the first place. So we must rethink the prompt hierarchy. We make modeling a setting event that happens ALWAYS. Then we use the expectant pause, indirect gestural cue (body language), direct gestural cue (pointing), indirect and partial verbal cues (phonemic cue, hinting) and then we return to modeling and move on. Why don't we force the issue until we get the device activation we want? Because communication isn't a test and nothing is so important that we put our hands on and make them say something. Instead we increase the motivation of the child (through preferred activities, child led sessions and our own demeanor), we increase the modeling of the AAC device or system and we move out of the way and let the child come to an understanding of their communication system and the power it has through repeated meaningful experiences. Join us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Teaching-Learners-with-Multiple-Needs/179671874000.
You assess a highly unintelligible child, and after giving a battery of tests and carefully looking at the results, you still wonder, is it CAS? How can I
👆🔝👩🏫 The L sound articulation is a tricky thing to master. 👶❤️ Here you will find fun activities for practice at home! 🥰🏡
Welcome to my short series on treating phonological delays. These posts are being written for my fellow SLPs. However if you are a parent of a child with a phonological delay you might be interested in this information, even though some of it will be in “SLP Speak.” Feel free to ask any questions in […]
Helping develop your child's speech through play. We're always told not to compare children. They're all different and all do things in their own way, in their own time. In fact, a favourite quote of mine is, "Not all children are ready to learn the same thing at the same time in the same way." - Kathy Walker However, even knowing and understanding all of this, when my son did not start to communicate verbally in a similar way to how his older sister had, I admit that I felt quite concerned. I'd done everything the same. He'd been read to since birth (a lot), talked to and chatted with constantly. We made sounds, did rhymes, sung songs and played together. But, unlike his sister, he did not choose to naturally communicate verbally and would refuse to mimic sounds or try new words. His non-verbal communication was spot on and he was always able to get across what he wanted (which was encouraging) but oral language was not something that came easily to him. My child is showing a delay in their speech development. Where do I start? Being a teacher, I was aware that early intervention is very important when it comes to children and learning difficulties, so despite all the advice I was getting from people to, "Just wait, it'll happen," I needed to do something about it myself and ensure that I was giving him the best start that I could. My son was about 19-20 months old when I first sought out external advice. Many people will say that it's too early to really start getting concerned before 2 years old, but you know your own child better than anyone. If you're concerned for any reason, it's better to seek out assistance than possibly stressing out unnecessarily for months and months. When concerned about your child's speech development the first people to speak to are your child's doctor and maternal health nurse. Through them, they can organise and refer you for any specialists and tests. We started by getting an assessment of where his development was at, as well as organising for a hearing test. This is usually a good starting point. From there, doctors and professionals are able to see if there are any particular issues that might be delaying speech and start to rule things out. As his hearing was fine, the next step for us was being referred to a Speech Pathologist. Many speech pathologists are private practice here in Australia and can be quite pricey if your child needs regular sessions. There are ways to get into government subsidised classes so talk to your GP or Maternal Health Nurse about how and where you can sign up for them. There is often a waiting list though and the spots will often go to children in higher need (such as older children). We went to a few sessions with a private Speech Pathologist and after observing, listening and discussing the best ways to help my son develop his oral language, I was confident that I could take over and continue to help him myself at home without the added cost of a weekly therapy bill. 10 tips to help your child develop their speech through play at home It was clear from the speech pathology sessions I attended, that my son was on the verge of talking but that helping him form those words was going to take a bit more of a concentrated effort than his older sister required. Having the speech pathologist confirm my original beliefs that learning through play was always going to be the best way was encouraging, and gaining the understanding of how I could go about better approaching this play time with him, in order to best help develop his speech, was also something of great value. The main points that I learnt about trying to encourage speech development through play are: 1) For your child to develop their speech, they have to practice. It can be tricky getting reluctant speakers to talk, so engaging them in meaningful play and activities where they are naturally encouraged to participate in talking, is essential. 2) One-on-one play time is very important. Make regular times (at least once daily for a minimum of 10-15 minutes) to sit down with your child, without other distractions and engage with them. (This can be tricky with other siblings around but it's important that they have this uninterrupted time with you) 3) Look at your child's interests and try to engage them with these interests. Eg. If they are really into animals, plan your one-on-one play times to involve playing with animals. If they are always very active and struggle to sit still, try to play together in a way that allows them to move whilst still encouraging them to talk. 4) When speaking to your child during these one-on-one play times, use clear, short sentences that are directly related to the play. Eg. While playing with your animals, move the cow and say "the COW says MOO. mooooo" When the cow is knocked over, "Oops, the COW FELL DOWN." When you jump the cow over a fence, "the COW JUMPED OVER the FENCE." You don't have to speak like this to your child all the time, just during your one-on-one play times. Focus the language on useful words that will help your child communicate better. Prepositions such as, "on, in, out, off, up" etc. verbs such as "drink, eat, jump, play, read." and nouns, eg. "Mum, Dad, hand, foot, cup" etc. 5) Give your child a chance to respond. Often it will take children longer to process your question or what is being spoken about and for them to think of an appropriate response and say it. It's easy for adults and other children to jump in with the answer after a couple of seconds when it seems as though the child is not going to respond, but you need to allow a good 10 seconds or more for them to attempt to answer verbally. 6) Find new and engaging ways to play with them that allow you opportunities to practice other words. Eg. Blowing bubbles with them will allow you to practice the language that will come naturally with that activity, such as, "more," "bubbles," and "blow." Playing with cars can encourage language such as, "go," "stop," "drive," "brrrrrroooom," and "beep beep." (Here are 10 ideas you could try) 7) If your child has particular sounds that they are struggling with, eg. saying "wewy" instead of "very," try and find ways to play that will naturally include that language. Eg. Build a tower together. A tower that is VERY, VERY tall! Use that time to say and practice the language as much as possible. 8) Repeat what your child says, clearly and correctly so that they can hear how it should sound and reinforce the language that goes with the action. Eg. If your child indicates you to blow more bubbles by saying, "mor," you can say, "More. More bubbles?" and wait for their response. Trying to engage them in conversation and take it further is important. Your child might now nod, or say "yes," or say "more" again. You could then say, "Yes, yes you can have more bubbles." 9) Praise your child for their efforts. Positive reinforcement can work wonders on children so be sure to acknowledge their efforts at communicating verbally and encourage them to continue. 10) Be patient. Try to remember the message at the top of this post, that all children learn at their own pace. Your child's development may seem slower than others but so long as it's improving, you should get there. Who knows, it may suddenly click for them and you won't be able to stop them talking. Just remember to give them time and not to expect things to suddenly change in an instant. Your child might be reluctant to your one-on-one play times at first or not be able to stay focused for a very long period of time, but so long as you keep persisting with it, you should see results. Please remember that if you are feeling concerned at all about your child's development, if their development stalls or especially if their development starts going backwards, you should seek out advice from experts in these areas. Some children will require or greatly benefit from a joint effort from a specialist and parents so it's important that any concerns you have are addressed and you know the best way to go about it with your child. For practical activity ideas, along with the key vocabulary that you might focus on with each activity, see our 10 activities for helping develop speech post. For more info and ideas on helping your child develop their language through play, check out these great sites: Playing with Words 365 Two Daloo Play to Talk Trust Me I'm a Mom Happy playing, Debs :) Look where else we are. Are you following along? :)
My cycles for phonology toolkit will give you everything you need to provide assessment, progress monitoring, and intervention!
