Set aside 15-20 minutes a day to work on speech
sounds. Let your child know that they are focusing on
correct sound production during this time. This can
be during an established homework time or it can be
during a time that you already have a lot of
conversation and interaction such as a meal time or a
story time.
If
you are reading to your child, encourage them to
repeat words with the target sound after you have
read them. If the child is reading, let them
reach the end of the page and then go back over words
on that page that have the target sound.
Encourage them to read slowly and make good sounds on
the first try.
When you are working on drill with individual words,
start with words that have the sound at the beginning.
These are usually easiest for the child to learn.
Then move to words that have the sound in the middle
or the end. Target words that have the sound in
a cluster (such as scratch if you are
targeting /s/) last. Repeat each word up to 10
times total and then challenge the child to use the
word in a sentence.
You
can find words with the target sound in books, on
internet resources, or you can have your child make
up their own list of words with the target sound.
These can be names of people, pets, favorite foods,
TV shows/characters, etc. Playing “I
spy” for things with the target sound can also
be fun.
When your child is doing well with sounds in words,
move up to sounds in sentences. These can be
sentences the child creates, tongue twisters, or
repeated sentences that you have created.
From
sentences, you can move into working on sounds in
reading passages and using the sounds in conversation.
This is a natural progression for the child to go
through.
Be
creative! You can incorporate speech practice
into regular homework. If a child is learning
spelling words or definitions for vocab, you can
practice sounds while learning the spelling and
definitions. If a child has a presentation,
practice reading it at home with good sounds.
For
more therapy ideas to use at home and more activity
links on the web, please visit the Speech-Language
Page on the Williamson County Schools website, or
link to Maggie Coyle's /s/ sound
help page or /r/ sound help
page. You can also check out the summer
practice suggestions from Rholanda Smartt,
another Williamson County SLP.
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