WHAT CAN I DO TO HELP MY CHILD’S SPEECH DEVELOPMENT?
Fun Wintertime Activities
Is your child struggling with producing certain sounds? Are you curious to know if there is a way to help your child to better produce those sounds? I wanted to provide you with an excellent resource for information on a number of topics, primarily related to speech, language, reading, and fine and gross motor skill development. Super Duper Publications (http://www.superduperinc.com) has a number of products that you can purchase to help students, but their website also has free handouts giving great information and suggestions on how to better help students—with stuff you already have or can easily get access to. I have included a link for one handout on encouraging speech sound development through reading (Encourage Speech Sounds Through Reading). It provides lists of popular books and the most common sounds that they target. Reading with your child is so important in so many ways. It helps your children hear your models and encourages them to read also. This article highlights that reading can also be a wonderful time to bombard your child with a number of speech sounds that they may have trouble hearing/discriminating and/or saying. Reading will also help you gain insight into your child’s imagination, as you discuss the story and ways that maybe your child would change it if they could. Its also a great opportunity to begin conversations about other activities, feelings, and thoughts that your child may have.
I was thinking of fun winter activities that you could do with items you already have at home. What about a snowball fight—inside! You could take some of the junk mail that seems to accumulate, wad it up into a ball and have a snowball fight with your child. When your child gets a snowball, they have to unwad it and find at least two words on it that have their speech sound in it or two words that they can read. Then you get to do the same. Another activity might be to help your child go through the grocery store ads and find items that have their sound in it. They could even make a pretend shopping list on items they would buy if they had money, and then talk about the items, how you would have to prepare them, and see if any have their sound in them. This is a great way to practicing sequencing (steps to prepare a food) and increase vocabulary. You could also do something similar with a cookbook by picking out dishes that look or sound good, talk about the ingredients needed, how much they would cost (see if they are in the grocery store ads), and the steps to fix the dish. You can always talk about how much time it will take too. Speech and language activities are all around you—just be creative, and I know your child will appreciate the time they spend with you. As always, if you have concerns with your child’s speech, language, fluency, voice, or hearing, please call anytime. I would love to discuss it with you!
Kim Knight
Speech-Language Pathologist
660-947-3361 ext. 391
