Practice Practice Practice
We know that articulation therapy requires repetition. Students with articulation differences need that practice to master their best speech skills. Children with Apraxia may even need 100-300 repetitions per session! That’s a challenge for both the therapist and student. Here are some ideas on how to keep students engaged and moving forward during the repetitive process of mastering speech sounds.
Use Themes and Topics of Interest
We know speech sound practice can be repetitive but adding themes to lessons can bring fun to the task. Discover your students’ preferred topics and use them to present their targeted speech sounds. Just about any topic a student can come up with has virtual materials available to pique their interest during articulation practice
Here is link to boom cards of a favorite topic of many students – animals. These animal themed decks let students feed animals while practicing their sounds.
Another monotonous therapy session can instead become a jungle exploration, hike through the woods, or a trip to the farm. Capture your students’ imaginations, and your own, by using themes.
If using a touch screen device, even little fingers can manipulate these pictures and give them a feel for working independently. There’s something satisfying about watching the animals gobble up the practice items.
When using virtual platforms, you can give your students remote access and let them control what comes next as they feed the friendly frogs, monkeys, and bears.
Or keep screen control yourself and have them describe the items that they want dropped into the mouths of their hungry animal friends.
Add books and board games of the favorite topics to continue with production and listening practice of targeted sounds. There are limitless virtual options or just have your students “find-the-sound” in an actual book to add more practice productions to your speech sessions.
Give Students Specific Feedback
Encouraging students is great but being overly enthusiastic with a “good job” for every response may not end with the desired results of their best and closest sound production. Tell the student specifically what they did with their lips and tongue and what you want them to do. Show them with your own visual model. Even young students can modify their production through very specific visual and verbal cues.
These Boom Decks have sound-based articulation practice words and pictures. Slide the star sticker over the picture when the student has produced the sound to the very specific feedback that you give them.
Reinforce the production you want to see more often, which may not be perfect but will be the best try that the student can achieve at that time.
Spend a couple of minutes at the end of their targeted speech sound practice and click on the star reward. The student can decorate cupcakes, create some funny faces, or fill a fishbowl using recently practiced best speech sounds.
Hopefully these ideas will help lighten up your sessions as well as help the student make progress, which is a reward. Remember to have fun and the student will follow your lead!
Here are some engaging and fun animated articulation bundles that will keep little learners engaged!
