Ten Simple Speech and Language Enhancing Activities

Hello!

I am writing this post in the midst of some crazy times...the Covid-19 pandemic. Hopefully someday we will look back on all of this and remember things like the quality time with family and the things we learned. I know the logistics of daily life right now is uncertain and stressful. I am doing my best to work from home, entertain/teach/feed/keep alive and happy/bathe/love my almost-four-year-old and eight-month-old, and support my husband who is also working from home. I know we are ALL (as an entire human race!) dealing with a lot right now...some FAR more than I am personally dealing with.

One of the positives I have already seen come out of this situation is the plethora of shared educational information. On the Speech-Language Pathology and education facebook groups I am a part of, for example, there is an almost endless supply of people sharing wonderful blog posts, videos, and Google docs full of ideas. I won't pretend that my paltry little page (and fledgling YouTube channel...I feel silly even putting it out there right now!) will ever compete with some of the big pages out there, but I am committed to disseminating bits of useful information as I find it for the families I work with.

With that, I leave you with ten SIMPLE (read: MINIMAL materials/prep/"special knowledge" needed!!) you (yes, you!) can do at home with your children to enhance speech and language skills. YOU are your child's best teacher...truly! Please do NOT stress about perfection. I've had some parents reach out to me in the midst of the current crisis worried about being a perfect teacher and therapist for their child. No one is expecting perfection from you! No one among us is perfect. We will all continue to do the best we can...and we must commit to taking care of one another!

Without further ado, here are the promised SIMPLE activities...

10. Write a Letter! Write a letter to a friend or family member. If your child is not yet writing independently, have him/her dictate what they would like to communicate and write it for them. If your child is writing (even just minimally!), have him/her write the letter and provide some "translation" if needed. You could target retelling a narrative by having the child describe something he/she did that day in the letter. You could use physical pen/pencil (or markers!) and paper, email, or an app like Postagram (my personal favorite!) that allows you to send postcards with a picture to a loved one!

9. Play Doh! If you don't have any Play Doh (or if yours is all dried up because SOMEONE left the lids off...not that this ever happens!!), there are many easy-to-Google recipes available! Talk about actions (great verb practice!) while you SQUISH and ROLL and CUT and PUSH. Talk about colors and talk about shapes (as you cut out shapes!)! If you have access to a printer, there are also fun Play Doh mats you can simply Google and print out...press Play Doh balls down onto different targets as you talk about the pictures!

8. Family Picture Albums! Get out some family photo albums (either electronic or actual physical books!) and talk about the people and actions depicted in each. This is a great way to target WH questions as well as social/emotional concepts..."WHO is that?" "WHERE are they?" "WHAT are they doing?" "WHEN did we go there?" "WHY are they happy?" "HOW does that person feel in the picture?"

7. Game Time! Choose someone in the family (take turns!) to pick a favorite game. Choose a speech or language target to work on while you play the game. If you are working on the /b/ sound, for example, have a list of /b/ words or pictures and ask each person to make the sound/say the word prior to each turn. Playing a game is also a great time to work on turn taking and the language associated with turn taking ("WHO goes next?" "WHO goes AFTER Mom?" "MY turn!" "YOUR turn!").

6. Be the Teacher...Choose a target sound that your child has worked on and have him/her "teach" another family member. Have a number of pictures or items that start with the target sound and have the person who is being "taught" name the items and make mistakes articulating the target sound. Have the child "catch" the errors and correct them using strategies like "try again!" "make your mouth look like mine" "put your tongue _____" "put your teeth _____" "put your lips _____" etc.

5. Mystery Box...use any box or container and have one person hide an item inside. The rest of the family gets to ask questions about what could be hidden inside. "Is it alive?" (haha) "Is it red?" "Is it something we read?" etc.! To add specific articulation focus, you could challenge individuals to put mystery items in the box that start with a target sound.

4. Family Obstacle Course...targeting memory, following multi-step directions, and you could even add in an articulation piece by having your child produce a specific sound (or sounds) at different steps of the obstacle course. Example: fold up a blanket to make a long straight line "balance beam"to walk on, have three pillows spread out on the ground to hop on, run up/down the stairs, do 5 jumping jacks, bear crawl, even add burpees if you're into that! If you have a baby in the house (like we do!), strap baby on to Mom or Dad in a carrier and bring them along for the literal ride!

3. "Simon Says"...targeting memory following multi-step directions! One person is "Simon" and gets to give three (or however many you feel is appropriate for your child) instructions to the rest of the family, "Simon says STAND UP, STOMP THREE TIMES, SIT DOWN!" "Simon says RUN UP THE STAIRS, CLOSE YOUR EYES, TOUCH YOUR TUMMY!"

2. "I Spy"...choose a sound (...perhaps a specific sound you know your child is working on in speech, but really ANY sound will do! Working on the skills related to sound-letter association are so important!). Take turns finding something in the room (or out the window) and having the rest of the family guess what you found. "I spy something that starts with a SSSSS sound!" "Is it the SINK?" "No!" "Is it a SALAD?" "No!" "Is it the SILLY PUTTY?" "YES!!"

1. Read...simply read with your child. Choose a book together and read it aloud to your child. Have an older child read to a younger sibling. You could even video chat with a friend or relative and have them read a book to your child (or have your child read a book to them!). Read for enjoyment...and don't dwell on mis-articulated sounds or mis-read words every time you read. Just read and enjoy the time together!

Please reach out with questions, concerns, anything at all.

Much love to you all!

Mrs. Wells

Happy December

I can't believe it...but December is here (ready or not!)...

Here is a great calendar listing a MONTH full of great language activities!  This was put out by the Moog Center in St. Louis.  Have fun checking this out...and why not try some (or all!) of these with your family?  You could print this out and have your child cover the squares with fun winter or Christmas stickers once each activity is completed.  Happy December!

Speech? Language? What's the difference?

It is very common for people who are not Speech-Language Pathologists (or someone in a related field :)) to confuse the terms speech and language.  Straight from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association's website, here is a good explanation of the difference:

Kelly's 4-year-old son, Tommy, has speech and language problems. Friends and family have a hard time understanding what he is saying. He speaks softly, and his sounds are not clear.

Jane had a stroke. She can only speak in one- to two-word sentences and cannot explain what she needs and wants. She also has trouble following simple directions.

Language is different from speech.

Language is made up of socially shared rules that include the following:

• What words mean (e.g., "star" can refer to a bright object in the night sky or a celebrity)
• How to make new words (e.g., friend, friendly, unfriendly)
• How to put words together (e.g., "Peg walked to the new store" rather than "Peg walk store new")
• What word combinations are best in what situations ("Would you mind moving your foot?" could quickly change to "Get off my foot, please!" if the first request did not produce results)

Speech is the verbal means of communicating. Speech consists of the following:

Articulation

How speech sounds are made (e.g., children must learn how to produce the "r" sound in order to say "rabbit" instead of "wabbit").

Voice

Use of the vocal folds and breathing to produce sound (e.g., the voice can be abused from overuse or misuse and can lead to hoarseness or loss of voice).

Fluency

The rhythm of speech (e.g., hesitations or stuttering can affect fluency).

When a person has trouble understanding others (receptive language), or sharing thoughts, ideas, and feelings completely (expressive language), then he or she has a language disorder.

When a person is unable to produce speech sounds correctly or fluently, or has problems with his or her voice, then he or she has a speech disorder.

In our example, Tommy has a speech disorder that makes him hard to understand. If his lips, tongue, and mouth are not moved at the right time, then what he says will not sound right. Children whostutter, and people whose voices sound hoarse or nasal have speech problems as well.

Jane has a receptive and expressive language disorder . She does not have a good understanding of the meaning of words and how and when to use them. Because of this, she has trouble following directions and speaking in long sentences. Many others, including adults with aphasia and children withlearning disabilities, have language problems.

Language and speech disorders can exist together or by themselves. The problem can be mild or severe. In any case, a comprehensive evaluation by a speech-language pathologist (SLP) certified by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) is the first step to improving language and speech problems.