Practicing Speech Sounds at Home

“Targets” are the speech sounds your child is working on. For each target, create a list of practice words that are short, fun and functional.

• Short words - keep the focus on target sounds. It’s easier when the target is at the beginning of the word. Sound-effects, animal sounds, and exclamations make great short targets.
• Fun words - are the names of people, friends or foods that are important to your child.
• Functional words - are powerful because they come up in everyday activities and routines.

The goal is to practice at least a few minutes every day. Your child should not feel too frustrated during practice. Try to provide a good speech model by slightly over-emphasizing target sounds during conversation.

Practice could look like:

• In the moment - when a target sound comes up, pause and practice it 2 or 3 times.
• Talking times - set aside 10 minutes for dedicated practice. This works when your child is ready to “drill” or can tolerate longer practice.
• Read together - listen for good practice words. Keep in mind the same target sound can be spelled with different letters, for example, C, S or Z can make an ‘ess’ sound.
• Play games - make flashcards of your practice words and use these in matching/memory games, scavenger hunts, coloring or as ‘tokens’ to earn turns for board games.

“Cues” are how we teach sounds. Most children benefit from a combination of cues. Your speech therapist will help you identify effective cues.

• Visual cues – have your child watch you say a sound. Look at pictures or videos of how a sound is made. Use your hand gestures to represent movement (like putting your hand up for tongue elevation).
• Verbal cues - say a sound in isolation, describe how a sound is made, name the sound, for example, the slippery snake S sound.
• Tactile cues - touch outside your child’s face where a sound is made, for example, touching lips for B or P sounds.
• Chorale practice - say a sound together while your child watches you.

• Be specific about what you saw or heard your child do that was different.
• Praise effort like “nice try” to reinforce your child’s attempts.
• Take a step back - if the practice word is too difficult, try a shorter word instead.

Teach your child what to do when others don’t understand them. These strategies are intended to help avoid frustration and self-consciousness.

Ask your child to repeat once, and if you still don’t understand, try something else:

• Isolate and repeat just the misunderstood word instead of the whole sentence.
• Show by pointing to a picture/object, acting it out or drawing.
• Describe the color, shape, size, function, etc.
• Identify the category/topic to provide context and narrow down options.

Older children may also be able to:

• Say the first letter or spell the word.
• Give a related/similar word (synonym).
• Tell when/where something happened.

• Speech Teammate has free downloadable practice words for every speech sound in all word positions.
  speechteammate.com
• The Speech Express Blog has a great post “18 Activities for Speech and Language Practice at Home” that includes ideas for games you can play at home.
  thespeechexpress.com/blog/activities-for-speech-and-language-practice-at-home
• Some YouTube channels have video tutorials with tips and tricks for saying commonly challenging sounds.
  
  • Peachie Speechie youtube.com/@PeachieSpeechie
  • The Speech Scoop youtube.com/@TheSpeechScoop