Minimal pair sort

I have a little guy in therapy right now who has a difficult time with /st/ blends.  He consistently drops the /s/ in this blend only.  To bring awareness to what he saying, SLP's many times employ what is referred to as "minimal pair" therapy.

Minimal pairs are two words that are similar except for one sound.  Many times, minimal pairs rhyme if the only sound changed occurs at the beginning of the word.

In this case, I created five minimal pairs found here: ST MINIMAL PAIRS

I had him sort all initial /t/ words first.  He then traced his finger on the /s/ while making his "hissing sound" and then said the word.

For example: "ssssssssssssss....tool."  I then asked him what word he said, and we added the minimal pair "stool."

Having him physically sort the pictures and use his finger to trace the /s/ has a purpose.  Research is showing an increased connection between our hands and mouth.  (Think of when you're trying to find a word you might circle your fingers etc).

Having the child use their hands adds another pathway to the brain to aid in recall!

Finally, save this tray because the possibilities are endless and I will have more ideas in the future.

Speech & Language with puzzles

Sorting is an important foundational skill that sets up the building blocks for logical thinking and organizing.  These skills are necessary for later educational development in math (i.e. order of operations, geometry), reading (identifying main idea and relevant details), and writing (developing a topic sentence and organzing relevant details).

Most parents have simple puzzles like this at home.  When my daughter was two, I held the pieces and gave her two choices.  She would have to make a sound or word approximation (because of the severe apraxia) to request and then I would give her a piece and she would find the appropriate place.

Now that she is 4, I laid out the pieces as you see below, and she sorted them using a sentence: "A cat is a pet."  "A tiger is a zoo animal."

To promote pre-literacy skills (exposure to print, print awareness), I wrote the name of the category on a sticky note and put it above the puzzle.

That's it!  Happy playing!

Skills addressed:

Sorting

Classifying

Expressive language

Early-literacy skills

Speech and Language with Post it Notes

My daughter loves Post it Notes.  LOVES them.  She loves writing some small scribble on them and then proudly sticking them up around the house to put on display.

Today we drew pictures that included her target sounds to work on speech, but we also drew shapes to work on our pre-writing strokes for OT.

Based on the response from my facebook post, my kid's not alone in loving them!  Try it!  Easy and fun way to get speech practice in at home.

Summer speech with a little sidewalk chalk

Looking for a fun way to incorporate some speech practice into your summer schedule?  All you need is some sidewalk chalk and your kid!

I picked some sound combos Ashlynn is currently working on in speech and drew them in the boxes of a hopscotch grid.  We then would throw a rock and whatever the rock landed on, we would hop to that picture and say the picture.  She was so busy having fun, she didn't really realize I was working on her /l/, /l/ blends, and /s/ blends!   Not sure if you can see here, but we have a firefly, spider, butterfly, ladybug, dragonfly, bumblebee, roly poly, star, and clouds in the sky.  

As a bonus, since Ashlynn has global apraxia, the added jumping and keeping feet in the boxes would make any PT or OT happy too!

Look at those good jumps!  My heart smiles at this picture because jumping did not come easy.  If you're interested, you can read about here: Jumping on the bed

Not to be outdone, her 24 month old brother was hopping right along too and practicing speech! Fun for everyone, and momma stays sane with kids entertained!

Baking with speech and language

Parents are always looking for ways to incorporate speech and language activities at home.  Whether it is to stimulate a typically developing child's vocabulary and language, or to help a speech or language delayed child; baking is great and fun way to work on speech and language.

The first and most important rule before you start, is you have to accept the fact that your toddler will make a mess, and that is just part of the process, or um, fun.

When I do baking or food activities with kids in school, they absolutely love it.  That's the key. When kids have fun they are at their best learning.  Also, baking is a multi-sensory activity, meaning many sensory systems are activated.  When children are using multiple sensory systems, acquisition and retention of skills is more likely.  Baking with your kids inherently promotes:
Vocabulary development
Sequencing
Following directions and comprehension
Pragmatic language - the social piece of language

Let me explain a little bit further.

Vocabulary Development:  For the young child, words are learned best in context.  Certain authors refer to this as "event-based knowledge."  Many of children's first words are usually embedded within scripts that are part of their daily lives.  Examples could be: bottle, cookie, doggie, bath, etc.  These words are said to them frequently throughout the contexts of their daily lives.  Baking provides the same event-based knowledge experience, and exposes them to new vocabulary.

Sequencing:  The ability to understand sequences and to sequence is an important skill.  Sequencing most simply refers to the order of things.  When kids get into school, sequencing is very important to understanding: patterns, math, a story etc.  Following a sequence of steps is inherent in baking and makes it the perfect activity for this skill.

Following directions and Comprehension: These two things fall under receptive language skills; however, they are very important to the development of overall language skills.  Kids who are good at retaining and following directions have less difficulty in school since they are not devoting a lot of their cognitive load on simply understanding and remembering what they are supposed to do.  Baking is a fun and easy way to help your child practice these skills at home.

Pragmatic Language: This is usually referring to the "social" element in language.  This involves the way language is used to communicate with others.

With a little forethought, baking can also be a way to sneak in more direct speech language targets while working with your kid at home.

Muffin Mondays and Waffle Wednesdays

This summer I implemented Muffin Mondays and Waffle Wednesdays. Ashlynn is VERY interested in what day of the week it is, so I did this to also give her a framework of her week.
Ashlynn's current speech/language needs include: syntax (the form or structure of a sentence), and consonant blends (two consonants found together in a word: sp, st, sl, fl, bl, for example).

It's important to know your child's goal, and then structure your baking around the goal.  Get creative, but it's not as hard as it seems.  In Ashlynn's case, I chose  the words: spoon, flour, stir.  For syntax, I had her ask me "Can I do it?" to work on her questions forms.

Then each time we used a spoon I had her repeat "spoon."  While she was mixing the batter, I would ask her what she was doing and cue her as needed to say the "st" blend in "stirring."  Instead of using 1 cup of flour, I broke it up into four parts to give her more practice saying "flour" each time she poured in the flour.  For an extra bonus, she had to put "stir flour" together in a simple phrase.  I would hold the spoon until she said the desired words, and then I would give her the spoon back when she was successful!  She loved it.

If your child isn't yet talking as much as Ashlynn, hum the 'm' sound while you mix the batter or if your child isn't great at imitating yet, just have him/her make any vocalization to request an item.  If they can't yet imitate even a vocalization, imitate any spontaneous sounds they make to provide an opportunity for vocal play. If they aren't really vocalizing yet, don't get discouraged!  Practice turn taking and reciprocal play.  They pour then you pour.  You stir then they stir.

With other clients who needed a final stop, I might have chosen the word "dump" and then every
time we pour in an ingredient, we work on the word "dump."

Really, the possibilities are endless!

In addition, you can also tell your SLP that you incorporated some great "distributed" practice throughout your child's day.  In motor learning approaches to therapy, mass practice refers to the production of a large number of repetitions of a single target(what you should be seeing in therapy) and distributed practice refers to hitting targets with a greater amount of time between trials or sessions.  However, distributed practice is very important for stabilization and generalization!  Parents are the greatest asset when it comes to carryover, because you are in a better position to afford the child numerous opportunities for distributed practice!  In addition, you can do it in ways that are fun and multi-sensory in the child's natural environment.

 

Grouchy ladybug activity for easy repetition practice for apraxia.

I have a little secret.  I'm a speech/language pathologist, but at times, I'm artistically challenged.  I
 can't tell you how many times my kids have laughed at my pictures.  I do think back to grade school and I remember getting mad about art activities telling my teachers I would never need to use art EVER in the real world.

Oh life sure has a sense of humor!

Being artistically challenged however, doesn't mean I am creatively challenged!  With apraxia of speech, you have to get creative.  Unfortunately, there are two facts about apraxia that can be challenging.

Fact # 1
Apraxia requires therapy based on motor learning theory (ASHA, 2007).  This means that children require a few therapy targets per session while hitting A LOT of repetitions.  This is what is referred to as "mass" practice.

Fact # 2
Having to say multiple repetitions is not always *fun.*

These two don't really go together, but it's up to the SLP to make it fun with a little creativity!

This doesn't mean I'm not guilty of busting out the cards and doing drills; however, I really try not to do this very often.  At most, I use this as a warm up.  Kids quickly tire of articulation cards and lose motivation.  It happened to my daughter.  Her initial sessions were set up with 15 minutes of drill and then 15 minutes of  a functional scripted play activity.  However, after a couple months, the sessions started turning into 25 minutes of drill and only 5 minutes of play because it was taking her longer and longer to practice the same old cards week after week because she was bored and losing interest!

There are many games that lend themselves to repetitions, but today I'm going to introduce you to a quick little activity that you can use with almost any target and that kids absolutely LOVE.  The materials you need are:

"The Grouchy Ladybug" book by Eric Carle
Construction paper
Glue.

Yep, that's it.  Pick the therapy target, and you're on your way.  This week my target for one client was "ladybug." ( This is a C1V1C2V2 + CVC syllable shape), for another it was "bug" (A CVC syllable shape), for another it was "grouchy" (for working on 'r' blends), and yet another had to say the entire "grouchy ladybug."  While reading, I stop and pause right before their word.  For example, "Oh, you're not big enough said the grouchy lady ____."  I then wait for the kiddo to plug in their target cueing and correcting as needed. The word "Grouchy Ladybug" is repeated 33 times in this book!  That means before you even start the activity, the child has already had 33 instances of practice!


To read about getting practice in with repetitive books see here: Repetitive books great for apraxia therapy

I also want to mention, that most Eric Carle books are also available in Spanish, so for you bilingual SLP's out there; this is also a great activity to do with them!


Now for the activity.  Feel free to laugh.  I know my strengths and I know I'm no artist, but let me tell you, all my kids LOVE doing stuff like this.  I drew an (admittedly sad) outline of a ladybug using red construction paper, and had the kiddos glue on black spots.  Every time they glued on a spot they had to say their target word 5 times.  There are 20 dots on this ladybug, which meant they said their target sound 100 times! It didn't matter that the ladybug wasn't perfect, kids just love crafting their own creations and you can feel good about getting a TON of repetitions in!