| Goals Targeted: | Free Articulation Activities: | Target Age: |
|---|---|---|
| Articulation | Flash Cards | Preschool to Elementary Age |
| Select at least 5 words that contain your child’s target sounds in the beginning, medial, end of a word (e.g. bat, table, cab). Write the word on index cards and have your child draw a picture of the word. You can also just write the word on the index cards. Practice the words daily. When your child makes a mistake just say the word. Practice at just word level, then to phrases, then to sentences. | ||
| Articulation | Auditory Bombardment | Preschool, elementary school |
| Create at least 2 lists of 10 words consisting of the target sound/s at the target position/s. For example: | ||
| Target sound is “k” at the beginning of the word: cab, king, comb, kid, coat, cash, catch, coin, cow, key | ||
| Target sound is “p” in the middle: copy, happy, puppy, paper, sleeping, open, pepper, super, shopping, hippo | ||
| Words ending in “t”: ate, fight, bite, hat, spot, cut, wet, feet, boat, write | ||
| These lists are intended for you to read to your child to help increase his/her awareness of the sound or sound pattern being worked on. Please keep these points in mind: | ||
| 1. Try to read the words to your child once a day. If your child asks to do it more often, feel free to do so. | ||
| 2. Try to pick a time when you and your child can be alone and in a quiet place. | ||
| 3. Make sure your child understands that he/she is only to listen. He/she should NOT be asked to repeat the words. Discourage him/her from repeating especially if he/she is not saying the words correctly. | ||
| 4. Don’t over-emphasize the words. Just speak clearly and at a relaxed pace. | ||
| It is recommended that you change the word list weekly. | ||
| (https://speech-languagetherapy.com) LISTENING LISTS FOR AUDITORY BOMBARDMENT BY Peter Flipsen Jr., Ph.D. | ||
| Articulation | Oral Motor Exercises | All ages |
| Oral Motor Exercises | Lip rounding/Breath Support: Blowing bubbles- either use the wand or if your child has difficulty with this you can have him/her blow through a straw and place the wand at the end of the straw. | |
| Lip rounding/Breath Support: Blow party horns/kazoos | ||
| Lip rounding/Breath Support: Use a straw to blow cotton balls or pieces of paper across the table | ||
| Lip rounding/Breath Support: Blow balloons | ||
| Work on all facial structures: Use a mirror to make funny faces | ||
| Elevate Tongue: place peanut butter/chocolate/jelly/Nutella on your child’s upper lip and have him/her lick it away | ||
| Elevate tongue: dip a straw/chopstick into peanut butter/chocolate/jelly/Nutella and have your child lick starting from the bottom to the top using the tip of his/her tongue. | ||
| Articulation | Egg hunt | All ages |
| If you have plastic eggs laying around your house from last Easter, get them out and go for a hunt. | ||
| Sit down and think of things that have your target sound in them. Draw pictures of each of them on small pieces of paper. Or if you have magazines or newspapers then look through them and cut out pictures with your target sound. Name pictures drawn or cut out aloud and have a family member give you thumbs up (correct) or down (not correct and get a correct model from your family member) when producing your target sounds in the words. Place one picture inside each egg. A family member will then hide the eggs inside the house or outside in your yard. Get your basket and go hunting. You can then name the pictures again as you find the eggs or once you are done hunting. You can also work on target sounds in sentences by naming the pictures in a sentence (i.e. This is a …, I found the …, I have a ...). | ||
| Articulation | Mad Libs | Upper elementary, middle, or high school |
| Mad libs are an entertaining way to practice speech and language skills! To practice articulation, students can only choose words with their sound in them. Identifying nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are also a great way to practice parts of speech. Once students have finished filling in their words, they should read the passage and edit any errors. Check out thesefree online Mad Libs! (https://www.nytimes.com/column/learning-whats-going-on-in-this-picture) | ||
| Articulation | Scavenger Hunts | All ages |
| Go on a scavenger hunt throughout the house to find objects that contain your student’s articulation sounds; search for objects by attribute (size, shape, color, use, etc.); or find members of a specific category (fruits, electronics, furniture, etc.). | ||
| Articulation | Describing Stuffed Animals | All ages |
| Gather up stuffed animals and put them in a bag. Have the child select a stuffed animal, making sure to keep it hidden from other players. The student then gives clues to describe their animal until someone guesses what it is. Once the animal is guessed, the next person can select an animal and give their own clues. Students can practice articulation of sounds, describing (category/type of animal, what does it do, what does it look like, etc.), comparing & contrasting (ex. someone guesses ‘fish’ when the animal is a dolphin, so the student giving clues must describe how it is different from a fish), listening comprehension strategies (visualizing, repeating what was heard, paraphrasing), and using conjunctions while giving clues (ex. Although this animal is small, it is bigger than a frog; My animal is fast SO that it can escape from predators), etc. | ||
| Articulation, vocabulary, comparing | Sounds in my house | All ages |
| Use construction paper, or you can go outside and use sidewalk chalk and draw on the ground. Draw a big picture/template of a house with the different rooms (kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, living room, etc.). Once done, go over your child’s target sound/s and have them produce the sound in isolation/by itself at least 5-10x (IE. k..kkkkkkk). Together with your child, go through your house and find things that belong in each room that has their target sound/s (IE. kitchen- sink, fork, cup, etc.). Then draw those items in their respective rooms. If your child has difficulties producing their sound/s then provide a verbal model (you say, then the child imitates). Once done with filling their house with different items you can go over the different pictures drawn and elaborate on them by asking questions or comparing the different items in each room, talking about the functions of the items, and think about other things that can go into each room. Have fun sharing this activity together. | ||
| All goals, receptive language, expressive language, articulation/speech, social language | Play Board or Card Games | All ages |
| Board games and card games offer tons of opportunities to practice just about any area of speech and language. Practice articulation, intelligibility (talking slowly and clearly), giving and following directions by having your student explain the rules to the game. Word games like Scrabble are fun for vocabulary practice, while Hedbanz and Pictionary are great for describing and making inferences. Scattergories is another fun game to practice identifying and naming categories, and Uno can be used for turn-taking and articulation (numbers and colors). | ||
| Go Fish - great game for taking turns, asking for cards in sentences, answering in sentences, giving eye contact. | ||
| Taboo- fun naming game that makes you again think about related or associated names, but it forces you not to say the most closely associated word. Increase vocabulary skills and encourage team playing. | ||
| Games are great for social language (turn taking, conversations, sportsmanship, using sentences, etc.). | ||
| Topic maintenance, asking related questions, making related comments, articulation, intelligibility, fluency strategies | Have a Conversation!! | All ages |
| Choose a topic of the day to discuss during breakfast or dinner. Encourage your child to ask as many related questions or make as many related comments as possible to see how long you can all keep the conversation going while continuing to maintain the topic. Topics can be anything from favorite foods, to potential careers, to what you would do if you were stranded on the moon. Be creative! While speaking, encourage your child to self-monitor his or her own speech while practicing articulation of tricky sounds, maintaining a good rate and volume, and/or using fluency strategies. | ||
| Articulation, Sentence formulation | Egg hunt | All ages |
| If you have plastic eggs laying around your house from last Easter, get them out and go for a hunt. | ||
| Sit down and think of things that have your target sound in them. Draw pictures of each of them on small pieces of paper. Or if you have magazines or newspapers then look through them and cut out pictures with your target sound. Name pictures drawn or cut out aloud and have a family member give you thumbs up (correct) or down (not correct and get a correct model from your family member) when producing your target sounds in the words. Place one picture inside each egg. A family member will then hide the eggs inside the house or outside in your yard. Get your basket and go hunting. You can then name the pictures again as you find the eggs or once you are done hunting. You can also work on target sounds in sentences by naming the pictures in a sentence (i.e. This is a …, I found the …, I have a ...). |
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