When you say, “Time to do your speech homework,” do your kids hide under the kitchen table? Offer to do chores instead? Homework, or home practice, in speech therapy for articulation can be enjoyable. Home practice can be so much more than flashcard drills. These are ideas for practicing sounds:
Before you get started:
Know your child’s current therapy goals. Pick a sound (like /r/, /s/, /l/) or a group of sounds (velars, /k,g/). If you are not sure, contact your SLP for a therapy update.
Use the picture cards and practice pages your therapist has sent home or make your own simple cards.
Ways to play:
Cut apart the picture cards. Hide them around a dark room. Turn off the lights and give your child a flashlight. Each time he finds a picture card, have him say it alone or in a sentence.
Place 10 picture cards on a table. Compete with your child to create silly, weird sentences using as many target words as possible.
Slide a paper clip onto each picture card. Scatter the cards on the floor. Attach a magnet to a string and go fishing. Each time your student catches a card practice the target word together.
Read aloud together and have her identify and repeat words that contain her target sound as you encounter them together in the story.
In the car, play I Spy, looking for items that begin with the target sound.
Gather magazines and catalogs. Using scissors, glue and construction paper, work together to find pictures of items that contain the target sound. As you cut and paste them onto a collage, use the target words in sentences.