5 Fun Ways to Work on Speech Sounds at Home
Are you wondering how you can help your child work on their speech sounds at home and make it fun? The good news is that almost any activity can be used to help your child practice their sounds. The key is knowing how to structure the activity to create multiple opportunities for practice. Here are five strategies to build in speech sound practice at home.
Use your child’s turn in a game as a motivator. Are you playing a board game? Throwing a ball back and forth? Taking turns building a tower with Legos? Before your child takes their turn, have them practice a few words with their target sound.
Rename characters in books to include your child’s sound. This can work for any sound. For example, if your child is working on the F sound, rename the main character to Finn for extra practice. You can encourage your child to say the name throughout the book by commenting on what the character is doing or answering “who” questions that involve the character (ex. Who ate spaghetti? Finn!).
Keep supplies and pieces with you while you play. If you’re doing a craft project, keep all the needed supplies with you. This creates an opportunity for your child to ask for items and practice speech sounds, such as “S” for “scissors” or “GL” for “glue.” If you are playing with a toy with multiple pieces like blocks, give your child a few pieces to start, and when your child wants more, encourage them to use their sound to ask for the item and then just give them one or two pieces to create an opportunity to ask again.
Identify the words that have your child’s sound in their favorite play activities. For example, if your child loves playing with castles, think about all the words involved in playing castles that have your child’s sound in them. Then, as you play with them, create opportunities for them to use their sound. You can have the knight “jump” off the castle to practice the “J” sound, or have a dragon “knock” on the door to practice the “K” sound at the end of words.
Use everyday routines. Daily routines such as snack time are great times to practice speech sounds. For example, if your child is working on the “R” sound and you are eating crackers for a snack, have them practice their sound to talk about what they are eating or to ask for more “crackers.” If they are working on the “P” sound, have them say “open” to request opening the bag. Think about the sound your child needs to work on and which words naturally go along with the everyday routine that you are engaged in.
Happy practicing!
If your child is struggling with speech or language skills, contact me for a free consultation.