Parent Tips for Articulation

Articulation: the production of speech skills

“Articulation approaches target each sound deviation and are often selected by the clinician when the child’s errors are assumed to be motor based; the aim is to correct production of the target sound(s).” –ASHA

Speech sound developmental chart:

https://www.boisechatterbox.com/blog/speech-sound-development-chart

Tips for Articulation Practice:

Pick part of your daily routine to incorporate sounds (mealtime, play time, night time, bath time, snack/dinner)
High number of repetitions: the more repetitions of the target sound in the correct way increases the practice of the motor movement
Keep duration short – take 10-15 minutes a day during one of your routines.

Simple games to elicit speech sound productions:

Memory matching games: use picture cards that contain the child’s target speech sound
I spy books/I spy in the car: pick something to find while driving that has their target sound in it- each time they find something they have to say it 5 times.
Blocks: each time the child gets a block for their tower they have to say a target word with their sound in it.
Cars: Give the child a car after they say their target sound and then put objects with their target sound on the track that they have to say as they pass by with the car.
Bubbles: Have the child say 5-10 target words and then reward with bubbles, repeat this each time bubbles are presented.
Bean bag toss: give child a bean bag and have them toss in buckets with pictures of their sounds on them/throw bags on pictures with their sounds on them.
Hide and seek: hide picture cards with words/objects with sounds on them around the house and have them seek and say the name of each item.

Play based activities organized by your child’s target sound:

Bilabials /p, b, m/
- - Bubbles (pop, bubble, more, big)
  - Barn (moo, pig, bahh, sheep, barn)
  - Pop the pig (pig, pop, purple, belly, mouth, more, yum)
Velars /k, g/
- Cars (go, car, crash)
- Blocks (stack, block, get, give, big, count, crash)
Liquids /l, r/
- Feed the animal game (pretend to feed stuffed animals, dolls, dinosaurs, etc.) (like, lick, lion, love, lunch, lips, yellow, lizard)
- Racetrack (race, run, ready, red)
Fricatives /f, v, th, s, z, sh/
- Give your child a list of words to try and find around the house that have their sound in it. When they find the object, have them check it off their list and say the word 5x. (Fan, vacuum, sink, socks, bath, shower, sheets, dresser, television, microwave, shirt, closet, zipper).
- Use books and pictures that incorporate your child’s sounds (Froggy books, Fox in Socks, Vera Vipers Valentine, Oh the Things you can Think, A Sheep in a Shop)
- Grocery store/kitchen/play food (food, feed, fries, knife, fruit, fish, vegetable, zucchini, thirsty, thank you, sandwich, soup, sink, grapes)
Affricates /ch,j/
- Trains (choo-choo, track)
- Baby dolls (jacket, chew, touch, chin, chair, jump)
- Playing outside (jump, catch, touch, chalk, chase, hopscotch, jump rope)
- Matching game (have your child say “match” every time they find a match)
Nasals /m, n, ng/
- Animal barn (neigh, nap, moo, nose, more, barn, milk, animal, mouse, mud)
- Bug hunt (net, moth, worm, hunt, nose, catching, watching, landing, flying, hunting)
Blends /l, r,s/
/l/ blends /bl, gl, pl, sl, kl, fl/-Day at the park
- (blue, black, blanket, blocks, glasses, play, slide, cloud, clover, climb, fly, flower)
/r/ blends /dr, gr, kr, tr, br, fr, pr/-Day at the park
- (drink, dragonfly, grass, cracker, truck, brown, friend, fruit, press)
/s/ blends /sp, st, sw, sl/- Day at the park
- (spider, spin, stop, stick, swing, stand, slide)