If your child is working on producing speech sounds correctly or improving overall speech intelligibility, your speech-language therapist will often recommend activities to do at home between therapy sessions. Repetition and frequent practice are key in reaching speech sound goals! Even if you’re not able to dedicate large amounts of time to practice, just practicing for 2-5 minutes a day can make a big difference! Below are some activities your family can easily incorporate into your routine to practice speech sounds between therapy sessions. 

• Play a Board Game: 

Any game that requires talking is awesome for targeting speech sounds! Common games you may already have at home include: Guess Who, Headbanz, Story Cubes, Go Fish, Guess in 10, Apples to Apples, Twister, Battleship. Even if the game doesn’t require talking, have your child label the card, which number was rolled, or identify/read what’s on the space on the gameboard. If your child is practicing the /r/ sound, even labeling, “my turn” and “your turn” is great practice! 

• Try a New Recipe:

Have your child read a recipe out loud to practice his or her target words at the sentence level. If your child is working on single words, make a list of target words from the recipe and practice those individually. Have your child jump in to name the ingredients or give action words with his or her target words as you go through the recipe! 

• Have a Scavenger Hunt:

Plan a quick scavenger hunt around the house and focus on only things with your child’s target sound. For example, if your child is working on s-blends, objects could include: a spoon, slippers, slime, stool, stairs, sneakers, snack, spot, spinner, spatula. When you’re done finding the objects, practice at the sentence level by telling where you found each object!  

• Tell a Story:

Play a storytelling game, one person at a time, or as a collaborative activity. If you’re playing collaboratively, have each person add 1 sentence to the story. You can incorporate this activity into your routine if you’re waiting in the car, at dinner time, while taking a walk, etc. Model correct production of your child’s target sounds and have them try their sentences again, if they are open to doing this. If your child is working on sounds at the word level instead of the sentence level, have one person in charge of making a list of words with the target sound, to practice at the end of the story.

• Make a Craft:

Have your child practice speech sounds while giving the family or directions for making a craft. If your child is producing errors with the target sound, take a step back and shorten the sentence length or use single target words so that your child can have success with the task. Say the word or sentence first, then have your child repeat it using strategies your speech-language therapist has recommended.

 

If you’re interested in discovering more ways to build speech and language skills at home, check out our other speech blogs here!

Written by Megan Daly, M.A. CCC-SLP