Your child receives speech therapy services privately and has articulation goals. The school speech and language pathologist sees your child once or twice a week, but you want to get involved and help without becoming overbearing.
Articulation goals are easy to understand. Your child is not making a certain sound, teach him/her that sound and he/she will learn to say it. However, articulation includes specific mouth, lips, and tongue positioning and can become very complex to teach. Every speech therapist can give a thumbs up for the R sound! Also, your child may have an anatomical issue that impedes them from making certain sounds. On that note, we can conclude that although there is a complexity, there are ways to help. Here are five tips to help your child with articulation:
1. Know what sounds to work on. Are you working on the /p/ sound? Is it in the initial, middle, or last position of the word?
2. Be present at your child’s therapy session (even if it’s in the last 10 minutes).
3. Ask the therapist what to do (they ALWAYS have good ideas).
4. Have fun with it. If the therapist gives you worksheets that have word lists, incorporate these words during daily activities.
5. Have MORE FUN with it. Listen to songs that may have these specific sounds for practice. Sing along in the car!
An example would be if you are working on the /p/ sound find common words you can use and really emphasize the sound i.e. Give the puppy food, please.
If you or someone you know needs the services of a licensed and certified speech-language pathologist, please be sure to discuss your concerns with a physician, a speech-language pathologist, or another qualified provider. You can also find a provider through the ASHA ProFind service or visit us at www.bilingualspeech.org for more information. NOTE: This article is intended only as a general source of information, i.e, it is not intended to replace information given to you by a qualified health professional that is familiar with your particular circumstances. Lastly, if you have an urgent medical need, please seek immediate medical attention.