Promoting Speech Carryover in the Classroom

It is always rewarding when a student learns to produce a new speech sound, but what is often more challenging for students? Carrying that newly acquired sound from therapy into their everyday conversations. While we work on teaching students to monitor their speech in therapy, applying those skills in other settings can be a difficult step. So how can we encourage carryover beyond the speech therapy room and within the student's classroom?

One key word is collaboration. The American Speech-Hearing-Association states that when developing a treatment protocol for students, it's important to consider collaborating with other school personnel. Collaborating with the classroom teacher is essential for supporting students’ speech-sound production outside of therapy because while we can achieve a lot in therapy sessions, students may make faster progress when we take steps to actively involve teachers in promoting speech carryover.

Here are some collaboration tips to encourage carryover into the classroom:

  1. Encourage Teachers to Provide Models
  2. Encourage teachers to model correct pronunciation of speech sounds. For example, if a student says, “I see a tat,” the teacher can respond by modeling, “Oh, you see a cat!” This way, the teacher doesn’t directly correct the student but instead models appropriate speech.
  3. Encourage Teachers to Praise for Correct Productions
  4. Ask teachers to acknowledge and praise students when they say their speech sounds correctly. Positive reinforcement is a powerful motivator and a great way to promote mindfulness of their articulation.
  5. Incorporate Class Activities in Speech
  6. Collaborate with the student’s teacher to incorporate class activities, books, and worksheets in therapy. Work together with your student to identify, highlight, and practice speech sounds within these activities. Highlighting their speech sounds will serve as a visual cue and encourage the student to monitor their speech sounds throughout the day.
  7. Push-in
  8. Push-in speech therapy allows practice to happen within classroom setting which can promote carryover as it gives the student the opportunity to practice their sounds in another environment. Just as push-in therapy allows us to learn from classroom teachers, this practice also provides an opportunity for the teacher to observe how to model and provide praise for correct productions.

Even though carryover can be a tricky step for some students, by building strong relationships and collaborating with the classroom teacher, we can set our students up for success beyond the therapy room!

Mikaela Argyrakis, M.S., CCC-SLP

References:

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (n.d.) Speech sound disorders: Articulation and phonology. (Practice Portal). Retrieved January, 8, 2025 from https://www.asha.org/practice-portal/clinical-topics/articulation-and-phonology

Davis, K. G. (2017, August 3). 5 tips for articulation carryover in the classroom. ASHAWire. https://leader.pubs.asha.org/do/10.1044/5-tips-for-articulation-carryover-in-the-classroom/full/

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