How Do I Practice Speech with My Child At Home?

Your child’s speech language pathologist (SLP) asked you to practice the /k/ sound at the beginning of words at home. But how do you go about doing that? It doesn’t have to be time-consuming or expensive. Here are a few ideas!

1. Scavenger Hunt – You and your child can go around your home to search for items that include your child’s target sounds in their name. Ex: toy car, cup, cartoons, coat, candle
2. Books – While reading a story together, look for words or pictures in the book that include more target sounds. Depending on what your child can produce correctly, have them repeat the word back to you or put it in a phrase such as “I found the car.”
3. Coloring/Painting – Grab some crayons, paintbrushes, paint, and some paper and draw pictures of animals, toys, or other objects that include certain sounds. Ex: car, cat, candy, kite
4. Play-doh– create objects out of the Play-doh that start with your child’s target sound. You can pretend to bake a “cake” or “cookies” together.
5. Catch – While playing catch with your child, say a word using the target sound before each throw. For repeated practice in short phrases, you can say “I caught it” after a catch.

If you are having difficulty coming up with words with your child’s target sounds, be sure to ask your child’s SLP to provide you with a list of possible words. I am sure he or she will be thrilled to help you!

This can be done targeting all sounds in all word positions, so take these ideas and run with them to practice the sounds that are applicable for your child’s therapy. Working on sounds in your home outside of direct therapy sessions is extremely important for developing carry-over skills of your child’s target sounds. Hopefully these ideas can provide more opportunities for fun practice together!

- Shannon Greenlee M.A., CCC-SLP

**If you have any concerns with your child’s speech, language, hearing and/or feeding development, please contact Sidekick Therapy Partners at (865) 693-5622. We have a team of experienced speech-language pathologists that would love to meet with you and discuss options for your child.**