Targeting Articulation at Home for Parents

Happy summer! With schools being closed, we get so many questions from parents asking us how to work with their child during the break. Likewise, we get many parents of office clients inquiring about how to work on speech sounds with their child outside of their assigned speech appointment. Working outside of therapy to improve your child's speech sounds is a great way to encourage your child's progress. The following are some positive suggestions to encourage and work with your child at home in improving their articulation skills.

1. Model the sound your child is working on with extra emphasis in daily activities. Such as "go to the car to grab your backpack" if your child is working on /k/. See if your child notices when you do so. 
2. Read with your child. Take turns pointing out their target sound as you come across the sound together. 
3. Spend 5-10 minutes practicing words with their target sound together in fun activities: such as coloring pages, reading, games, etc. Ask your speech therapist to send home or email a word list or a worksheet that you can complete together. 
4. Attempt to recognize and congratulate your child when you hear them make their correct sound. It is important that you are recognizing their progress and that your child can understand and hear the difference between errors and the target sound. 

Working on your child's sound at home for short periods of time is beneficial to helping them generalize the skills they are working on at school with their speech therapist. 

-Natalie Keller, M.A. CCC-SLP