Hijacking Story Time! What You Can Do to Books to Help Your Child With Speech.

Language therapy can be intimidating for many parents.  It's difficult to know what to do to help your child improve their speech!  I want to introduce a research-based strategy that can be used with a variety of kids that you can customize to your child's specific language goals.

Lets reflect back to the chart on normal development that I posted earlier.  Is your child working on building their core vocabulary, or their first 50 words?  Putting 2, 3, 4, or 5 words together?  Do they struggle with pronouns?  Past tense verbs?  Is/are?  Check on your child's long term IEP goals and you should be able to tell about where they're at and what they are working on.  This will be your "language target" during this week's activity.  You are going to hijack story time this week to model the type of language you want your child to be using.

1.  First thing you will need is a book your child will enjoy.  It can be a new book, or an old favorite.  If your child is old enough to know the words of the story, you may want to pick a new book because we are going to be changing the words.  If that won't bother them, then feel free to use their favorite story. Another great choice for this activity would be a book without words.  If you child isn't really into books, you might try a pop-up or flap book.  They can be a little more interactive and exciting for kids who aren't jazzed about sitting and turning pages.  You can also download a book on your tablet if that holds their interest a bit longer.

2.  Grab some sticky notes or a note pad, and open to the first page.  Take a sip of Dr. Pepper (or your beverage of choice) because things are about to get creative up in here.  Completely ignore any text or the "right words" of the book.

3.  Check out the pictures.  What could these characters be saying or doing that would hit your child's language target?  Maybe the are labeling things they see (working on nouns!).  They may not use any names, and refer to everyone as "he" or "she" (pronoun target!).  They may ask and answer lots of questions, like "who is____" or other wh- questions (another language target).  Write down some dialogue, and turn to page 2.

4.  Repeat the process!

One important tip: GET REPETITIVE.  Use your language target as many times as you can.  Make it borderline annoying!  Young kids need a lot of repetition, and they need even more when they have a delay in language.

Once your story is ready, wait for a time when your child wants to read with you.  If they aren't in the mood, don't force it!  If your kid's thinking about how they want to watch transformers the entire time your reading they will not hear a single word.  Plus, this is good bonding time.  Make it count.

Here is an example book that I have done.  I wanted to show a different target for each page, so you can see that this activity can work for whatever your child is working on!

Her is an example book I did based off of a board book called "You Are My Sunshine."
Each page is focused on a different language target, but make your entire book based on one target.  I just wanted to show a few different examples!

The first is targeting "she."  See what I mean by repetitive?

This next page is targeting wh questions, or spatial locations.  Either one works!

This page is targeting nouns in single words.

This page is targeting answering and asking questions.

I would love to hear how this activity went!  Let me know if you have any questions or want some feedback on your book pages!

Got Speech Probs? Start Here.

Talking is complicated.  First, you have to have something you want to say.  Then your brain has to send signals to your lungs to inhale, your voice box to begin buzzing (and alternate buzzing depending on which sounds you want to make), your soft palate to either relax or close of air to your nose, and your tongue, cheeks, lips, and jaw to coordinate their movements to shape speech sounds.  If there is any sort of interference in this process, your message doesn't come out right!

The tongue is especially important, because just a few millimeters of space can change an /s/ sound into a /th/ sound.  Make the /r/ sound right now, and think about what shape your tongue is in.  Where are the sides of your tongue?  The back? The tip? The middle?  Now try to describe that shape to a 3 year old who uses /w/ instead of /r/.  It's no simple task.

Luckily, we aren't going to be working on the /r/ sound (one of the most difficult sounds to produce) just yet.  In fact, for now, lets get even more simple.  Voicing.

Voicing divides sounds into two groups: "Voice On" sounds, and "Voice Off" sounds.  A sound is a voice on sound if you activate your voice box to make it.  Put your hand on your voice box and say these sounds: /v, z, m, l, g, b/.  These are all voice on sounds!  Now put your hand on your voice box and say theses sounds: /p, h, s, sh, ch/.  These are all voice off sounds.  If you are feeling a buzz on the voice off sounds, it's because you are adding the "uuuh" sound at the end.  /P/ doesn't say "puhhh."  You have to make sure you are turning leaving your voice off and just making the sound by itself. 

This week, I want you to help your child be more aware about voicing.  I will be using "voice on/off" to describe their speech sounds during therapy, and it will really reinforce what we work on this week! Think about the sounds your child struggles with and focus on those.  Are they voice on or off? 

There are lots of ways to do this that don't take much time.  I'll give you some ideas and you can pick what you think will work best for you and your child.

1. Let them feel your voice box when it's on and off.  Then let them feel their own.  Make it silly and fun by tapping on your voice box while saying "aaah."

2. Have them evaluate if a sound is "voice on" or "voice off."  I like to use the thumbs up/thumbs down so they don't feel pressure to talk or get it right.  You make the sound, and if it's voice on, have them give the thumbs up.  If it's voice off, have them give the thumbs down.  Take a turn being the judge, and get a few wrong on purpose.  Let your child correct you, it will build their sound-knowledge confidence!  If they don't correct you, you can say something like "Waaaait...that do that one again and let me feel your voice.  I was wrong!  That's a voice off sound!"

3.  Incorporate a voice on/voice off discussion when talking about animal sounds.  Is the snake sound voice on or off?  Is the cow sound voice on or off?  It can be hard to think of "voice off" animals.  Most animal sounds are voice on, but it will still bring awareness.

4.  Try making voice on sounds as loud as you can.  Do the same with voice off sounds.  Talk about how it's hard for a sound to be loud unless you turn your voice on!

5. When practicing alphabet letters, say the sounds and figure out if they are voice on or voice off.  It's a great way to practice both academics and speech at the same time!

It's simple, but starting with a good knowledge base about how sounds are made will make teaching and practicing so much easier in the future!

Is that Normal??

I hear this one a lot, so I want to set some bounds of what is and is not "normal" by outlining speech basic speech and language development.  This doesn't have every milestone, but it will give you a general idea of what communication skills we see at each age.

For those who want to cut to the chase, here is the too-long-didn't-read version:

By age 5 most kids are 100% understandable (or intelligible, referring to speech sound errors) and sound pretty much like an adult (referring mainly to grammar).  If your child is not one of those two things, its probably NOT normal. 

I was going to create an awesome info graphic about language development based on the norms given by the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association, but I found this one and why reinvent the wheel?  I found it at North Shore Pediatric Therapy's website.

 Take a look and find what your child CAN do, then go through and see what they struggle with.  The last section has some ways to improve your child's language skills, and will will go into more depth on those techniques as the year goes on.

If you have specific questions about diagnosis, you should really consult with a speech pathologist.  This is just a great way to identify possible areas of need and make you aware of communication skills your child has already mastered.

Let me know what your main area of concern is.  What skill is your highest priority when working on speech goals this year?