SLP Mommy of Apraxia

Tag: Home practice

  • Speech with simple magnet clips

     

     

     

    If your child has a speech delay, your SLP will most likely tell you that you need to create opportunities so your child HAS to communicate to you what he/she wants.

    I found these cheap magnet clips for the fridge at the dollar store!  You can take pictures of items in your fridge, and then clip them to the outside.  Depending on your child’s level, you can have them hand you the picture (don’t just let them point!), or try to vocalize what they want.  These are pictures  I had made for my daughter when she was nonverbal.

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    Now that my daughter is 5, we are still dealing with residual language issues.  This includes sequencing basic picture cards.  She loves the magnets to easily rearrange the pictures on the fridge!

     

     

     

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    The possibilities won’t end here!  I plan to use these again for when she starts decoding words and spelling with letters!

     

     

  • Language with a loom

    Language with a loom

    OT and PTs can have fun and creative activities for children. They provide good tactile and/or sensory activities that can also be great for practicing speech and language at the same time. 

    This loom idea from the Inspired Treehouse is a perfect example! For instructions on this easy to make loom check it out here! http://theinspiredtreehouse.com/fine-motor-activities-simple-outdoor-weaving-loom/
    We started first by cutting strips of material…a good fine motor activity. When my kids are cutting I have them say something for each cut. You can just make the /k/ sound, say “cut” if you’re working on initial /k/, final /t/, or on your CVC syllable shapes for apraxia therapy. For Ashlynn, we said “snip” since we are working in CCVC syllable shapes, including /s/ blends. 
    You could also practice sentences that you could set to song like “Are you sleeping” but sing “Are you cutting, are you cutting, yes I am!” 
    Melodic intonation therapy like this is easy and fun for parents to do at home!

    Next, we set our sites on weaving. This activity is great for locational words such as: top, middle, bottom, under, over, up. Kids with language processing deficits frequently have difficultly with comprehension and following directions that include these concepts. 

    Ashlynn kept wanting to start in the middle of the loom and I had to keep reminding her and showing her to start at the bottom. Then while we were weaving we chanted “in then out, in then out” to get practice with these concepts; however you could also practice saying just “in” or “out” or “up” if you’re working on VC syllable shapes.
    When you’re done you can give silly directions like, “throw the ball OVER the loom” or “roll the ball “UNDER” the loom. 
    We made this over a course of two days and now the kids have a little hideaway in the backyard!

  • Speech & Language with puzzles

    Speech & Language with puzzles

    Sorting is an important foundational skill that sets up the building blocks for logical thinking and organizing.  These skills are necessary for later educational development in math (i.e. order of operations, geometry), reading (identifying main idea and relevant details), and writing (developing a topic sentence and organzing relevant details).

    Most parents have simple puzzles like this at home.  When my daughter was two, I held the pieces and gave her two choices.  She would have to make a sound or word approximation (because of the severe apraxia) to request and then I would give her a piece and she would find the appropriate place.

    Now that she is 4, I laid out the pieces as you see below, and she sorted them using a sentence: “A cat is a pet.”  “A tiger is a zoo animal.”

    To promote pre-literacy skills (exposure to print, print awareness), I wrote the name of the category on a sticky note and put it above the puzzle.

    That’s it!  Happy playing!
    Skills addressed:
    Sorting
    Classifying
    Expressive language
    Early-literacy skills
  • Speech and Language with Post it Notes

    Speech and Language with Post it Notes

    My daughter loves Post it Notes.  LOVES them.  She loves writing some small scribble on them and then proudly sticking them up around the house to put on display.

    Today we drew pictures that included her target sounds to work on speech, but we also drew shapes to work on our pre-writing strokes for OT.

    Based on the response from my facebook post, my kid’s not alone in loving them!  Try it!  Easy and fun way to get speech practice in at home.

  • Early literacy skills: Print awareness activity

    Early literacy skills: Print awareness activity

    The other night I was reading this book to Ashlynn.

    If you’re not familiar with the “David” books, they center around the main character David who is mischievous and frequently getting into trouble.  
    These books are great for early print awareness!  As you can see, the print is larger and is written as though a child wrote it.  Ashlynn kept pointing out all the capital letters she recognized from her name.  Her favorite was /S/ and she would declare, “Look!  That’s in my name!”  This is great for transfer of early letter recognition skills. 
    The sentences are typically short, and contain no more than maybe 5 words per sentence.  On some pages, the words are separated onto separate bits of paper (see below).  

    The reason this is great is because you can get your child pointing to each word.  This doesn’t mean they need to be reading the word.  They just begin to get an understanding that those combination of symbols denote an orthographic representation of a word.  Ashlynn can’t read, but she is starting to get the hang of pointing to each word while she reads (from memorizing the book).
    As a bonus, the stories are relatable and entertaining to your child, allowing you work on oral language as well.
  • Summer speech with a little sidewalk chalk

    Summer speech with a little sidewalk chalk

    Looking for a fun way to incorporate some speech practice into your summer schedule?  All you need is some sidewalk chalk and your kid!

    I picked some sound combos Ashlynn is currently working on in speech and drew them in the boxes of a hopscotch grid.  We then would throw a rock and whatever the rock landed on, we would hop to that picture and say the picture.  She was so busy having fun, she didn’t really realize I was working on her /l/, /l/ blends, and /s/ blends!   Not sure if you can see here, but we have a firefly, spider, butterfly, ladybug, dragonfly, bumblebee, roly poly, star, and clouds in the sky.  

    As a bonus, since Ashlynn has global apraxia, the added jumping and keeping feet in the boxes would make any PT or OT happy too!

    Look at those good jumps!  My heart smiles at this picture because jumping did not come easy.  If you’re interested, you can read about here: Jumping on the bed

    Not to be outdone, her 24 month old brother was hopping right along too and practicing speech! Fun for everyone, and momma stays sane with kids entertained!