Speech and Language

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articulation | sounds

General Education & Special Education Core Curriculum

Language and Speech (LAS) Recommendations

Model Clear Articulation While Using Slower Pace of Speech: When modeling for a student, say the sound clearly and naturally.
Focus on Speech Sounds: Emphasize the sounds the letters make, by pronouncing the sound(s) longer and slower, while being careful not to distort the sound.
Give Indirect Feedback: Reiterate what the student has said, while modeling correct speech to the student, emphasizing the misarticulated or omitted sound. “Oh, you want the carrrrrr” (if the /r/ sound is misarticulated or omitted)
Ask for Repetition: Asking a student to repeat teaches them that speaking clearly is important without putting them on the spot to say a specific sound correctly. For example: “I didn’t understand, can you say that again?” “What you have to say is important, can you repeat that?”
Highlight Target Sounds: Underline or highlight (or have the student do it if possible) the target sound in advance for read aloud or homework activities to reinforce the student’s awareness of the sound in context.
Do Choral Reading: Reading with a melody can help some students more clearly articulate sounds. This is especially true for students with apraxia. (Apraxia is a neurological disorder characterized by the inability to perform learned (familiar) movements on command, even though the command is understood and there is a willingness to perform the movement)
“Build It Up & Break It Down”: break difficult words down to the syllable then build up to the word, then the sentence. Example LINK:
Record and Playback: have your child record themselves and play it back to listen for errors and to make repairs.

Moderate-Severe Language and Speech (LAS) Recommendations

Model Clear Articulation While Using Slower Pace of Speech: When modeling for a student, say the sound clearly and naturally.
Focus on Speech Sounds: Emphasize the sounds the letters make, by pronouncing the sound(s) longer and slower, while being careful not to distort the sound.
Give Indirect Feedback: Reiterate what the student has said, while modeling correct speech to the student, emphasizing the misarticulated or omitted sound. “Oh, you want the carrrrrr” (if the /r/ sound is misarticulated or omitted)
Ask for Repetition: Asking a student to repeat teaches them that speaking clearly is important without putting them on the spot to say a specific sound correctly. For example: “I didn’t understand, can you say that again?” “What you have to say is important, can you repeat that?” If you still can’t understand the student, encourage them to use a communication strategy like saying the word in a sentence to give context, writing it down, or using their AAC device. Honor the communication even if articulation is incorrect.
Highlight Target Sounds: Underline or highlight (or have the student do it if possible) the target sound in advance for read aloud or homework activities to reinforce the student’s awareness of the sound in context.
Do Choral Reading: Reading with a melody can help some students more clearly articulate sounds. This is especially true for students with apraxia. (Apraxia is a neurological disorder characterized by the inability to perform learned (familiar) movements on command, even though the command is understood and there is a willingness to perform the movement)

fluency

General Education and Special Education Core Curriculum

Language and Speech (LAS) Recommendations

Be patient and wait for student to speak, do not interrupt them to correct their speech.
Encourage student to slow down their rate of speech, if needed.
Remind student to pause and breathe as they speak.
“Prolong” or drag out the first sound of words student may “get stuck” on
Encourage student to notice what they are doing and how they are feeling when they do stutter- look for patterns and triggers.
Have student practice reading aloud and usinsing their fluent speech strategies.

receptive and expressive language

General Education and Special Education Core Curriculum

Language and Speech (LAS) Recommendations

Think about Word Relationships: What words that mean the same and what words that mean the opposite?
Step Two...Break it Down: What do you see? Root word, prefix, affix, plural “s”?
Look for Clues: What’s around the word? What can you learn from it?
Think About What You Know: Have you heard the word before? Have you heard words that sound the same? What did they mean?
Picture It: Make a mental image of the word, the definition, or how you would use it.
Brainstorm: Think about everything you know about the word. The more associations, the better!
Find Context Clues: within a sentence to expand vocabulary: “I’m so lethargic today. I feel tired and just want to sit around and relax all day”. Clues can be antonyms, synonyms, definitions etc within the sentence.

How to use Context Clues:
- Circle the word or phrase you don't understand.
- Underline key phrases and ideas in the sentence. Look for words that give synonyms, antonyms, examples, etc.
- Give the main idea of the paragraph the new word is in.
- Say the sentence in your own words.
- Guess at what the new word means.
Context Clues YouTube Video

Defining Words: Remind the student to “dissect” or look at what the parts (root word, prefix, suffix) of a word if they don’t know what it is. Encourage them that it is like a puzzle. If they can, look up the meaning of words they don’t know.
Word Relationships: Synonyms are usually the hardest, remind student to put the word in a sentence and then take it out and try replacing it with another word (ex: It is hot outside/ It is____ outside).
Grammar: After writing as assignment before turning them in, have student read it aloud, have someone proofread it for them too if you can. Have the student take time to edit the mistakes.
“More Details”: Remind the student to describe things when they are writing, that’s what teachers want when they ask for more details (remind them to think about adjectives & adverbs).
Main Ideas: ask student “what is the BIG idea?”
Context Clues: Remind student to look for clues that tell them what is happening. Have them highlight, underline or take notes of the “clues” that give information about what is happening as they read.
Predictions: A guess of what will happen based on what you know. Based on the context clues...ask student “what do you think will happen?”

Moderate-Severe Language and Speech (LAS) Recommendations

Label Things/Actions: Label things, actions, etc., even if the student is familiar with the vocabulary.
Reading: read picture books at the student’s cognitive and interest level with the vocabulary
Watching Videos: Watch videos that use the vocabulary. Pause the video to repeat/emphasize the vocabulary.
Play/Interact: Try to interact with the words in some way. Parents and/or students can make drawings of their meanings, act them out, or make them come alive so they’ll remember them.
Use Them Throughout the Day: Relate words to real life experiences. Make them meaningful and make connections with new vocabulary. Whenever possible, parents/guardians can use the words during everyday activities when communicating with or around the student.

Ask Questions in Each Context: ask basic questions in all different activities throughout the day. Depending on the student’s abilities and/or attention, make a statement and then ask a question.

- 1. EX: “The dog is BIG.” “Is the dog big or small?”, OR “The dog is big and the mouse is small” “Which one is big?”

Substitute Synonyms: Once the student understands a concept/word, use synonyms for various words. While synonyms are typically words that mean the same thing, oftentimes a synonym is more descriptive than the original word.

- 1. COLD: cool, chilly, bitter, freezing, raw
  2. HOT: warm, humid, boiling, tropical

receptive language

When giving a direction, have the student repeat back the instruction in the correct order. Using transition words “first”, “second”, “last’ and visual cues (e.g., using 1-2-3 fingers) to help with language memory.

Moderate-Severe Language and Speech (LAS) Recommendations

Be Direct: Make statements rather than asking questions: “Time to eat. Please sit down,” as opposed to “Are you ready to eat?”
Be Close: Give instructions when you are near the student, rather than calling out from across the room.
Use Clear & Specific Commands: Instead of “Go ahead,” say, “Please go start your reading assignment.”
Give Appropriate Instructions: Speak to the student at a level he/she will understand. You may need to keep things simple and use words you know the student understands: “Please pick up the ball.”
Keep Explanations Simple: Giving a rationale can increase the likelihood children will listen to a command, but not if the commands get too wordy. For instance: “Go get your coat on because it’s raining and I don’t want you to catch a cold.” Instead, try: “It’s raining and I don’t want you to catch a cold. Put your coat on.”
Give Kids Time to Process, then Repeat: After you give an instruction, wait a few seconds, without repeating what you said. Children then learn to listen to calm instructions given once rather than learning that they don’t need to listen because the instructions will be repeated. Watching and waiting also helps keep adults from doing it for them.
Start with Instructions One at a Time: Especially for kids who have attention challenges, try to avoid giving a series of instructions: “Please put on your sneakers, get your lunch off the kitchen counter, and meet me in the front hall.”

Begin by giving 1 instruction, then when the student is able to do that specific task, add another familiar task.

Add Familiar Tasks: Once tasks can be completed one at a time, and are familiar to the student, then familiar tasks can be combined.

- 1. Do not add too many tasks. Following instructions needs to be done in increments. 1-step directions, 2-step directions, 3-step directions, etc. If student isn’t able to follow 2-step directions, then do not add another direction/task
  2. Be careful not to introduce unfamiliar instructions when giving multiple instructions.

expressive language

General Education and Special Education Core Curriculum

Language and Speech (LAS) Recommendations

Play “I Spy with My Little Eye”: or “I’m thinking of…” and describe an object in the room by its characteristics (e.g., size, shape, texture, function, location, etc) After each description, the other person tries to guess the object.

Moderate-Severe Language and Speech (LAS) Recommendations

Increase Vocabulary: Without a large enough vocabulary, students may not have enough words to form longer sentences. In order to start combining words, students need to have at least 50 words in their vocabulary.
Develop Vocabulary Types: There must be a wide range of different types of words in their vocabulary. If the student only knows 50 nouns, he’s not going to be able to combine those in many ways that make sense. A student’s early vocabulary must include nouns, verbs, descriptors, possessives (“my”), negatives (“no”), demonstratives (“that”), question words (“what”), etc.
Use Expansions: Expand the students "sentences" in all settings, especially while playing or engaging in preferred tasks. Expansions involve restating and completing an utterance, usually by usually adding 1-2 words.

Student says "Doggy run," you say, "Yes, the dog is running."
Student says, “Him hurt?,” you say, “Is he hurt?”

Use Extensions: First use expansion, then add an additional, related comment.

Student says, "Car go," and you say, "The car is going. It's a red car."
Student says, "Baby cry," and you say, "The baby is crying. He's hungry."

Throughout the Day in All Settings: Opportunities to expand and extend your expressive language skills are everywhere. The following are a few examples of language-rich environments:
1. 1. Grocery Store – As the student talks about items in the grocery store, he/she says, “Juice.” The adult expands the utterance and says, “Yes, that is juice.” The adult extends the utterance and says, “Yes, that is juice. It is apple juice.”
  2. Riding in the Car – The student sees a person riding a bike. The student says, “Boy on bike.” The adult expands the utterance and says, “The boy is riding his bike.” The adult extends the utterance and says, “The boy is riding his bike. He is riding on the sidewalk.”
  3. Playing with Toys – The student is playing with toys and says, “Basketball.” The adult expands the utterance and says, “That is a basketball.” The adult extends the utterance and says, “That is a basketball. You bounce a basketball.”
Places Around the Home:
1. Morning Time/Getting Ready – Student says, “Brush teeth.” Adult expands and says, “You are brushing your teeth.” Adult extends and says, “You are brushing your teeth with your blue toothbrush.”
2. Bath Time – Student says, “Wash hair.” Adult expands and says, “I will wash your hair.” Adult extends and says, “I will wash your hair. I will use shampoo.”
3. Dinner Time – Student says, “More cookies.” Adult expands and says, “Do you want more cookies?” Adult extends and says, “We have chocolate-chip cookies.”
4. Playing Outside – Child says, “Fall down.” Adult expands and says, “You did fall down.” Adult extends and says, “You did fall down. You fell down in the sand.”

pragmatics

behavior expectations

General Education and Special Education Core Curriculum

Language and Speech (LAS) Recommendations

Mindfulness: This strategy helps with self-regulation by allowing you to delay gratification and manage emotions through practical exercises such as deep breathing.
Cognitive Reappraisal: This strategy involves thinking about a situation in a more positive way, rather than one that is likely to increase negative emotions. For example, if a friend did not return your calls or texts for several days, rather than thinking “my friend hates me,” you might instead think, “my friend must be really busy.”
Problem Solving: What is the size of that problem? Small, Medium or Big? Does your reaction match the size of the problem? What are two things we can do to solve the problem? Or provide two solutions and have the student choose one.
Board Games/Card Games: They can be beneficial as they promote turn taking and sportsmanship. Support sportsmanship and help to remember that playing the game is more important than winning the game.
Online Interactions: Remind student to make sure their online interactions match things they would do or say in person. Remind them to not post things that are inappropriate and to ask for help if they are not sure. Review appropriate ways they can communicate with their teachers and classmates as they need to. Self advocacy is a life skill.

joint attention

General Education and Special Education Core Curriculum

Language and Speech (LAS) Recommendations

Thinking with Your Eyes: What you are looking at is what you are thinking about. Take turns looking at objects in the room and the other person has to guess what you’re looking at/thinking about.

predictions/inference

General Education and Special Education Core Curriculum

Language and Speech (LAS) Recommendations

Watch an Animated Short Film: Identify the thoughts and feelings of the characters. Have your student explain the evidence that shows why the character feels that way using the following sentence frame: “I think (character) feels (emotion) because (evidence)”. Think about body language, facial expressions, and make connections to personal experience.
Ask Questions about an animated short film to make an inference or take an educated guess. In order to make inferences, students use what they see and what they already know (background knowledge) as evidence for their answer. Inferential questions typically begin with ‘why’ or ‘do you think?’ and the answer cannot be directly stated or observed in the movie.
Conversations: Remind student what makes a good speaker and a good listener, remind them to ask questions or make comments to start and continue conversations.

social

General Education and Special Education Core Curriculum

Language and Speech (LAS) Recommendations

Call Friends/Family: Have student check in on family/friends via phone, text, FaceTime, etc.
Practice Eye Contact: If using FaceTime, practice good body positioning and eye contact.
Begin Conversation/Greetings: Use greetings each day/morning, and when beginning an interaction, phone/FaceTime conversation, etc.
Talk to Each Other: Take turns, respond to questions, and ask questions.
Use Names: Greet/address communication patterns by name.
Use a Script: Parent and/or student can create a script. Parents can point to the script if the child gets stuck or is not responding. Formulate questions to ask, or answers to give.
End Conversations/Farewells: Use farewells as appropriate based on the situation, especially after ending a phone conversation.
Sample Email Template: if students need to email teachers during online learning:

Dear __________,
I am having trouble with _________ assignment. I need help understanding___________.
Thank you!

Problems: Ask student, “Is this a minor or major problem?”, then remind them to make sure your reaction matches the problem.
Solutions: Go through the steps of problem-solving: identify the problem, list possible solutions, encourage student to try one solution, if it doesn’t work try another one. Encourage them to not get stuck on the problems but to keep trying possible solutions.
Stress: Remind student to think about their “Circle of Control”. Ask, “What are the things that you can control?”. Things we can control are in our circle of control, things we can’t control are outside of that. Encourage student to focus on the things inside their circle of control when they are feeling stressed.

Moderate-Severe Language and Speech (LAS) Recommendations

- Call Friends/Family: Have student check in on family/friends via phone, text, FaceTime, etc.
- Practice Eye Contact: If using FaceTime, practice good body positioning and eye contact.
- Begin Conversation/Greetings: Use greetings each day/morning, and when beginning an interaction, phone/FaceTime conversation, etc.
- Talk to Each Other: Take turns, respond to questions, and ask questions.
- Use Names: Greet/address communication patterns by name.
- Use a Script: Parent and/or student can create a script or use This AAC Phone Script. Parents can point to the script if the child gets stuck or is not responding. Formulate questions to ask, or answers to give.
- End Conversations/Farewells: Use farewells as appropriate based on the situation, especially after ending a phone conversation.

tone of voice/prosody

Read or Tell Stories: Using character voices gives you an opportunity to try lower pitches, higher pitches, louder voices, and softer voices.
Sing Songs or Tell Rhymes: Music and rhymes are great ways to work on rhythm. In addition, if you sing a song that repeats itself (such as The Song That Never Ends) you can practice loudness, speed, and pitch by singing the verses softer, louder, slower, faster, higher, or lower.
Play a Game of “Copycat”: Have your child imitate phrases or sentences that you say or read from a newspaper (or other type of written material). Say or read the phrases/sentences using different intonation and stress patterns.
Ask and Answer “WH” Questions: Say a simple sentence such as: “Jimmy washed his dog.” Then ask simple “WH” questions that can be answered by repeating the sentence while stressing different words in the sentence. For example, “Who washed his dog?” “Jimmy washed his dog.” “What did Jimmy do to his dog?” “Jimmy washed his dog.” “What did Jimmy wash?” “Jimmy washed his dog.”
“What Does It Mean?”: Think of a simple sentence such as: “I didn’t take your pencil.” Have your child think about and describe how the meaning changes when different words in the sentence are stressed. For example, if I said “I didn’t take your pencil,” that suggests that someone else did. If I said “I didn’t take your pencil,” that implies that I did something else to your pencil. If I said “I didn’t take your pencil,” that indicates that I took someone else’s pencil. And if I said “I didn’t take your pencil,” that hints that I took something else that belonged to you.

vocal volume

Remember You’re Working on More than Just Volume Control: Teaching your child how to moderate their voice’s volume control teaches them other skills as well: self-control, social interaction/participation, compliance, behavior, attention to task, etc. Teach these skills gently and forgivingly in tandem with teaching the student about volume control, and remember that patience and repetition is key, but be mindful that these are great teaching moments for other things as well.
Teach by Example: Model and teach the different vocal volume levels. Use Vocal Volume Descriptions and model each level, Also Use the visual to describe what vocal volume level you and the student are using at any given time.

The “Voice Meter Pro” app for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, is a simple, but effective app that helps children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD’s) (or any other child or group of children) monitor the volume of their own voice/s in a fun and engaging way. The device with the app should be placed about 1 foot away, with the following settings: sensitivity level of 55% and damping level of 32%. Dampening refers to the degree to which there is a delay in movement in the thermometer readings and was left at default settings.

Play Vocal Volume Games: Playing a whispering or loud game with the student in quiet moments is a great way to teach and reinforce to them what it sounds and feels like to listen to and speak in a low or loud volume voice. Switch off with speaking in whispers, and turn the volume gradually down as low as you possibly can while still hearing each other. Or increasing the volume to a gradually louder level. Use a video and increase or decrease the volume. Make it a fun game, and hopefully they’ll enjoy the chance to practice the skill.