Support at Home
Homework is a critical component for student growth, when your child's skills are ready for home practice. Practicing the wrong sound or concept incorrectly is counterproductive. I only send home practice to you when I am confident that your child can practice his/her sounds independently, with a little guidance from you as to what the words might say or what the direction is. Your child should be able to produce the sound he/she is working on at the level at which I send practice home. We might be working at a higher level in speech, that that is all right! Positive practice helps solidify what we are working on in speech and helps kids feel successful.
Home Programming – Language
1. Books:
a. Have your child respond to who, what, where, when questions about the story.
b. Have your child make predictions about what will happen next in the story.
c. Have your child read to you, if they are able.
2. Car games:
a. Play I Spy with your child at red lights.
b. Play the three-clue game: I am going to give you 3 clues, and I want you to guess what I am talking about.
c. Play 20 questions.
3. TV
a. Talk to your child about what you’re watching. Ask concrete and abstract questions about the show
Other Ideas:
Games that focus on Description:
1. 3 Clue game
2. 20 questions
3. I spy
4. Guess Who
5. Tribond
6. Password/Password Junior
Activities:
1. Have your child summarize what she did during her day. Focus on brief descriptions.
2. Have your child describe what she did during the day, but focus on sequence of events, first, next, then, etc.
3. Have your child describe pictures in books.
4. Have your child describe what is wrong with this picture.
5. Give your child three- to four-words and ask which word doesn’t belong and why (ex. Pig, cat, book) or which two words go together and why (hot, soup, chalk, monkey).
Home Programming
1. Books:
a. While reading, have your child repeat a word or sentence with their target sound in it.
b. Have your child respond to who, what, where, when questions about the story.
c. Have your child make predictions about what will happen next in the story.
d. Have your child read to you, if they are able.
2. Car games:
a. Have your child name items he sees in the car that have his sound in it.
b. Have your child say or repeat a certain number of words with his sound in it before the red light changes.
c. Play I Spy with your child at red lights.
d. Play the three-clue game: I am going to give you 3 clues, and I want you to guess what I am talking about.
e. Play 20 questions.
3. Dinner time:
a. Cook a meal that has their target sound in the name. Every so often, ask him to comment on the meal.
b. Have dinner-time be good sound time, and focus her attention on only using good speech sounds or appropriate sentences during their conversational turn.
4. Board Games
a. Have your child practice a word before taking his turn during a board game.
b. Have your child say a sentence before taking a turn.
c. Encourage your child to use full sentences during games, eg. Do you have any ones instead of Any ones?
d. OR change the question to focus on their target sound, eg: got a one instead of Do you have any ones instead when working on /g/.
e. Suggested games: Uno, Go fish, memory, chutes and ladders, etc.
5. TV
a. As your child watches TV, have him repeat words with his target sound.
b. During commercials, have her practice from her word list or just repeat words after you.
c. Talk to your child about what you’re watching. Ask concrete and abstract questions.