Encouraging and supporting students to work on their speech goals outside of the speech room or school setting helps them progress more quickly toward mastery. Therapists call it “generalization” when skills addressed in therapy are transferred across settings and across different tasks.
Each student will be provided with a “speech folder” to see current goal(s) and progress, home practice ideas, and a place for parents/caregivers to leave comments or ask questions.
In general, the following are opportunities to encourage your student to practice his/her “best" speech and/or language skills:
AT SCHOOL I CAN:
Think about my speech sounds every day when GREETING my teacher and classmates, say the Pledge of Allegiance, or add to a conversation during our morning meeting.
Look for and practice my speech sounds in any SPELLING or WORD-STUDY words.
Look for and practice my speech sounds in science or social studies VOCABULARY. Ask questions about and look up new vocabulary words.
Look for and practice my speech sounds in MATH—read a math problem aloud.
Look for and say my speech sounds correctly when I am sharing my WRITING with others. Organize my writing using transition words such as “first”, “next”, and “lastly.”
Practice my ORAL PRESENTATIONS, book talks, book reports, projects, author’s sharing, or poetry slam ahead of time using my correct speech sounds (highlighting words with my sounds), and then saying them correctly when I give the presentation in class.
Practice my speech sounds when playing a partner game or WORKING IN A SMALL GROUP in my classroom.
Practice my speech sounds when I raise my hand to ask or ANSWER A QUESTION in class.
AT HOME or ON-THE-GO I CAN:
Think about and use my speech sounds when I TELL ABOUT MY DAY, my friends, my book, or my experiences.
I can READ ALOUD 1-2 paragraphs of the book I am reading, thinking carefully and saying my sounds correctly.
Use my speech sounds when I am PLAYING A GAME, instructing others on how to play, or when I tell about the game I played.
FOLLOW DIRECTIONS- Give your student a 2-step direction to follow, for example, set four plates on the table and then wash your hands.
ASK and ANSWER WH-QUESTIONS- Ask your student a variety of wh-questions (who, what, where, when, why) and encourage them to ask you questions about your day. For example, WHO did you sit with at lunch? WHAT did you write about today? WHEN is your next spelling quiz?
DESCRIBE OBJECTS- Pick an object and tell all about it, including its appearance, function/use, parts, etc. Once descriptions improve, you can describe an object and have a partner guess the object.
CATEGORIZE- List items in a common category (try animals, breakfast foods, games). For a challenge, list items in abstract categories (try things that are cold, things that are sticky, sports without a ball, things in the sky).
SEQUENCE- Tell about my day using transition words, such as “first”, “then”, “after that”, and “finally.”
COMPARE and CONTRAST- Practice identifying similarities and differences between objects you see, such as 2 vehicles or 2 houses. For instance, “That house has a blue door and this house has a black door. But, both houses have windows.”