Sound Correction and Language Enrichment

Before you practice a sound, your child should be able to produce it correctly by imitating your model. Providing good models in your own speech will help him/her to discriminate the correct sound production. If your child receives speech at school his/her speech therapist may provide further suggestions for practice.

• While out in the community (car, store, park), see how many items you can name with his/her target sound it.

• Make a fishing game and fish for sounds! Attach a string and a magnet to a stick. Make picture cards of the target sound (ask his/her therapist for some) and put a paperclip on each one. Put the cards in a bowl and go fishing saying each item as you catch them!

• Make three cards with the target sound at the beginning, middle, and the end of its name (top, cat, and kitten). Place other words or picture cards with the target sound on the table. Have your child pick a card, say the object, and then put it in the pile that matches where the sound is in the word.

• To teach categorization skills, have your child name items in the house that go together such as fruits, clothing, and furniture).

• Help your child write a story or make a picture book. Ask your child what is happening in the pictures and help him/her write it. Have child practice reading the story to you using the target sound correctly.

• Play the alphabet game while driving or in a restaurant waiting for food. Each person names an object with the letters of the alphabet. Be sure and include the target sound.

• Make rhyming trees with target sound (eat, Pete, feet, beat)

• Take out books from the library with characters that have your child’s target sound in their name (Mickey, Clifford). Reading to your child is the best strategy for speech and language enrichment.