{"id":8831,"date":"2014-10-07T17:41:42","date_gmt":"2014-10-08T00:41:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/?p=8831"},"modified":"2023-11-08T10:32:57","modified_gmt":"2023-11-08T18:32:57","slug":"short-sweet-fun-fresh-great-games-for-practicing-speech-sounds-at-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/games-and-activities\/short-sweet-fun-fresh-great-games-for-practicing-speech-sounds-at-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Short, Sweet, Fun and Fresh: Great Games for Practicing Speech Sounds at Home"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Great<\/a>This blog post is for\u00a0parents who would prefer not to sound like Ben Stein\u2019s class in the iconic John Hughes\u2019 comedy from the 1980\u2019s,\u00a0Ferris Bueller\u2019s Day Off<\/em>. “Anyone\u2026anyone?” As your child moves through his or her speech therapy goals, being\u00a0involved for even a few minutes, three to five times per week, can be enormously beneficial. This is especially true when your child is in the process of practicing\u00a0a new speech or language behavior that he has learned, but has not yet mastered. Because our children have a lot on the plates, and we as parents don\u2019t want to overwhelm them, I recommend embedding this home-based speech practice into what they already are doing. This often takes the form of games or other overtly play-based activities, as opposed to worksheets, books or anything that could be construed as “work.” Since each age group tends to have different play interests, this post is organizes the choices\u00a0of games for practicing speech sounds\u00a0according to age, from birth to age 3, preschool age (age 3 to 5), school age (age 6 to 9), and pre-adolescents (age 10 to 14).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Birth to 3<\/h2>\n

\"Girl\"GirlSpeech and language therapy is highly play-based for this age group. The goals of therapy are often explicitly worded around play (e.g. “Johnny will combine 2 words into short phrases, where pragmatically appropriate, with 80% accuracy, in play activities”). The therapist is essentially embedding therapy within play, rather than vice versa, which is reserved\u00a0for preschool kids and older. For this youngest age group, it is especially important for a parent to observe —\u00a0ideally once per month\u00a0—\u00a0a good portion\u00a0of a therapy session, to see exactly how the\u00a0therapist is embedding goals into play. Try to learn the basic structure of the play, you won’t\u00a0be as skillful in this as your therapist \u2013 after all she or he is trained and experienced! \u2013 but you can get the basics. For example, if play revolves\u00a0around building a tower out of blocks and the current high priority goal is to have the child combine two words into phrases, watch how the therapist cues your child<\/strong><\/em>. The cue might come in the form of a question (e.g “do you want more blocks?”), with the child expected to answer in a two-word phrase (e.g. \u201cmore blocks\u201d). If the child is just beginning to show this skill, the therapist may cue the child to imitate via a statement while showing the child that, momentarily, more blocks require the child to at least attempt to say,\u00a0“more blocks.”<\/p>\n

I recommend picking a new activity that you are confident your child will love that is different from the activities you observed your therapist using. Young children thrive in\u00a0routine. Play, which is really a young child\u2019s work<\/em>, also functions according to routine. If a child associates a certain toy or activity with a therapist, the child is more likely to not consistently accept the parent\u2019s way of playing with that toy. So, ask your therapist what other materials or activities can successfully target the goal and if possible, have the therapist observe you briefly playing with your child as you target this goal. This new activity can be your own and your child should quickly associate it with you.<\/p>\n

Sibling Bonus?<\/h3>\n

If the child working to build his speech and language skills has an older sibling, I recommend enlisting the help of that older sibling. The younger sibling not only often “worships” the older sibling, but the older sibling is likely to present a strong speech model for the younger one. I recommend asking your speech therapist to provide the goal you\u2019re working on as well as a handful of stimulus items to guide the older sibling\u2019s involvement here. Also, it\u2019s very important to incentivize the older sibling with some classic bribery (e.g. an ice cream party, a trip to the bookstore, etc.).<\/p>\n

Preschool (Ages 3 to 5)<\/h2>\n

With preschoolers, play is still an important part of therapy and with that, I prefer parent-driven, home-based activities to model this. But one crucial difference with preschoolers, as opposed kids under\u00a0three, is that usually, there is an expectation that the child stay seated and attentive to a particular task for a more extended period (at least 5-10 minutes). However, you, the parent, do not need to\u00a0do this. You\u00a0don\u2019t have to run or throw balls, but play\u00a0should be active! If\u00a0I am working on building a child\u2019s mean length of utterance<\/em>\u00a0— helping him say longer meaningful things\u00a0—\u00a0I might recommend a game with a soft ball where he has to tell me how I would throw\/roll\/bounce\/kick the ball to him. I could cue him with a more complex question if he\u2019s a little farther along in this: “how do you want me to give you the ball?” If he needs more cuing, I might cue him with what I expect him to say: “throw the ball to me.”<\/p>\n

Since the social<\/strong> aspect of language is so important, especially to preschoolers in speech and language therapy, I prefer not to use iPad apps or activities where the principal point of engagement doesn’t\u00a0involve social interaction. Therefore, simple drawing activities tend to not be ideal here: your child can choose to communicate as he or she draws, or not. However, if an art activity requires the child to request various materials (e.g. scissors, paper, glue) and at times, require assistance from you, this social interaction would facilitate language from the child and thus provide an opportunity for you to target his or her goals.<\/p>\n

Give\u00a0the Books a Rest, Try Games!<\/h3>\n

Although books are an indispensable activity for\u00a0fostering language development in preschoolers, assuming your child gets good exposure to books, either at day care or school or at bedtime, I prefer to recommend non-literary activities. Board games are very reliable. I recommend classic games for practicing speech sounds: Candy Land, Chutes & Ladders, Castle Logix, The Sneaky Snacky Squirrel Game, Richard Scarry Busy Town, Dr. Suess What\u2019s in the Cat\u2019s Hat?, Tell-A-Story from Ravensburger, Uno, Shark Mania and Mouse Trap (for the older kids in this range), and Hoot Owl Hoot! These are all games where robust language can come naturally. There are, of course, thousands of other games out there and I would always welcome any suggestions from readers as to what they have found to be effective. Also, remember that you know your child best and whatever particular interest he or she may have, be they trains, princesses, maps, or animals, are always great places to start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
\"Candy
\nCandy Land<\/a><\/td>\n		\"Chutes
\nChutes & Ladders<\/td>\n		\"Castle
\nCastle Logix<\/a><\/td>\n		\"The
\nThe Sneaky Snacky Squirrel Game<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Richard
\nRichard Scarry Busy Town<\/a><\/td>\n		\"Dr.
\nDr. Suess What\u2019s in the Cat\u2019s Hat?<\/a><\/td>\n		\"Tell-A-Story
\nTell-A-Story from Ravensburger<\/a><\/td>\n		\"Uno\"
\nUno<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Shark
\nShark Mania<\/a><\/td>\n		\"Mouse
\nMouse Trap<\/a><\/td>\n		<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

School Age (Ages 6 to 9)<\/h2>\n

School age children are often\u00a0the easiest to work with in a clinical setting. They can\u00a0sit and concentrate for longer periods of time, and they are\u00a0developing an awareness of the behavior that you’re trying to help to change, perhaps even\u00a0the process of change itself. But this age group can also be the trickiest to\u00a0motivate for home-based practice.\u00a06 to 9 year olds are, generally speaking, “tough customers” (especially for their\u00a0parents) when it comes to being\u00a0amused. Apart from the games and materials I suggest below, another\u00a0strategy for this age group is to use whatever\u00a0non-screen-based activity your kid just loves to do. Whenever the chance presents itself, tell him that you\u2019ll play that game with him if he agrees to practice speech and language goals with you, for at least part of the time you are engaged in the game or activity.<\/p>\n

My favorite games and materials for school age kids are ones that challenge their problem solving skills. I\u2019ve found that this almost always, in itself, is a huge motivator. Here are some titles, in no particular order, that I think you will have success with: Rory\u2019s Story Cubes, Scrabble Jr., Mastermind, Don\u2019t Say It, Stratego, Apples to Apples Kids, Clue, The Game of Life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"Rory\u2019s
\nRory\u2019s Story Cubes<\/a><\/td>\n		\"Scrabble
\nScrabble Jr.<\/a><\/td>\n		\"Mastermind\"
\nMastermind<\/a><\/td>\n		\"Don\u2019t
\nDon\u2019t Say It<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Stratego\"
\nStratego<\/a><\/td>\n		\"Apples
\nApples to Apples Kids<\/a><\/td>\n		\"Clue\"
\nClue<\/a><\/td>\n		\"The
\nThe Game of Life<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Pre-Adolescent (Ages 10 and Up)<\/h2>\n

For the oldest of these age groups, it is perfectly acceptable to have your children lead the home-based speech exercises. After all, some of these children, may not be as interested in direct one-on-one with a parent — sorry, we parents are just not THAT cool\u00a0—\u00a0and may be embarrassed to ask even a trusted friend to help them practice their speech. In addition, some of the children in this age range have been in speech therapy for years and may be extra sensitive to others\u2019 awareness of their struggles, even if they\u2019re making great progress. My primary\u00a0suggestion for a parent considering letting a child “go it alone” is to maintain\u00a0some kind of record of what the child is doing. This can be a check on a family\u00a0fridge calendar or even a short recording or phone video (that can be deleted of course!) that a parent can observe to gauge progress. Also, a dedicated tool like Speech Buddies can be enormously motivating to a pre-teen in this solo, home-based practice; the tool itself can become the game, and the challenge of eliciting a sound they had previously struggled with, on their own, can be enough to fire them up. This is on the honor system of course but I think most of your pre-teens will actually be maximally motivated by the freedom the trust you\u2019re placing in them and in being able to own their progress more.<\/p>\n

Many pre-teens may still respond to dedicated play-based interactions at home to solidify speech behaviors. The theme is to challenge and compete with your pre-teen. I suggest dangling tangible rewards (like an outing to an ice cream spot or a home movie night) if your child is able to beat the goal one or more times in a given game. Also, If you want to break a game up into several home-based sessions, Ticket to Ride is a super fun game for kids at the older end of this range and Risk is another intense, classic game \u2013 just tabulate scores and set it up that way next time you play. Although I have never played Settlers of Catan, a colleague recently mentioned she has this game in her office and uses it frequently and to good effect with some of her pre-teen clients. Also, some of the classic, high-skill games like Scrabble can become interesting language-based games for pre-teens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"Ticket
\nTicket to Ride<\/a><\/td>\n		\"Risk\"
\nRisk<\/a><\/td>\n		\"Settlers
\nSettlers of Catan<\/a><\/td>\n		\"Scrabble\"
\nScrabble<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Whatever games for practicing speech sounds\u00a0you choose to use, make them: regular and consistent, play-based, and natural.<\/p>\n \n \n \n \"Parents'<\/a>\n <\/span>\n <\/span>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This blog post is for\u00a0parents who would prefer not to sound like Ben Stein\u2019s class in the iconic John Hughes\u2019 comedy from the 1980\u2019s,\u00a0Ferris Bueller\u2019s Day Off. “Anyone\u2026anyone?” As your child moves through his or her speech therapy goals, being\u00a0involved for even a few minutes, three to five times per week, can be enormously beneficial. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8872,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1538],"tags":[668,280,1354,1235,1704],"class_list":["post-8831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-games-and-activities","tag-articulation-activities","tag-articulation-games","tag-board-games","tag-board-games-for-speech-therapy","tag-games-for-practicing-speech-sounds"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Games-for-practicing-speech-sounds.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8831"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12523,"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8831\/revisions\/12523"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}