I thought I would share some of the ideas, activities, and FREE resources that I send to my families for home practice! I know the thought of making and sending out home programs can be overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be!
Modeling!
Modeling correct sentence structure and articulation are SO important! Balance is needed though. At home, parents don’t want to correct so much that kids become frustrated. It’s helpful to pick a 5-10 minutes during the day where you model correct syntax by rephrasing what the child says or by providing choices for correct sentence structure.
For example, a child says, “I going to get a snack.”; the parent replies, “Oh, you ARE going to get a snack.”; or, the parent replies, “What sounds better? I going to get a snack or I AM going to get a snack.” Place a little extra emphasis on the missing word.
Modeling correct production of words produced incorrectly looks very similar. Parents can restate the correct production of an incorrectly produced word providing extra emphasis on the word/sound produced incorrectly, or parents could ask their child what sounds better “swide” or “slide”. Pick times, like when driving in the car, to let the child know that you are listening to his/her sounds and to use their “very best speech” or their “strong sounds”.
Need more?
If you try these ideas but are still looking for some helpful resources to send home, I’m offering several resources for home practice FREE for a limited time!
Click here for FREE speech and language one page homework handouts
Books!
Reading is one of the top recommendations I make to my families when they ask what they can do at home to support their child’s speech and language development. Books provide so much rich language and an easy, NO PREP opportunity to work on a variety of language targets from asking questions, to retelling events, to practicing articulation, and so much more.
Below are a few language and articulation targets that can be addressed while reading a book:
- Answering a variety of wh-questions: who, what, where, when, why.
- Making simple predictions and inferences.
- Discussing unfamiliar vocabulary words and figurative language (Use context clues, answer choices, and pictures to help the child figure out the meaning of the word or phrase.)
- Sequence and retell events from the story.
- Identify the characters, setting, problem, and solution of the story.
- Talk about the favorite parts of the book, characters you and your child like and why using complete sentences.
- Practice words in the book containing sounds the child is working on.
Need more?
Click here for a list of books by theme!
Songs!
There are so many cute kids songs on You Tube. Search the theme + kids songs. Kids love singing along with the songs while acting out the movements! Go Noodle and The Learning Station have tons of cute songs that are perfect for movement breaks and encouraging language!
Here are a few songs I love and use in therapy:
Crafts and Recipes!
Crafts and recipes are great ways to work on following directions (both single and multistep), requesting (i.e. I want/need the/a/more …..white paper, glue stick, scissors, glitter, etc.), asking questions, commenting (I like/don’t like that), turn taking (my turn, your turn), practicing articulation skills, etc. I tend to search for crafts by season or theme, and then I look for simple crafts that I have all the supplies for. For recipes, I search easy, no bake recipes for kids. Many websites have step-by-step directions which is awesome!
Need more?
Here are some of my go to websites:
Digital Resources!
Are you interested in learning more or incorporating digital resources into your therapy sessions?
Have you heard of Boom Cards?
Boom Cards are digital, self-grading task cards (flash cards) that can be used to teach or to practice a variety of skills such as articulation, receptive language, expressive language, social skills, fluency/stuttering, and more! Boom Cards are played on the Boom Learning platform, which can be loaded on an internet browser, computer, smart board, a tablet, or a smartphone. The format of the cards include drag and drop, fill-in-the blank, and selecting the correct answer by either touching or clicking on the a button. Students receive immediate reinforcement after submitting an answer. Boom Cards can be used in individual or in group therapy. You can find a variety of free and paid decks Boom Cards at Boom Learning or on Teachers Pay Teachers. Best of all you can assign Boom Cards as homework!
If you’re still looking for some helpful resources, here are a few of my best selling Boom Card decks:
About Boom Cards™ :
To use Boom Cards, you must be connected to the Internet. Boom Cards play on modern browsers (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge). Apps are available for Android, iPads, iPhones, and Kindle Fires. For security and privacy, adults must have a Boom Learning account to use and assign Boom Cards. You will be able to assign the Boom Cards you are buying with “Fast Pins,” (play provides instant feedback for self-grading Boom Cards). Fast Play is always a free way for students to engage with Boom Cards decks. For additional assignment options you’ll need a premium account. If you are new to Boom Learning, you will be offered a free trial of our premium account. Read here for details: http://bit.ly/BoomTrial.
You may be eligible for a free trial from Boom Learning. Read here for details: http://bit.ly/BoomTrial. If you choose not to stay on a premium account after your free trial, you will still be able to assign all your Boom Cards to as many students as you see fit using Fast Play pins (which give instant feedback for decks that are self-grading).
Boom Learning™ and Boom Cards™ are the trademarks of Boom Learning Inc. and are used with permission.
Feel like you need more information on digital resources?
Stacy Crouse (stacycrouse.com) and Andee at The Whimsical Word (thewhimsicalword.com) are both speech teletherapists. They have tons of great information on their websites about how to use Adobe Reader and Apple Books for no print speech therapy resources, Interactive PDFs and tons of information on teletherapy.
Additional Websites that have free educational and speech activities:
Leave us a comment if you have any questions or suggestions. We really appreciate any feedback on the freebies you download! Follow us on Instagram for more therapy ideas, resources and other fun stuff!!
Nicole
