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Speech-Language, Mrs. PD
Welcome Back Everyone!!!!
I serve as the Speech-Language Therapist for several classes here at Stowers Elementary School. My goal is to help your child improve his/her communication skills. Some of the specific areas that I focus on include pronunciation and language skills. On this page, you will find some helpful information that will be updated on a monthly basis.
August News
The Lip Sounds
“p”, “m”, “b”, “w”
Visual and Verbal Cues
For the “p” sound, I make a fist and place it beside my lips. As I say the sound, I open my hand.
For the “b” sound, I place my index finger in front of closed lips. As I say the sound, I move my hand forward.
For the “m” sound, I cover my lips with my hand.
For the “w” sound, I move my index finger in a circle around puckered lips as I say the sound.
Mouth Exercises that focus on the lips
- Put lipstick or cool whip on your lips. Then, pucker up and make lip prints on a mirror.
- Have fun making silly faces together in front of a mirror.
- Do different lip combinations. The basic movements include the following: pucker (ex. “oo” as in “boo”); smile (“ee” as in bee”); and rounded lips that come down into a pucker (ex. “oa” as in boat”. You mix up the basic movements to come up with silly words.
August Speech Activity
- For preschool students, focus on singing the lip sounds or consonant vowel combinations (ex. Pea—boo, etc.) into a microphone.
- For older students, begin a speech sound notebook. Cut out pictures in magazines that contain the “p”, “b”, or “m” sounds. As your child’s listening skills improve, he/she can say if they hear the sound at the beginning, middle, or end of the word.
Speech Sound Levels
Whenever you are working on the speech activity it is important to remember the following levels:
- Simple, one-syllable words
- Two+ syllable words
- Short phrases where the phrase stays the same but the word changes (ex. “I want a ____”; “I see a ____”, etc.).
- Short sentence level where every word changes.
- Conversational level
**These levels go in order from easiest to hardest.
Speech Activity Tips
- Work on the speech sounds during daily routines as much as possible. This way, your child does not feel like he/she has extra homework. Your child will also begin to see why it is important to think about the way they say their speech sounds throughout the day.
- Tap out each syllable in a longer word or each word in a phrase. Have your child repeat your model. Many times this technique helps your child to slow down when they talk.
- Emphasize the speech sound in the word. This technique is especially beneficial if your child needs extra work on hearing the specific sounds in a word.
August Language Activity
- For preschool students, begin by asking simple “who” and “what” questions about pictures on a page. Strategies when working on this skill include the following:
- Make the questions short and simple at first. As your child’s listening skills improve, you can gradually make the questions longer or more complex.
- Give your child some extra seconds to come up with an answer.
- Point to the picture as you model the answer.
- Gradually increase the length of the expected answer. For example, at first you may expect a one-word answer, such as “boy”. Then the answer can become longer, such as “boy do it” or “boy push”.
- As your child progresses in their expressive language, it is important to include more grammatical elements (ex. a, the, an, etc.).
- For older students, you can play guessing games, such as “I Spy”. This game teaches them to listen to a description provided by someone else. The game also teaches them to provide a basic description. You may need to ask some question prompts at first to get them started with their description (ex. What color is it? What do you do with it?, etc.). As your child’s describing skills improve, gradually fade the question prompts.
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