5 Speech Therapy Techniques to Try at Home with Your Child

If you find that your little one is having trouble communicating, there are many ways you can assist your child in developing better skills. You understand the importance of language, articulation, and comprehension and their value in successful interactions. As a result, you can choose to work with a professional speech pathologist, or you can try 5 speech therapy techniques at home with your child, or you can do both!

Why You Might Want to Hire a Professional

If a child is falling behind and needs extra help in refining their speech and language skills, school faculty are likely the first to notice and begin trying to assist the child. Schools have special education teams to assess how a child is learning and how well they are performing in the classroom. If you hire an outside professional, they will work together with your child’s instructors to focus on language, speaking, listening, and reading skills so your child can begin to build up their vocabulary and improve comprehension.

If you are unsure if your child is having language delay issues, contact Cobb Pediatrics to get a better idea of what unique signs to look for.

Techniques to Try at Home with Your Child

Parents can help out at home to supplement any ongoing therapy. The more support your son or daughter receives in honing their communication skills, the better!

Complete the Thought

Start simple conversations or stories with your child to help build language skills. Begin a story about anything and then pause to add a link word such as and, but, then, because, or other connecting words to encourage them to complete a thought or story. This will help your child to speak in longer sentences and express any additional ideas, which will also help to develop their imagination.

Repeat the entire sentence with their addition, and add another connecting word to keep the game going.

Flash Cards

Flash cards are a fun way to have children connect pictures with numbers or words to improve language.

Silly Sounds

Try making exaggerated and silly sounds for a letter or word they have difficulty enunciating. Practice this even in front of a mirror to help them see how to use their mouth to make the sound correctly.

What Are You Seeing?

Bring your child to the grocery store and begin to identify the names of vegetables, fruits, and any other items nearby. Have them say the word aloud, and eventually they should begin to recognize and point out some things on their own. Each visit can reinforce what they have learned and help to build additional vocabulary.

Read to Your Child

It is never too early to read to a child. They hear your voice, its tone, and pronunciation as you take them on a journey or adventure. The pictures help identify objects, people, professions, and things in nature. Have them repeat certain words and point to the pictures to connect each word to its appropriate image. As they grow, kids will continue to recognize the value of reading and understanding language.

Almost every minute you spend with your child is a form of education in language skills. Talk to them, listen to them, and never get annoyed if they don’t pronounce something correctly. Make it a positive learning experience for both of you as you each figure out what works best to help them learn.