By: Elyse Schultz M.S., CCC-SLP, Lindsay Barret M.S., CF-SLP, Kyle Mutch M.S., CCC-SLP, Christina Rossi M.S., CF-SLP
Have you been trying to think of creative ways to practice your child’s articulation homework? Below are 20 suggestions to try while practicing at home. These work best for those practicing on the single word level. These strategies will help motivate your child to complete his or her homework and increase generalization outside of the speech therapy room. Get creative with these ideas and get practicing!
1. Charades
- Act out your target word
2. “I Spy”
- Find items around the room that contain your target word
3. Color in a picture of target words
4. Draw a picture of target words
5. Turn taking game
- Puzzle, Legos, trains, board game, toss balloon/ball
- One word= one game piece/turn
6. Stack cups
- Build a tower of cups with target words written on the bottom
- See how many you can say and stack before the tower falls down
7. Mystery box
- Cut a hole in an empty box (or use a tissue box) and make a “Mystery Box” for kids to choose target words from
8. Articulation bingo with words containing your target sound
9. Make your own board game with target word pictures
10. Use Play Dough to make your target word
11. Drive a car/ train/ airplane to target words scattered throughout the room
- Images of words can act as different destinations, train stations, or airports
12. Scavenger hunt of target word pictures
13. Fill in the blank during song singing
- Example: The itsy bitsy ___
14. Tape target words to the wall, turn the lights off, and find them using a flashlight
15. Take turns being the teacher
- Kids often enjoy being the ones in charge and telling the parent what to do and say
16. Empower the child by allowing them to choose the best day/time to practice
17. Sometimes it can hard to find time to practice, so getting the practice done in the car or taxi can be more motivating than at home
18. Choose words the child is motivated to say. Branch out from word lists and find favorite characters, athletes, toys, or common words from their vocabulary with the target sound.
19. “Simon Says”
- This is great for children practicing /s/ in the initial position of words
20. Make a beaded bracelet/necklace
- Each bead = one word
Siblings as Homework Helpers
Want some help with your child’s speech and language homework? If your child has siblings, then you’re in luck!
Brothers and sisters are helpful in getting your child to practice speech homework, and they make the whole process more fun. Here are 3 easy ways to incorporate siblings into speech homework:
- Take turns. Make speech and language homework a family activity by having everyone take turns! The dinner table, bedtime, and the car are ideal settings for this.
- Use the sibling as a model. Siblings often copy each other, and in this case, it’s useful! Children practicing speech and language skills can benefit from copying what their siblings do correctly.
- Have sibling help monitor carry over. As your child begins to master the speech and language skills that he/she has practiced in therapy, ask your child’s sibling to help keep track of how many times they saw the child use targeted skills correctly in real life settings. Comments from siblings such as, “I heard you use the /r/ sound right 3 times at dinner. Nice job!” go a long way in boosting self-confidence and self-monitoring.