April 2014 Speech and Language Newsletter

A House for Hermit Crab Activity

We are reading A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle. We focused on the /k/ sound like in "crab" and /s/ blend words. There are many words in the book with these sounds: coral, crab, sea star, snail, etc. As you read you can have your child say these words a
fter you.

Print off the crab picture. You can decorate his shell by coloring, and also add the /k/ target sound words on his shell by coloring and gluing them on. Have the child say each word 5-10 times as they glue it on.

Goodnight Gorilla

We are reading Goodnight Gorilla in class and working on initial /g/ words. Print off 2 pages of each: gorillas and pictures. Cut the pictures out and glue them on the back of the gorillas. Cut around the gorillas as a square in order to make them cards.

You can play memory with your cards (the "matching game") where you lay them face down on the table and flip over two at a time to find matches. Or you can play Go Gorilla (Go Fish)! Make sure you are modeling the good /g/ sounds in every word, and make your children say them with their good /g/ sound.

Thanks to my favorite co-SLP Colie for making these amazing pictures! You can find other great speech activities on her speech blog.

March 2014 Speech and Language Newsletter

Cactus flowers and s blends

Print a large cactus picture (or you can draw an outline yourself!). It needs to be large and fill up the whole paper.

Cut out and color the 15 target words and 15 flowers. Glue the flowers on to the cactus and glue the target words onto the flower. As you glue each word, say the word 5 times. Once you are done, you can practice, practice, practice all those s blend words on your beautiful cactus!!!

February 2014 Speech and Language Newsletter

Does my child need therapy?

So many parents come to me telling me what their child can or can't say, what sounds they can or can't produce, and ask "does my child need speech therapy?" In an effort to save me some time, and to make sure I answer questions comprehensively, I have created a portion of my blog dedicated to answering these questions.

Please see my Developmental Milestones page to see what a child should be doing at each age in the areas of speech and language. This should be used a guideline only and not a checklist.

You can also see my Does My Child Need Speech Therapy? page to find out how and where you can receive a screener or speech and language evaluation to determine if your child needs therapy.

Good luck in your endeavors and please let me know if you have any additional questions!