Speech Practice Basics

Speech Practice Basics

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PRACTICE GUIDELINES

There are some basic speech practice guidelines that we follow, and it boils down to these 2 things:

1. Begin with the smallest task first and then move on to harder tasks.
2.   Practice, practice, practice!

Improving speech is like learning to play piano or basketball — you have to practice over and over again to build up the muscle memory for that skill.  We’ve all heard the phrase ‘Practice makes Perfect’, and it is true for speech as well!

Do you remember when you first learned how to drive a car?  You had to consciously think about every little lever to push or pull, and every step on the brake or gas pedal.  Eventually, you were so proficient at driving that you didn’t have to think about those things at all, you just did them naturally as part of the process of driving from here to there.

We want your child to be able to speak correctly in just the same natural way, without even thinking about it.  However, there are certain steps that you’ll need to take to get there.  It helps to break down practice sessions in an organized way.

PRACTICE LEVELS

Here are the basic levels for practicing a speech sound:

First you teach the child to say the sound in isolation — all by itself.  Then you teach the sound in syllables, then in words, then in phrases, then in sentences, and finally in reading and conversation.  (If your child is not a proficient reader, you could skip the reading level.)

Within each of those levels, you will practice that sound at the beginning of words, the middle of words, and the end of words.  This is because the position of the sound in words can make a difference in how easy it is for the child to pronounce.  We want the child to practice it in different contexts to gain proficiency in regular speech.

You might start out with the initial position, and then when the child is proficient with that, you can move on to the medial (middle) position and then the final position.  You don’t necessarily have to go in that order, but it’s one way to do it.

In this course, the instructions for teaching each sound are included in the module for that sound.  You will receive specific techniques for teaching that sound in isolation and syllables.  Once the child is successful at that level, you’ll move on to words, then phrases, and so on.  Practice videos and practice documents will be included at the various levels.

PRACTICE FREQUENCY

As with practicing piano or basketball, frequency is a good thing!  The more you can get your child to practice, the faster he or she will improve.  Shorter practice sessions might be easier for a preschooler, while a second grader might be able to handle 30 minutes a day.  Even if it is just 5 minutes a day, that will help move things along, especially if your child is also being seen by an SLP at school or privately.  And five minutes several times a day is even better!  That can work well for preschoolers with a short attention span.

Now let’s move on to the next lesson to learn how to structure a speech session.