As a speech therapist, I rarely read the story from a book in full. Don’t get me wrong – stories are carefully crafted with rich vocabulary, language structure, and story components to compliment the images – all of which I am fully on board with following. But beyond the standard use, books are impressively versatile for teaching a range of developmental skills. And the best part? There’s no crafting, cutting, printing, or laminating involved in preparing a lesson or target. It can be as simple as letting a child pick their favorite bed time story and flip it open, with a new focused approach to engaging with the story. In this post, I’ll be focusing on using books to practice speech sounds.
As if caregivers don’t have enough to do with their children, and now here I am asking you to take the fun and ease out of reading?! Hear me out – there is a time, and a place, and a specific need for this. It’s not needed for every child, and even for the children who may benefit from it, this does not replace their cherished reading routine; it simply supplements it.
Some children have more difficulty in learning to say a specific speech sound, or they may change or simplify the sounds in words beyond the age that is typical of their peers. These speech sound disorders are evaluated, diagnosed, and supported by a speech-language pathologist (SLP). There are general norms that SLPs follow to assess whether a child’s speech sound difficulties are age-appropriate. But, other factors weigh in as well to determine if a child needs extra support. If you have any concerns and you’re not sure, it’s always best to seek out help from a professional. A great first step is reaching out to your child’s doctor or teacher. And if you want to learn more about speech sound disorders, check out future blog posts for more information.
Now that we’ve established speech sounds don’t need to be practiced with every child, I may have lost some of you. Or perhaps, this may sound exactly like your child, student, or loved one. Maybe they’ve already been diagnosed with a speech sound disorder. Or maybe you suspect a problem but haven’t yet been able to gain professional support. Either way, you’re likely looking for any and all extra tools to help them succeed.
Books are one of many tools you can use to help improve speech sound difficulties. It just so happens to be one of the quickest, most effortless ways to do so. Many families already have books at home that can be used for this purpose. Books are also accessible at no cost or low cost from your local library, secondhand stores, and online. For many children, there’s no convincing needed – reading is already fun and exciting. Other children may find the act of reading effortful, but love looking at pictures, seeing familiar characters, making up their own story, or listening along. If your child fits into one of these categories, then this approach is for you!
Think about a skill you’ve mastered, and the amount of hours you’ve put in to it. When I played soccer as a child, I was committed to learning a famous soccer move, The Maradona. I didn’t quite have the balance or coordination to do it yet, but I spent hours watching my brother break down the move and practice each part slowly and bit by bit. Eventually, I was able to combine all the steps and speed it up. I practiced the move with friends on my team, and then the ultimate challenge: I attempted it against my brother, the teacher himself. By this point, I had devoted hours and hours every single week for the entire summer, and it paid off – I successfully maneuvered the ball past his defense. This is a long-winded way of saying “practice makes perfect.”
For kids working on a speech sound in speech therapy, they are learning an entirely new skill – one which requires an incredible amount of repetition, as any new skill does. Speech therapy does all of the heavy lifting in terms of teaching the new skill, providing supportive feedback, and systematically advancing the new skill. And while it does provide an impressive amount of practice within a short period of time, progress can feel slow when this is the only window of practice across an entire week. And for many kids to reach their goals, this can take months, or even years, leading to a lot of frustration and resistance as time goes by.
It’s not ideal to place the burden on caregivers for ensuring . But, with a little guidance, it can be slipped into routines already established at home with minimal extra effort or time needed.
As it implies, practice does involve a level of effort from the child (parents: I may have lost you there).
Of course, this approach takes time to learn and apply. Professionals such as speech therapists or teachers may make it look easy when they seamlessly target learning objectives in books or other forms of play – it can be so subtle that it doesn’t seem like “learning” at all. (Another blog post on this – I promise, learning is always involved, no matter how fun it looks!). The goal isn’t to replace professional support, but to carry over the learning at home, which will likely speed up the course of intervention and save a child from persisting frustration. The more opportunity for targeted, quality practice, the better!
Auditory bombardment: for children with a phonological processing disorder, where there are substitution or omission errors with a certain sound (i.e., saying “tow” for cow or “top” for stop), spending time with focused attention to hearing a sound in context over and over helps raise their own level of awareness of a sound. This is typically done in a formal way where a list of words all containing the target sound is read out loud: cow, cat, cake, keep, can, make, peak. However, it can also be encouraged informally when reading a book out loud.
Think of the target sound and refer to it by the sound or special nickname, rather than the letter: “Let’s listen for some words that have the /k/ sound” or “I heard the back sound” (/k/ is often referred to as a “back” sound in speech therapy since it’s made by placing the back of your tongue against your soft palate).
Point out a word in the story with this sound present: “I heard the ‘back sound’ in our story: cat, key, pick!”
Repeat the word 2-3 times with emphasis on the part where the target sound is
Make it a listening game: “Hmmm, did that have a back sound?”
Make sure to focus on the listening, rather than asking your child to repeat it back.
Word level activities: Some children are at the stage of progress where they can accurately produce their target sound in a word on its own, given some support. To practice a sound at the word level, follow these tips:
Pause at the end of a page and search for any words with the target sound
Say the word out loud and face your child for giving extra visual cues for pronunciation
Ask your child to repeat the word 2-3 times
For added difficulty, rather than providing the word to repeat, ask your child to label something in a picture or the story that you know contains their sound
Phrases and sentences: Some children are at the stage of progress where they can use their new sound in a whole phrase or sentence! Practice at this stage may involve:
Ask them to repeat a line from the story that contains their sound: “I heard your new sound! Let’s say it again: The CAT saw a SNAKE!”
If they can read independently, choose a sentence and ask them to read it out loud, with specific guidance for “remembering their new sound”
For added difficulty, ask your child to make up their own sentence about the story that has their new sound
Generalization: In the last stage before children have mastered their new sound and are able to spontaneously produce their new sound in all contexts, it’s helpful to have less structured practice. With books, this can look like prompting short conversations with specific instructions to think about using their new sound:
After finishing a page or the whole book, ask your child to tell it back in their own words
Prompt your child to make predictions on what might happen next
Have your child describe what they liked about the book
Ask them to make up their own alternative story ending
Focus on encouragement, not correction: point out and praise child for correct productions of a sound, rather than correcting any errors. Who doesn’t like a little praise to keep them motivated?! This will help reduce frustration and resistance. Plus, research shows that feedback must be specific to be effective. This is best to leave in the hands of a speech therapist.
Give your child a choice in how they practice: children already have so little autonomy on their day. Find small ways to give them a choice, especially when it comes to something that they might perceive as extra work. Ask them how they’d like to practice their sound: after each page? At the beginning or end of story time? Maybe their choice is to practice outside of reading that day, and that’s okay too.
Meet your child where they’re at: If they’re having trouble pronouncing a sound in isolation and appear frustrated, then they may need a little more guidance from a professional before diving into practice. Practice is all about accurate productions, so switch to a listening approach or pause if you’re noticing more errors than not.
For older kids who know the speech sound practice drill, let them take the reign! Ask them to show you how they practice in speech therapy.
And first and foremost, always follow the specific guidance from your child’s speech language therapist. You can always ask for a chance to practice techniques together so that you feel confident supporting your child following through with practice at home.
It’s hard enough as it is being a kid, let alone needing to work extra hard to achieve what may come easily to others. At the end of the day, it’s a huge accomplishment to build a new skill, and it should be acknowledged and celebrated at each stage. Kids should feel proud of their efforts!
And as for you parents out there, teachers, aids, or supporter in any way – give yourself some extra love for all the help you’ve given along the way. You may not hear it enough, but you are valued so deeply!