Regression is when someone or something goes back to its original state. In this instance, we are talking about a child’s loss of skills or a dip in progress. As a speech pathologist, I see this quite often. Kids tend to relax over the summer, go on vacation, play lots of video games and overall do less academic work. Parents often ask me, “what can I do to help my child’s language over the summer?” I have listed some of my suggestions below:

• Make sure to visit the library often! Set up a schedule with your child and try to make trips to the library exciting. Many libraries have summer reading programs but if your local library doesn’t, you can easily create a book list or set a goal to read a certain amount of books by the end of the summer. If the goal is reached, a prize or medal can be rewarded to your child to increase confidence and sense of accomplishment. Make sure you ask your child questions about the book to increase literacy skills, sequencing skills and reading comprehension skills.
• Stick to a schedule! Many children are given a lot of freedom during the summer but many kids need structure like the school day! Start each morning by discussing the plans for the day. If there is a lot of free time, make sure that “screen time” (video games, computer games, tv, movies) is kept to a minimum. Some children may also require a visual to help them understand the sequence of events throughout the day. The extra time you put into it as a parent could make a big difference come September!
• Make every outing a good one! Whether you are going to the grocery store or running errands, make sure you keep your kids talking! Ask lots of questions and encourage independence in your child! (ex: Johnny, where are the pears? Or Johnny can you grab the red shampoo? Find the lotion that says Jergens, what letter will that start with?)
• Make sure you ask your child’s teacher what else you can do to support your child during the summer and avoid regression!

Have a question? We’d love to hear from you! Contact us!

Speech therapists often use a Speech Sound Developmental Chart to allow them to see when sounds typically start developing. The F sound usually emerges in a child’s language around 2.5 years old. By age 4, this sound should be mastered. For the V sound, a child may start producing it around 4 and should have the sound mastered by 8. Why can the V take longer to master? This is most likely because it is a “voiced” sound (one where the vocal cords vibrate). Go ahead, you try! Produce the F and V sound and lightly touch your throat. Do you feel the vibrations when you produce the V sound? Good! If your child is above this age and still not appropriately producing these sounds, don’t panic! Here are a few tips to help your child articulate them correctly. Keep in mind, this is NOT in place of a speech therapy. Only speech therapists are trained to most efficiently correct anarticulation disorder.

I enjoy teaching the F and V sounds because placement of the teeth and mouth are visible for children to see! (Unlike other sounds including the R).

First, ask the child to easily bite down on their lower lip. Modeling this position for the child will better allow them to do it themselves. I also use a mirror so that the child can see what I’m doing as well as their own teeth and lip placement. Slowly blow air out to produce the F  and V sounds. Have your child try this as well. I often like to have children repeat the sounds (ex: Fa Fa Fa, or Va Va Va).

When your child can produce the sounds in isolation, then use words with F and V as initial sounds ONLY. Once your chid can produce these sounds in initial position, you can incorporate words that have F and V in medial position and final.

Ex: initial position: violin, fish, frog
medial position: beaver, laughing, severe
final position:  leave, leaf, brief

Second, auditory discrimination is important for these two letters. Have your child feel the vibrations your mouth makes when you produce the V. Have them place their hands or fingers on their throat just like you did in the beginning. Practice in front of the mirror both the F and the V so that they can not only hear the difference between the two sounds, but also feel the difference between both sounds when producing it.

Print out some materials online if available so that you can practice a variety of words with your child!

Have questions or comments? Please feel free to contact us!

by Viktorya Bukhman

I have to admit I sometimes dread when I get assigned children with completely different goals to be placed in a group together. It seems unethical, overwhelming, and on some days I feel that I ignore one child’s goals in order to target the specific needs of others. AND THAT FEELS TERRIBLE.

A couple of ideas I’ve used to ensure that everyone’s goals are targets, you keep track of the target goal for each child, keep everyone’s attention and have a good time, without frustration:

1)      Make sure you have the specific goals for each student.

a.       Lay out each IEP and compare goals. Sometimes they IEP may have some similar goals that are appropriate (i.e. pragmatic language, social skills, following directions). If the kids have a split mandate (receive both individual and group therapy), shared goals can be targeted in group and individual goals can be targeted in individual sessions.

2)      Keep track of goals and progress.

a.       Make a tracking sheet that works for you with target goals for each child.

b.      I like to use tracking sheets that refer to where you seat the kids. It allows me to take notes, make check marks, tally marks without having to look away from the group for very long. Here are the few samples of what I have been using:

Group of 2:                           Group of 3:                           Group of 4:

3)      Maintain everyone’s attention: 

a.       A major problem I have is keeping attention. When it’s not a child’s turn, his/her attention often wavers. To combat this I have used:

i.      The Superflex Super Hero from Social thinking by Stephanie Madrigal and Michelle Garcia Winner. They suggest to avoid the Brain Eater, who makes it hard for a student to focus and makes his brain “roll away” from the group, a student should turn their body and eyes towards the group, use fidget toys to keep the body busy and the brain focused, and notice when you are thinking about something else and try to get it refocused.

ii.      Help kids who have difficulty attending by giving them an important job. They can be in charge of making sure others answers are correct, giving out tokens, responsible for writing down what happened. This important job will make them feel good, and give them a concrete task to focus on.

4)      Have a good time!!!

a.       Group non-competitive games such as those made by http://www.superduperinc.com/ can target multiple goals within the same game board. These games are motivating because the kids can early token, there is no end so you can go around again and again, and they are easily modified to use any set of stimuli (artic cards, labeling picture cards, reading tasks). Here are a few of my favorites:

i.      Turtle talk http://www.superduperinc.com/products/view.aspx?pid=GB137&stid=

ii.      Go for the Dough http://www.superduperinc.com/products/view.aspx?pid=GB339

iii.      Make your own paint chip board http://thrillinglythrifty.blogspot.com/2010/08/toddler-friendly-board-game-using-paint.html

b.      Barrier Games can both be bought and made. They allow for children to both follow and give directions, understand and use prepositions and basic concepts, use longer utterances, increase vocabulary, and can be adapted for many other uses.

i.      A free resource for pictures that are great for barrier games is KizClub http://www.kizclub.com/stories.htm . This website has manipulative for most common stories that we read (i.e. Go Away Big Green Monster). I would suggest printing out as many sets as group members and give each student a role. Some students can give directives; other students can follow the directives (everyone should have similar looking pictures at the end). As a therapist you can monitor which child doesn’t understand the directive.

ii.      To make these easier the therapist can premake a scene and if needed can make directive cards with pictures and visual supports (ie put the fish next to the whale)

c.       Cooking Activities make great application of everything else we teach and the children are so excited for special cooking days. I worked with a teacher last year that had a special cooking day every week. The students voted what they wanted to make, and followed visual recipes (with the help of adults) to make delicious and special treats.

i.      http://visualrecipes.com/ has real pictures for some recipes (some can be tough to do in a therapy room) if you don’t have a hot plate or microwave.

ii.      http://www.speakingofspeech.com/Cooking_Materials.html These use boardmaker symbols with simple steps and have “no-cook” options.

iii.      http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/cooking-with-kids/making-food-fun-photo-gallery-848181/view-all/ playful recipes with photo of finished product.

iv.      Do the activity with kids who can read and don’t need visuals, take pictures of each step and use the pictures for students who do benefits from visuals.

v.      Cooking makes for great recap activities, sequencing of all necessary steps, and some kids can write up the recipe after looking at the pictures.

I hope this has been helpful, and that you will feel a bit more prepared when challenged with a group of kids that aren’t necessarily the best fit.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions please don’t hesitate to email me at viky@speechlanguageplay.com and visit me at www.speechlanguageplay.com

When I find apps that I cannot live without in therapy, I feel compelled to share them so that colleagues and parents can enjoy and use them as well! I was fortunate enough to discover Spinlight Studio Apps recently and have enjoyed using them in therapy. I have tried 4 apps from Spinlight listed below:

1. Tallytots: This is not your average counting app. With an array of colors, activities for each number and sing-a-longs, it is sure to keep children motivated and eager to learn their numbers. The constant repetition helps reinforce the numbers learned. Verbal reinforcement (through an adorable airplane) also adds to the fun!

2. Alphatots: You guessed it, for learning the alphabet! This app helps children learn the alphabet using 26 different interactive activities per letter which allows for them to associate the letter with a word/activity.

3. TableTots: By far one of the best apps I’ve found to use in therapy! This app allows you to have a virtual “table” and place objects such as numbers, letters, shapes and other objects (pictures, Dominos for counting, and even money). You can change colors, create puzzles and designs. My clients love it and always request it at the start of each session!

4. Swapsies: My favorite thing about this app is the adorable characters. Children have the opportunity to identify 10 occupations including police officer, baker, etc. Children can take quizzes so that you can see how much they have learned/remember from the activities.

Has anyone else tried these apps? Share with us on Speechbop!