Let's Talk Tuesday is a bi-weekly series with ideas on how you can promote healthy speech development for your children (of any ability), but especially those with Apraxia, Autism, speech disorders or late talkers. I am not a speech therapist, but I am a mom of an Apraxic child. I share these ideas in hopes that they will help someone else.
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At most of our speech therapy appointments throughout our years, the speech therapists give us 'homework'. I'm 100% grateful for this homework they give us because it helps me to understand better where Paige is & I trust the therapist to know that they know the proper order of language for kids.
I take working with Paige at home very seriously. Even though I'm not educated in speech therapy, I think working at home (for us) is just as important as the actual speech therapy sessions.
A few months back we started speech therapy with a new, awesome therapist. One of Paige's first words she was then assigned was 'up'.
Paige rocked this word. I think having just one word to focus on this time was beneficial for her. Even over a month later, she still says it correctly 99% of the time.
For this week, we did lots of simple activities to encourage the word 'up':
-We would say "up" with every step up the stairs we took that week.
-We read books like Great Day for Up (Dr. Seuss), Go, Dog. Go! (P.D. Eastman) and Ten Apples Up On Top! (Dr. Seuss) to encourage her to say the word 'up' more often. They all have the word 'up' mentioned several times throughout the book.
-Lastly, I made some printables (below) & practiced writing it. I would refer to this paper throughout the week (several times a day) and ask her what the word of the week is.
On the blank page, the child can draw what that word means to them. Depending on the word, maybe they can search through a magazine & find pictures to cut out & paste or tape onto this page that represent the word of the week.
On the lined side, the child can practice writing that word.
I printed our printables at Walgreens (as an 8x10 photo) & put them in a sheet protector on the fridge so we could reuse it & refer to it often.
I made a few different colors so you could pick one that your child would like more. You're welcome to print these for personal use. Just right click on the image & you should be able to print it or save it. If you need me to email you these pictures, just shoot me an email asking for them (michelle at trustmeimamom dot com).
I hope they help you & your children as much as they help us!
Other ideas you can do to work on the word "up" -
- Watch the movie UP
- Play ball with your child. Remind them to say up & see how high you can throw it when they tell you the 'magic word'. This can also be done with water balloons in the summer, leaves in the autumn, snow in the winter & leaf petals in the spring.
- Build a tower with blocks, nesting cups or boxes. Each time your child says up, they can have a block to add to the top of the tower.
Maybe you can help us... what are some other ways we can practice the word "up"?
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