Speech and Articulation Round Up

Do you have or work with a child with speech and articulation issues?

I can say "yes" on both accounts, and, even though I have no formal training in speech therapy, as I as I teach and tutor, I find myself borrowing ideas from past SLP's my children have worked with, resources we own, and things I have found online.

I also find myself regularly sharing resources and links for speech/articulation issues with friends and students' parents who want to DIY some speech therapy or just understand things better before seeking professional help.

In fact, this happened again today, and so as I collected resources to shar with a friend, I thought I would share them here, too.

I hope that in doing so I can help you and yours.

I also would LOVE for you to share back with a comment that includes speech links and ideas you've found helpful.

Here are my go-to's:

1. Nobody Ever Told Me (or my Mother) That!: Everything from Bottles and Breathing to Healthy Speech Development

My absolute favorite speech-related resource which I have lent out and recommended so many times is Nobody Ever Told Me (or my Mother) That!: Everything from Bottles and Breathing to Healthy Speech Development. It is clearly written and so easy to use with different ages and stages of development. 

I find the speech sound age chart in it to be super helpful, too.

2. Mommy Speech Therapy

Another articulation age chart I often recommend is the printable Speech Sound Development one at Mommy Speech Therapy which has ages for initial, medial, and final sounds.

Then, I suggest parents poke around at Mommy Speech Therapy, taking in the massive amount of help and guidance that is there, and, in particular, the free downloads, including Articulation and Phonology Forms and articulation helps for specific sounds.

I cannot say enough how fabulous Mommy Speech Therapy is and encourage you to spend some time diving in there to learn more about the process of therapy and to find tools for helping your own child or the children you work with.

3. Helpful (and Quick) Reads

You might also look at this quick read to help yourself understand the difference between articulation and phonological disorders and, then, go to this one to get a quick overview of how to do speech therapy at home and this one to understand basic strategies for visual, verbal, and tactile models.

4. Free Printables

Should you then decide to DIY things, Testy Yet Trying offers a library of free printable speech articulation materials as does Speech and Language Kids and Heather's Speech Therapy. I often find myself recommending specific sheets from these three sites, as well as Mommy Speech Therapy, to others.

Speech Sounds at Cochlear.com is another resource I recommend as it is easy to understand and apply and quite complete for a free download. Home-Speech-Home  also has some helpful free resources.

5. YouTube

Of course, Youtube is a bevvy of help for those who prefer visual-audio models. and, there, I find myself recommending Peachie Speechie and Speedy Speech.

6. Digging Deeper

Finally (for now) once you get some understanding under your belt, you might dive into Speechlanguage-Resources.com, which tends not to be as user/ layman-friendly as Mommy Speech Therapy and similar resources, but it still quite helpful. For example, their Sounds to Graphemes free download is chock-full of information to help you help children, but it takes a bit to get through digesting it.

7. Specific Searches

Additionally, of course, search engines are your friend.

As you work with a child and browse the above resources, note key trouble areas and terms related to your specific child, then search them.

For example, today, I did a search of "minimal pairs" and "short /i/ and /e/" and was able to quickly find this printable help, this online one, and this combo of a video with printable link in comments.

I would love to hear what some of your favorite speech and articulation finds are, too. Please share in a comment!