Free speech therapy resources for parents of toddlers with speech delay or speech disorders. These resources are all related to toddler speech (aka pronunciation) to stick with our summer of speech theme.
Finding a Great Speech Therapist
When in comes to treating speech there really is nothing better than working with a speech therapist 1:1. A speech therapist's trained ear will be able to identify what is making it hard for your little one to talk and how to best help them. Answering these questions will help you see the greatest progress. The next 4 free resources will help you with getting started with an amazing speech therapist!
State Early Intervention Programs
Finding the right strategies for your child can truly make all the difference which is why my first resources all have to do with finding an amazing SLP. If you haven't seen my post about finding a speech therapist near you, this is my reminder that you can access early intervention speech therapy for free through your state’s Early Intervention Program (in the United States).
Apraxia Kids
Treating apraxia is different than treating other speech disorders and finding a trained speech therapist can make all the difference in your child’s speech outcomes. Apraxia Kids has a great tool to find an apraxia specialized speech language pathologist near you. Also check out their resources for parents who are new to apraxia. They have TONS of resources to help you understand apraxia and how the speech therapy process works. And their community tab is an excellent place to find other parents going through the same journey.
Find a PROMPT SLP
PROMPT is a tactile-kinesthetic (touch and feel) approach to teaching children with speech sound disorders new sounds and sound patterns. I have seen especially positive outcomes for children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech who work with PROMPT trained speech therapists. When speech therapists use PROMPT they touch a child’s face to show them how to move their mouth to make the sounds which is often more effective in the early stages of therapy than a child trying to copy you on their own. I don’t believe that PROMPT is the be all end all of speech therapy, but my experience suggests that PROMPT techniques can be a powerful tool in the speech therapy toolbox.
Hearing Testimonials
Having your child's hearing tested is part of the processes for getting started in speech therapy. And a hearing evaluation with an audiologist is the gold standard for children with speech concerns. “Why?” you might be wondering. Before investing your time in speech therapy to learn to say the sounds, it is very important to check that your child is able to hear all the sounds. If your child can’t hear a specific sound it will be nearly impossible for them to copy the sound you’ve made no matter how much speech therapy they attend. If you are wondering how on earth someone is going to effectively test your child’s hearing, I love audiologist Dr. Michelle Hu’s free download – you can get a copy here.
Practicing At Home
Now that we’ve talked about how to find a great speech therapist, I know you really curious about what you can do at home to start practicing. The next group of resources are all ones that you can use to guide your at home speech practice activities.
Baby Sign Language Dictionary
This isn’t going to teach your child speech exactly, but baby sign language is a great communication tool to work towards clearer communication. If children are understanding things but having a hard time saying the words, giving them a way to express themselves while their speech develops is a great way to empower them and reduce their frustration. Creating a communication system they can use is often an early goal in speech therapy, even before working on pronunciation.
Home Speech Home
You’ll find word lists and speech therapy activities here. I’ve included this because it can be hard to think of words to practice at home sometimes. But keep in mind that this resource is for children of all ages and many of the activities are geared towards preschool and elementary school students. ** When you are practicing at home with your little one refer to our speech sounds by age post to be sure you’re not practicing with sounds (or words) that may be too advanced for your little one. You can also use the Home Speech Home word lists to come up with words for our final consonants activity.
Speak Easy
Teaching the F & V sounds F and V are common sounds treated in speech therapy. They is made by putting your top teeth and bottom lips together as air flows out your mouth. SLP Kyla Ettinger gives a brief breakdown of how children pronounce the F sound and how you can teach the F sound at home. I wanted to include this resource because she talks about a few really important things. First she reminds us that oral motor exercises, like just biting your lip or blowing without making sounds, are not going to help your child learn new words. Unfortunately there are some companies that try to sell speech therapy “tools” for these non-speech exercises; they a complete scam as no research supports oral motor activities for speech. Second, she points out that working on consonant clusters (when 2 consonant sounds are next to each other in a word) is harder than working on individual consonant sounds in words. So when you start teaching a sound, pick words that don't have consonant clusters. And third, if your child speaks 2 or more languages the time that they acquire different sounds may vary. Although there may be some variability at a younger age, researchers have found that across 27 languages children were producing over 90% of all consonants correctly. Kyla also shares F and V word lists which you can use to help brainstorm words to focus on when you practiced at home!
Mommy Speech Therapy Free Downloads
On this page you’ll find tons of sound lists at the bottom of the page. This can be really helpful if you’re stuck trying to think of words to practice at home. But again, reference our speech sounds by age post to choose the best words for your child. Working on words that are too hard for them right now can lead to frustration and your little one may start coming up with clever (or just super effective ways) to avoid practicing speech. This page also shares the process of articulation therapy (under Articulation & Phonology Forms) which explains one (of many) articulation therapy techniques and it may be interesting for you to read through. I would just add that before starting with the steps mentioned in her process it is always important to start with sound discrimination – Can your child hear the difference between the sounds that they are making errors on? Remember that a hearing evaluation with an audiologist is the gold standard. You’ll want to be 100% sure that your child can hear all the sounds before you start teaching the sounds to them.
##Free speech therapy resources for parents of toddlers with speech delay or speech disorders. These resources are all related to toddler speech (aka pronunciation) to stick with our summer of speech theme. I hope you find these resources helpful in supporting your child's communication development.
