Speech Therapy Ideas for Children

Speech therapy is used to treat people with speech and communication disorders or defects, especially children. A fluency disorder is when people hesitate, repeat or prolong words, syllables or phrases. An articulation disorder is when people use one sound for another or omit a sound from a word. A voice disorder is when someone uses wrong pitches or has a voice quality that is loud or harsh. Oral motor and articulation therapies can help.

Oral Motor Therapy

• Oral motor therapy exercises the muscles in the face, including those in the lips, tongue and jaws. Although many oral motor exercises--including sucking, blowing, biting and chewing gum--do not help directly with speech, they can help with children who are reticent about any type of oral movements. The goal is to use these exercises to gradually help individuals use small words and syllables such as "he," "me," "no" and "bye." This type of speech therapy can also help to correct mouth movements that cause them to speak incorrectly, and gives someone practice in using his facial muscles for a range of movements.

  You can practice some simple oral motor exercises at home. Some exercises that help with breath control and lip strength involve blowing through a straw or a harmonica. Another activity is an isometric exercise meant to strengthen the muscles by pushing against something. For this, you start by sticking out your tongue and placing a tongue depressor on the tip of your tongue. Next, push your tongue against the object. Do this six to eight times. Next, place the tongue depressor on the right side of your mouth and push against it, trying to move it to the center of your mouth with the side of your tongue. After that, switch to the left side of your mouth and do the same.

  For one jaw exercise, open your mouth and have someone hold your lower jaw open. Attempt to close your mouth using your jaw muscles, doing this exercise three to five times. Next try the exercise in reverse, starting with your mouth closed and someone's hand under your chin. Attempt to use your jaw muscles to open your mouth.

Articulation Therapy

• Articulation therapy helps with sound production. During these exercises, it is important that people, especially children, learn how to use their mouths and tongues to make certain sounds, such as the "s" and "r." Usually people, especially those with more severe speech disorders, gradually move up to these exercises, starting with oral motor therapy. Although these are often done with a speech therapist, there are exercises that you can practice at home to improve you articulation of words and sounds. Verbal cues teach where you'll need to place your tongue and mouth to make sounds, Visual cues are when you learn by watching someone else talk or by watching yourself in the mirror. Tactile cues are a kinetic activity, such as moving your hand down your arm while you are practicing articulation of words or phrases.

  When you are doing articulation therapy, start with syllables and work your way up to words and phrases. For the first week, practice syllables that you have difficultly with, such as "s," by saying it about 10 times, two times a day. For the next few weeks, work on putting the syllables into small words, such as "dress." Practice words that have this syllable in different positions, such as at the beginning, middle and end of the words. Work up to using about 10 to 20 words with certain syllables at the beginning, middle and end of them, moving on to new ones once you have mastered a group of words. It may help to watch yourself in the mirror when you are saying these words or get someone else to say them, so you get a sense of facial movements needed to produce sounds. Work up to using words you have been learning in sentences, either using them together or separately.