Tips for Articulation Practice at Home

Parents, I totally get that feeling. You listen to your toddler or kindergartener say a garbled up sentence to you and have to reply “…What?!” or “can you say that again?” or eventually “uh huh…” (as you push the stroller a bit faster to make it back home to get dinner in the oven). When your toddler is talking and REALLY quickly, it can be difficult to understand what they are trying to say! Here are some interesting facts about intelligibility in young children:

One study showed that a child is expected to be understandable in their speech production TO THEIR PARENTS (not to an unfamiliar listener!)

-50% of the time by age 2

-75% of the time by age 3

-nearly 100% of the time by age 4

IF your child is completely or rarely understandable to you by age 2-3-4, it may be time to get a speech and language evaluation done by an SLP. If you only occasionally have difficulty understanding your child (we all do here and there!) here are some tips and tricks to assist them with their speech production.

-when you see a picture of an item, over exaggerate the sounds in the word. For example, I know my son is working on the /s/ sound and s-blends. When I see a picture of a snake, or a snake at the zoo, I say “WOW! Look at the sssss-nake! Let’s make the snake sound together! “SSSSSSS”

-model (don’t correct) the correct production of a word. If your child says “I want the wabbit one”, the parent can say, “Yes I will get you the RRRRabit”

-have your child play with some of these sounds to see if they are stimulable (able to make) this sound. For example, my newly turned three year old is not yet making a clear /r/ sound. Sometimes when we are playing I will ask him “Can you be a pirate? Do you know what pirates say?” and I model a clear “ARRRRRRR”. He will often imitate me and attempt to be a pirate as well!

If you have any questions, as always feel free to reach out!

• Brittany