By Nancy R. Kaufman, MA, CCC-SLP
KCC Owner & Director / Speech-Language Pathologist

May is Better Speech and Hearing Month, and the 14th is Childhood Apraxia of Speech Awareness Day! In the spirit of helping children who struggle to speak, here are some best practices that parents should look for in children’s speech and language therapy.

MOTIVATION

Favorite toys and activities should be used in therapy and changed up often to keep children attentive, engaged and willing to perform structured tasks. In addition to some drills, there should also be time for play while working on target words and phrases. Therapy should be fun!

TARGET WORDS & PHRASES

Words chosen for therapy should be within the child’s capability: they should be able to produce most of the vowels and consonants within the words. The words should help them gain syllable shapes they haven’t yet mastered and to help them request and comment in their environment. SLPs should determine what the child’s best approximations would be for specific target words and continue to assist them toward perfection of these targets. [more]

Originally posted in Metro Parent. Click below to read the rest of this article on their website.