Effective Teaching Resources and Strategies
Strategies
1. Foster a warm, supportive environment in which the student will feel accepted and encouraged to speak and respond to others. In order to achieve such an environment, other students or family members may benefit from education about speech problems. Such education may make them less likely to ridicule or become frustrated with the student with articulation difficulties.
2. Provide listening activities that build awareness of sounds. For instance, read a list of words and ask the student to clap every time he or she hears a certain sound. Specific problem sounds can be targeted this way.
3. Utilize rhymes, riddles and activities involving locating objects/pictures that begin with the sounds.
4. Take time to listen to the student and try to understand what is being said, even if it is difficult.
5. Modify a board game for young children by requiring child to produce a target sound in isolation following a model in order to move the game piece.
6. Provide ample opportunities in communicating. Make language purposeful, meaningful, and enjoyable for the student.
7. Consistently model appropriate language use for the student and encourage imitation. Reinforce all of the student’s attempts. For many students, an appropriate response to their attempts at language may be the only reinforcement needed, as this signifies that they are successfully communicating and interacting socially.
8. Avoid drawing attention to or correcting errors the student makes. Instead, provide clear, distinct models in reply.
9. When needed, provide forced alternatives (e.g., “Would you like _____ or _____?”) so that the student can imitate appropriate responses.
10. The focus should be kept off behaviors as much as possible if behavioral problems result from the student’s frustration with challenges in communication. Instead, energy should be channeled into aiding the student in building language competencies, which should help to eliminate the need for behavioral outbursts.
11. Encourage the child to communicate in any way possible. Actions and gestures will develop to words and phrases with proper assistance.
Activities
Phonics Games
Phonics games can help children improve the articulation of specific sounds, like r, s, l and others that may present problems. Games like matching pictures of words that rhyme or start and end with a certain sound can help promote awareness of the sequence of sounds in a word. Have students practice phonics by giving them worksheets or allowing access to a phonics computer game. A phonics game may omit a sound or word, and the student needs to match the correct letter or sound to the picture. This can help children with articulation problems learn to sound out the word correctly and visualize the object.
I Spy
Play "I Spy" using a specific sound and name objects in the classroom, around the school or around the neighborhood. Make sure that the game targets specific sounds, like objects that end in "p" or "t."
Tongue Twisters
Practice tongue twisters or phrases that are designed to be difficult to articulate well. Some tongue twisters can help children learn how to articulate words properly. Reading books like "Fox in Socks" by Dr. Seuss provides rhyming tongue twisters that can be helpful in learning pronunciation and articulation.
Practice Phone Call
Break students into pairs or small groups and have them pretend to make a phone call using a script that emphasizes the letters which are difficult for each child.
Storybooks
Read stories aloud and write down words that the child is having difficult with in order to review them later. Make sure that the child knows the meaning of the word and each letter in the word during the review process. Reading aloud can help students verbalize the speech. After reading the story, talk with them about the story to encourage thinking aloud.
Flash Cards
Make a collection of photo flash cards by printing out well-known items on card stock. Put items in the card stack that start with difficult sounds you have been working on with your students. For example, if you are working on the "sh" sound, have a shark card. Have the students raise their hands to identify the items. Split the students into teams. The winning team gets a prize.
Repetition
A great alternative to regular word repetition is a story repetition game. Make up a story. Place sounds you are working on in the story. Say each line to the children and then have them say it back to you. The children will be focused on the plot of the story and will not realize they are practicing the same sounds over and again.
Simon Says
Some speech problems involve action verbs. Play a game of Simon Says with the class. If needed make a Simon Says guide with the actions depicted on the board. After giving the action "Simon says tie your shoes", point to the words "Simon Says" and then the photo/drawing of the action.
Hangman
Create a hangman game by laminating the traditional hangman drawing in a large format. Laminate the letters of the alphabet along with letter combinations that represent sounds: ch, sh, th, ck. Play hangman with words that contain the sounds you are learning. Instead of the students guessing random letters, say a syllable of the word. The children pick up the card for the coordinating sound and stick it to the hangman board. For chimney, the students would match up the cards ch, i, m, n, ey. If they are incorrect, you will draw part of the hangman.
Resources
Read more: Classroom Activities for Children With Articulation Problems | eHow.com
Language Difficulties in the Classroom. http://www.halton.gov.uk/schintranet/specialneeds/langdiff.htm:
Language Difficulties in School. www.ican.org.uk/pdf/profs3.PDF:
1. Foster a warm, supportive environment in which the student will feel accepted and encouraged to speak and respond to others. In order to achieve such an environment, other students or family members may benefit from education about speech problems. Such education may make them less likely to ridicule or become frustrated with the student with articulation difficulties.
2. Provide listening activities that build awareness of sounds. For instance, read a list of words and ask the student to clap every time he or she hears a certain sound. Specific problem sounds can be targeted this way.
3. Utilize rhymes, riddles and activities involving locating objects/pictures that begin with the sounds.
4. Take time to listen to the student and try to understand what is being said, even if it is difficult.
5. Modify a board game for young children by requiring child to produce a target sound in isolation following a model in order to move the game piece.
6. Provide ample opportunities in communicating. Make language purposeful, meaningful, and enjoyable for the student.
7. Consistently model appropriate language use for the student and encourage imitation. Reinforce all of the student’s attempts. For many students, an appropriate response to their attempts at language may be the only reinforcement needed, as this signifies that they are successfully communicating and interacting socially.
8. Avoid drawing attention to or correcting errors the student makes. Instead, provide clear, distinct models in reply.
9. When needed, provide forced alternatives (e.g., “Would you like _____ or _____?”) so that the student can imitate appropriate responses.
10. The focus should be kept off behaviors as much as possible if behavioral problems result from the student’s frustration with challenges in communication. Instead, energy should be channeled into aiding the student in building language competencies, which should help to eliminate the need for behavioral outbursts.
11. Encourage the child to communicate in any way possible. Actions and gestures will develop to words and phrases with proper assistance.
Activities
Phonics Games
Phonics games can help children improve the articulation of specific sounds, like r, s, l and others that may present problems. Games like matching pictures of words that rhyme or start and end with a certain sound can help promote awareness of the sequence of sounds in a word. Have students practice phonics by giving them worksheets or allowing access to a phonics computer game. A phonics game may omit a sound or word, and the student needs to match the correct letter or sound to the picture. This can help children with articulation problems learn to sound out the word correctly and visualize the object.
I Spy
Play "I Spy" using a specific sound and name objects in the classroom, around the school or around the neighborhood. Make sure that the game targets specific sounds, like objects that end in "p" or "t."
Tongue Twisters
Practice tongue twisters or phrases that are designed to be difficult to articulate well. Some tongue twisters can help children learn how to articulate words properly. Reading books like "Fox in Socks" by Dr. Seuss provides rhyming tongue twisters that can be helpful in learning pronunciation and articulation.
Practice Phone Call
Break students into pairs or small groups and have them pretend to make a phone call using a script that emphasizes the letters which are difficult for each child.
Storybooks
Read stories aloud and write down words that the child is having difficult with in order to review them later. Make sure that the child knows the meaning of the word and each letter in the word during the review process. Reading aloud can help students verbalize the speech. After reading the story, talk with them about the story to encourage thinking aloud.
Flash Cards
Make a collection of photo flash cards by printing out well-known items on card stock. Put items in the card stack that start with difficult sounds you have been working on with your students. For example, if you are working on the "sh" sound, have a shark card. Have the students raise their hands to identify the items. Split the students into teams. The winning team gets a prize.
Repetition
A great alternative to regular word repetition is a story repetition game. Make up a story. Place sounds you are working on in the story. Say each line to the children and then have them say it back to you. The children will be focused on the plot of the story and will not realize they are practicing the same sounds over and again.
Simon Says
Some speech problems involve action verbs. Play a game of Simon Says with the class. If needed make a Simon Says guide with the actions depicted on the board. After giving the action "Simon says tie your shoes", point to the words "Simon Says" and then the photo/drawing of the action.
Hangman
Create a hangman game by laminating the traditional hangman drawing in a large format. Laminate the letters of the alphabet along with letter combinations that represent sounds: ch, sh, th, ck. Play hangman with words that contain the sounds you are learning. Instead of the students guessing random letters, say a syllable of the word. The children pick up the card for the coordinating sound and stick it to the hangman board. For chimney, the students would match up the cards ch, i, m, n, ey. If they are incorrect, you will draw part of the hangman.
Resources
Read more: Classroom Activities for Children With Articulation Problems | eHow.com
Language Difficulties in the Classroom. http://www.halton.gov.uk/schintranet/specialneeds/langdiff.htm:
Language Difficulties in School. www.ican.org.uk/pdf/profs3.PDF: