Articulation Made Fun! {1000 Likes Celebration Day 5}

Day 5 of 1000 Likes Celebration Week!! Thank you so much for your love and support throughout this blogging adventure and this week!  I hope you're enjoying your "SWEET" treats this week!!   Thanks to Carly from Happily SLP for writing a post today about articulation! 

Yesterday's winners- Candace W. won Fluency Tools, and Carly F. won Mega Fluency Binder! Congrats, ladies!  You will get an email by the end of the week! 

Hello, my name is Carly, and I just completed my CFY in rural Nebraska.  I am so excited to be guest blogger for Carissa at Home Sweet Speech Room. Carissa was kind enough to ask me to talk a little bit about articulation therapy. Articulation can get very repetitive and dare I say, boring?!?!?  Kidding aside, I really enjoy articulation therapy because of all the many activities you can do with your students.

Articulation never looks the same in my speech room, and I like keep the students active and engaged during therapy, so I try to have many ideas and games at my disposal. I always take the time to go over speech goals with my students, so they know what sound(s) they are working on, and understand what level they are at and what they are working towards. I have made a “Stair Steps to Good Speech” worksheet available in my newly opened  Teachers Pay Teachers (tpt) store, it is a freebie made just for this post (click here to download it now).

Another way to keep students accountable for their speech goals is to have them graph their accuracy. I give students pieces of graph paper to record accuracy levels on a regular basis. This is great to incorporate math skills into speech therapy. Students are able to see progress they made and when they are ready to move up the stair case of articulation levels.

Since accountability encourages students’ success, I  have my students tell me how they make the sound. For example, how do their articulations act (is their tongue up, do their lips go together, where their teeth are at), are their voices on or off, what are the brother sounds. I use this for students that are just beginning speech therapy and if they are able to do so (think about their speech and language abilities before using this strategy).  I find that if students can review how to make the sounds they are able to better produce the sound.

My go to articulation materials are my drill cards. Whether they are brand name, Teachers Pay Teachers materials, or homemade you can do a lot with these. Target dollar spot is another place to find flash cards, any of the phonic or alphabet cards have pictures to help elicit speech sounds. Also, I like mommyspeechtherapy.com for quick print off words and worksheets.  Another great resource is the book: 40,000 Select Words by Blockcolsky, Fraizer and Frazer you can purchase it here. I use a mixture of materials to keep the words novel and interesting for my students.

Something else I try to do in my articulation sessions is incorporating language activities. Scheduling doesn’t allow for separate groups or one-on-one sessions; often, I have mixed speech groups where I have students with speech goals, others with language goals, and some with both speech and language goals. Extra language practice is a positive to target language goals, challenge students, and since I was traveling a lot last year it cut down materials I needed to pack.

Now, that you have an idea of what I use in my articulation sessions and what I expect from my students, I have compiled a list of various activities I use in my speech room. I have included activities to keep students engaged and active for students who just can’t sit still or need to get energy out. I also have listed activities for creative/artistic students and activities for mixed speech groups.

25 Fun Articulation Session Ideas

1)      Print two copies of tpt articulation cards or an articulation card deck to play go fish.  This is great for the word level up to the sentence level. Also for any students working on /g/ or “sh” because there are many repetitions of the phrase “Go Fish”.

2)      You can also use target articulation cards to play memory match .

3)      Articulation Race is another fun activity I like to do with my students. I place cards into four corners of the gym and tell them to run to a corner and run back to me to practice their sounds.

4)      Toss/bounce a ball back and forth while saying sound.  Another great activity to keep the students active and engaged. Make sure to have ground rules before doing this activity otherwise things can get out of hand. I have several light-up balls that are the students’ favorite.

5)      Build a puzzle. Either have a set number of sounds to say before racing to put a puzzle together or give a puzzle piece after the student says each sound.

6)      Place each card into a group/category after practicing the sound. This could be used at the phrase or sentence level (e.g. “A kangaroo is an animal”). This is great for mixed speech groups.

7)      Track the number of words, phrases or sentences the student can produce in a speech session. This can be done with a clicker/counter. Have the student try to beat their record each time they practice using the best speech sounds they can.

8)      Read a book together. Alternate sentences or paragraphs. Even my middle school students enjoy this one. If you want to send homework have the student write down words with their sound they encounter or encourage them to read more to a speech homework helper and write those words down.

9)       Describe words with their sound in them to the student. Have them guess what the word is. This is another great activity for mixed speech groups and students can take turns describing each other’s words.

10)   Another great mixed group activity is having students name 2-3 words in a category that have their sound. For /s/ students working at the sentence level they can name things that are sweet, sour or salty (e.g. Pretzels are salty but suckers are sweet).

11)  For students working on /r/ have them name something that is brown, purple, orange, red, or green and have the student to tell you its color.

12)  I have so many students that love to color. I try to have coloring sheets available or copies of Webber’s Jumbo Articulation Drill pages when students ask to color. I have my students practice their sounds a certain number of times while other students are coloring and then they alternate between coloring and practicing.

13)   During holidays, I try to have a craft available for students to complete. I do this several ways with articulation students. They either practice sounds at the level they are working on a certain number of times before completing a step to the project or I have the students glue articulation pictures on their project or write articulation sounds on them. I have a bunch of Webber Jumbo Articulation Drill pages cut and sorted into sounds.

14)   Have students string beads as they practice target words.

15)  Play tic-tac-toe using target words.

16)  Have students play hangman with their target words. If you don’t feel like they are getting enough practice in, have them practice articulation words 3-5 times before guessing a letter.

17)   After a student practices a word have them give an antonym, synonym or definition of the word. Another good activity for mixed groups.

18)   Play games in speech! There are so many that can be easily adapted to fit speech goals. Just have the student practice their sounds before taking their turn.

19)   Use Webber Jumbo Articulation Drill pages or MommySpeechTherapy worksheets as bingo cards. Have an extra copy to cut up and use as call cards.

20)   Build a face, snowman, block tower or Lego creation as students practice their sounds.

21)  Have the students build their own sound book. If you have old magazines they can cut out pictures with their sound and glue into a notebook. Another way is to have students look up images on a search engine and copy and paste to a word document or PowerPoint. I have made mini sound books for younger students as well. Students are excited to take these home and share them with their family (also, it encourages them to share as speech homework).

22)   Have the students practice their words using silly voices (just make sure they don’t strain or hurt their voices)

23)   Go on a scavenger hunt for speech cards around the room. This can be also done in the dark with a flashlight.

24)   Have the students draw pictures of their speech sounds. Encourage them to draw as many as they can. This is also another easy speech homework activity.

25)   Build a story is a popular game for my students working at the sentence level or carry over. This can be done in a group or one-on-one. To play I have a ball or stuffed animal to toss around as each person builds a story. I have students that are working at the conversational level say 3-5 sentences of a story before passing the item to the next person. My students have wild imaginations and the stories never come out how you would expect them to. This is another wonderful activity for mixed groups as it helps build narratives and language organization process.

I hope these activities keep your speech sessions fun and I would love to hear any activities you use in your speech room. You can comment or connect with me at: www.facebook.com/HappilySLP.

Thanks so much to Carly for a fabulous post!! You have a TON of ideas for this school year now. Yay!! 

Now for an amazing giveaway from Nicole at Speech Peeps.  I know I say that every time....but I truly mean it.  These bloggers create amazing products, and Nicole is no exception.  She is giving away one copy of her Articulation for Reading and Conversation Speech Therapy Intervention packet!  Check out a full description and more pictures here.  Enter the rafflecopter below for a chance to win. 

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