When first beginning speech therapy, it is important to have realistic expectations of your child’s abilities. It is similar to climbing a mountain. Slow and steady wins the race. Do not expect your child to use a new speech sound right away in conversation – typically children will begin by using the sound in isolation/syllables, and later by incorporating the sound within words and phrases. The final stage is called carryover, whereby the child uses their new sound(s) in most contexts and situations. Parents can support success by providing their children with a relaxed environment and continued home practice throughout the duration of speech therapy.
Improving Skills via Corrective Feedback
Practicing the following tips will help to provide your child with a clear model and useful feedback in all speaking situations:
- Use stress to model the correct articulation of a sound produced incorrectly. For example, if your child says, “I tee a rabbit”, casually say, “I see a rabbit”. Repeat the word multiple times and in different speaking situations.
- Avoid being overly critical or corrective. Aim to increase communication with your child and initiate further conversation.
- Try and limit the amount of time you correct your child’s sounds. It requires a lot of cognitive effort to change a speaking pattern, and children have difficulty monitoring and correcting their sounds all their waking hours. It is ok to have breaks and down time!
- Focus on correcting only one error/sound at a time. Doing so will allow your child to concentrate on fixing their error until they display consistent production of the correct forms.
- Continue reading aloud to your child, exposing them to new vocabulary and clear articulation. Alternatively, you could look at picture books together, using them as a conversational activity.