• I have had excellent success with the Kaufman program. This program is aimed at children who can copy some sounds correctly. http://www.kidspeech.com/

• The Nuffield program: http://www.ndp3.org/ is excellent for helping children increase and develop the number of sounds that they can copy correctly. This would be a better place to start if your child has true apraxia (which literally means no speech sounds)

• Ask around at your local play groups and preschools to hear about local SLPs who have a good reputation for treating apraxia. They may use one of the above programs or a program of their own that has worked well for them.

• The Apraxia-kids website recommends the following software in the resources section of their website: http://www.apraxia-kids.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=chKMI0PIIsE&b=788467&ct=464321

• There is some evidence that using another form of communication, such as sign language, picture communication or a voice output computer system might help to improve children’s articulation skills. However, more research is needed. In the meantime, it can reduce stress if the child is able to use these methods to communicate in the short term, until his speech improves.

• The Speech-EZ program has been recommended by some therapists. http://www.speech-ez.com/

Related Reading about Apraxia:

• Can You Cure My Child’s Apraxia of Speech?
• My Child Has Been Diagnosed With Apraxia. How Can I Improve My Child’s Success? I Want Him To Learn To Speak Clearly.
• I Want To Find a Cure For My Child’s Apraxia Of Speech. What Programs Do You Recommend?

There are many things that you can do to optimize your child’s chances of improving. After more than a decade of treating clients with apraxia and dyspraxia, I have noticed that some types of parents have children who improve quickly, even if the delay is quite severe. If possible, do the following:

• Notice the apraxia early and get it treated early (preferably by three years of age) by a qualified Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP).

• Get involved in your child’s therapy program. Ask your SLP if you can sit at the table with your child and try to play the games the way the SLP does. Ask for home programs and practice worksheets.

• Invest in some games that your child loves (like Pop Up Pirate). Put the game in the cupboard and only pull it out for speech practice.

• Read to your child and foster a love of reading. Let him sign out books from the library on topics that he is interested in.

In addition, I noticed that there are certain children with apraxia who improve more quickly than others. The characteristics of a child whose speech improves quickly include:

• An outgoing child with good self esteem, who is willing to try and make mistakes and try again. Make sure to find some interests and activities that your child can succeed at. Praise him for attempts, not just perfection.

• A child with good receptive language (understanding) has better outcomes for articulation as well. If your child has low receptive language scores, ask your Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) how you can support his receptive language improvement as well.

• A healthy child. Of course, you can’t always control the child’s health. But you can provide good nutrition, rest and medical care.

• Typical attention span. If this is a concern, ask your SLP or Occupational therapist (OT) for ideas to improve attention span.

• Imitation skills. Even if your child cannot yet copy sounds or words, you can improve imitation skills by working on actions, signs, gestures and fun noises like animal sounds or vehicle sounds.

  Related Reading about Apraxia:

  • Can You Cure My Child’s Apraxia of Speech?
  • My Child Has Been Diagnosed With Apraxia. How Can I Improve My Child’s Success? I Want Him To Learn To Speak Clearly.
  • I Want To Find a Cure For My Child’s Apraxia Of Speech. What Programs Do You Recommend?

My Baby Can Read Program: From a speech-language pathologist’s point of view, is this program useful?

Yes, if your goal is to teach your baby to read early, then I think that you can accomplish your goal with the My Baby Can Read program. It appears to be effective and interesting to babies. It can keep their interest and attention.

See this link for a review: http://www.theopinionatedparent.com/2007/04/13/my-baby-can-read/

However, I have some concerns: If you do this program, you are using up valuable time and energy to teach what is basically a splinter skill – almost a “human trick”. From an SLP perspective, the most important life skill is communication, not impressing others with early learned skills.

Instead, an SLP would concentrate on teaching social skills at this age, like taking turns passing a ball back and forth, making funny sounds and faces, labeling things the child is interested in, and looking at a caregiver’s face for shared enjoyment. Most learning happens just by watching the caregiver while he/ she goes about her business and talks to the baby, involving the baby where possible. If your baby has already mastered these social skills, then there would be no concern with adding reading. If your child doesn’t have social skills, or isn’t strong in her ability to connect to important adults in her life, then it would be better to concentrate on teaching these skills. If social skills are missed in babyhood, it’s possible that the child will not learn how to trust and connect to people, and that is a harder one to catch up on later.

What would be the benefit of learning to read as a baby?

A whole world opens up when a child learns to read. Literacy is like a key to open an amazing number of doors to worlds and experiences that would not be possible without it. If the child learns to love books at any early age, and experiences the success of learning to read as a baby could be life changing.

photo: chad_k

Is it helpful over the long term, to teach my baby to read now? Am I missing out on an important opportunity for my baby if I don’t teach him to read now?

It could be helpful to teach your baby to read. But most research on early reading shows that children with a good literacy foundation will learn to read and will probably catch up to their friends who learned to read as babies. A good foundation to give your baby now is reading to him, singing to him, exposing him to music, and exposing him to a variety of stimulating environments.

Speech therapy games and materials for Homeschooling

For parents who homeschool, children with speech and language delays present a unique challenge. For this reason “Small Talk” was developed by a Speech Language Pathologist to use as a homeschool program. This Speech therapy program can be purchased online: http://web.me.com/boompa/Homeschool_small_talk/Welcome.html

I reviewed the website and it appears that this Speech and Language program would useful for children with early language goals such as vocabulary, imitation, and early sound development. There are a lot of speech therapy games and ideas. Preschool children learn through play and the games in this preschool speech therapy program will help parents build a love for language in their children.

Speech therapy materials for Children with Apraxia

Before purchasing Speech therapy games or materials or to help your child with apraxia, please have him or her assessed by a Speech Language Pathologist to make sure that you are working on the correct goals.

Once your child is assessed you should have a list of goals to work on. Generally, Speech therapy for a child with apraxia (also called Childhood Apraxia of Speech or Dyspraxia) consists of practicing sounds starting at a simple level and then moving to more complex mouth movements and eventually to words and phrases. For some children, your Speech Language Pathologist may recommend starting at an earlier stage with muscle strengthening games and activities (called Oral Motor exercises) or simple mouth movements. Many children with apraxia find sign language helps them communicate their thoughts when they cannot make themselves understood.

Early vocabulary and imitation goals: The Baby Babble DVD (http://www.talkingchild.com/shop_BabyBabbleDVD.aspx) includes Oral motor exercises and some early sign language, so it is ideal for toddlers and younger preschoolers with speech and language delays.

Articulation Goals: Check out this link for Kaufman cards: http://www.superduperinc.com/products/view.aspx?pid=NS1002&stid=

These cards, although pricey, are great materials for working at home with children with apraxia. For children whose goals are at the single word level, the back of the card has approximations from simple to complex. For example a picture may show BROTHER, and on the back of the card it shows that the child may say only the “b” sound at first but eventually progress to “budder” and then to the correct pronunciation.

Parents will find that using the cards to play speech therapy games with kids will work better than just asking the child to name the cards. One example of a speech therapy game is to hide the cards around the room and find them with a flashlight. Children are asked to name the picture on one card before they can search for another card.

Again, please check with your Speech Language Pathologist to find out what the best goals are for your child.

When should you use Speech Therapy DVDs for your child?

There are a lot of great Speech Therapy DVDs and materials available to help your child learn to speak well. But when is the right time to use them? As a Speech Language Pathologist for preschool children, I recommend having your child assessed first to see what her specific speech and language goals are. For example, if the goal is improved vocabulary and imitation, then your might use a DVD such as “Baby Babble” to enhance your toddler’s language skills.

http://www.talkingchild.com/shop_BabyBabbleDVD.aspx

The best thing you can do to help your child learn to communicate better is to talk to him and provide face to face play time. Buy games, DVDs and other materials to help with communication, but don’t use them alone. Babies and toddlers need interaction with real people – parents and siblings and other caregivers who talk to them and tell them about their world. If you haven’t learned any Language Stimulation techniques, ask your Speech Language Pathologist to show you how to interact with your child to get the maximum benefit from the time you spend with him.

Looking for free speech therapy games for your child’s or your client’s speech or language?

Free speech therapy games resources:

• http://www.speakingofspeech.com/Therapy_Games.html
• http://www.speechtherapygames.com/FREEBIE.htm
• http://www.speechpage.com/FreeStuff.html

Related Reading

1. Speech Therapy Games

There are many types of speech therapy games parents and speech therapists can play with children to improve articulation, speech and language

Therapists or parents looking for speech therapy games might search for speech therapy games, speech therapy game or games for speech therapy

Ten Sample Speech Therapy Games and Prices
1. Turbino by Gonge
Buy new: $21.95

2.Super Star Speech, Speech Therapy Made Simple by Deborah Lott and Katie Lott (Ring-bound – Jul 10, 2007)
Buy new: $22.95

Excerpt – page 38: “… super star speech Therapy Games and Activities Try to make speech practice fun! It should …”Surprise me! See a random page in this book.
Books: See all 124 items

3. Speechercise CD by Twin Sisters (Audio CD – May 1, 2004) – Enhanced
Buy new: $12.99 $11.99

4. Educational Insights LipSync by Educational Insights (Jan 9, 2009)
Buy new: $49.99 $49.55

5. Teach Me How to Say It Right: Helping Your Child With Articulation Problems by Dorothy P. Dougherty (Paperback – Jun 2005)
Buy new: $14.95 $10.17

Excerpt – page 8: “… The goal of speech therapy is not to improve the pronunciation of individual sounds, but …”Surprise me! See a random page in this book.
Books: See all 124 items

6.Super Star S, Z, & Sh; Speech Therapy Made Simple by Deborah Lott and Katie Lott (Spiral-bound – Mar 24, 2008)
Buy new: $18.95
Excerpt – page 8: “… Therapy Games and Activities Try to make speech practice fun! It should not be a chore. Although drill …”Surprise me! See a random page in this book.
Books: See all 124 items

7.Photographic Learning Cards – Early Learning Skills (227 cards) by Carson Dellosa
Buy new: $47.99 $47.95

8.The Entire World of R Book of Elicitation Techniques by Daymon Gilbert and Jim Ristuccia Christine Ristuccia (Paperback – Mar 1, 2006)
Buy new: $44.99
Excerpt – page 26: “… Bob’s arm. I l d d arca e rca e games. p arca e games. aye for stimulable or approximate pronunciation …”Surprise me!

9.Photographic Learning Cards – People & Emotions (90 cards) by Carson Dellosa
Buy new: $38.99 $38.95

10. Let’s Talk Together – Home Activities for Early Speech & Language Development by Cory Poland and Amy Chouinard (Paperback – Sep 9, 2008)
Buy new: $29.99

Excerpt – Back Matter: “… In her practice, she has specialized in therapy for children from birth to five years of age. Amy …”Surprise me! See a random page in this book.
Books: See all 124 items

Related searches

* Free Speech Therapy Games
* Speech Therapy Games For Preschoolers
* Online Speech Therapy Games
* Speech Therapy Games And Ideas
* Speech Therapy Activities
* Speech Therapy Materials
* Speech Therapy Lesson Plans
* Free Speech Therapy Worksheets

Looking for Speech Therapy Video Games? There are many games available that can help improve your child’s speech or language. Some video games can help encourage children to improve their speech and language.