Many children experience challenges as they work to acquire language. If your child seems to be struggling with the basics or language, or if he has a diagnosed speech disorder, speech therapy exercises may help bridge the gap between your struggling child and his same age peers. By considering the specific problems that your child is experiencing and selecting a method to suit, you can be instrumental in ensuring that your child is an effective oral communicator.
Oral Motor Exercises
Some children struggle with the mechanics of using their mouths to create speech. For these children, oral motor exercises may do the trick. Exercises of this type commonly consist of facial massage or jaw-strengthening exercises. In many cases, these exercises extend beyond simple speech and to eating as well. Because of the complex nature of exercises of this type, they should only be performed under the supervision of a speech therapy expert.
If you want to help your child with his speech trouble, technology-rich games may prove a useful tool. Try online speech games as a means of assisting your child. Because of the technological nature of these games, they are commonly enticing to children.
When a kid struggles not with all sounds but with a particular set of sounds, articulation activities can help. Through the completion of these activities, the child tries to replicate sounds modeled by a parent or speech therapist. Generally, speech therapists test children to determine their specific areas of struggle and then recommend articulation exercises for parents to complete with their child.
While seemingly simply for fun, tongue twisters can prove useful to children with speech challenges. If you notice that your child has difficulty with speech, consider engaging him in tongue twister activities. Buy a book of these classic speech challenges and try a different one every day as a verbal puzzle. This activity is great for parents who suspect a speech disability but have yet to have one diagnosed.