Strategies to Increase Students’ Success in Therapy and Beyond
Speech-language pathologists have a significant role in children’s communication success, learning and development. We are skilled at evaluating students with learning challenges and identifying those with communication disorders. We have the responsibility to provide speech-language therapy services using research based strategies and techniques to improve the communication and language abilities of children and adolescents. It is critical that we remain knowledgeable of these strategies as we provide speech-language therapy services. The therapy approaches and strategies used by speech-language pathologists will vary to some degree based on the disorder that they are treating and the severity. Here are strategies that SLPs can use to increase students’ success in therapy and beyond. Children and adolescents will learn to use many of these strategies as well during guided and independent practice so they can be independent communicators and life long learners.
ARTICULATION/PHONOLOGY
1. Auditory Bombardment (Wolfe, Presley, & Mesaris, 2003)
The speech-language pathologist exposes a child to the correct speech production of target phonemes during child centered activities. For example, the SLP may read aloud a story and emphasize words with the speech sound that the child needs to learn how to pronounce correctly. The SLP may read a list of words containing the target sounds. This will help kids enhance their phonological or sound awareness, rate of sound development, and generalization over time in their verbal communication. This is a component of speech sound perception training.
2. Auditory Discrimination Practice (Baker, 2010)
Children with articulation and phonological disorders need to be able to hear the distinct differences between phonemes. They can practice this skill during minimal pair drills that require them to identify and say words that vary by one sound.
3. Cycles Approach Practice (Hodson, 2010)
Children with phonological disorders and highly unintelligible speech benefit from the Cycles Phonological Pattern Approach that targets patterns of speech sound errors. During each therapy session, the SLP targets one or more phonological pattern error to improve speech intelligibility.
4. Phonetic placement and shaping/Gestural Cueing (e.g., Preston, Brick, & Landi, 2013)
The SLP teaches kids where to place their speech articulators to pronounce certain sounds. They can use physical prompts to help show them how to move their lips, tongue, or jaw to pronounce specific sounds that they are having difficulty pronouncing. In gestural cueing, the SLP demonstrates a motion or gesture to help the child visualize and remember the place or manner of production. This is used frequently in programs such as Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing Program (LIPS). Tactile cues such as PROMPT© (Prompts for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets) is a treatment method derived from touch pressure, kinesthetic, and proprioceptive cues (Hayden, Eigen, Walker, & Olsen, 2010).
After children learn the phonetic placement of the sound, the SLP provides practice for them to work on improving their speech articulation skills in a hierarchy moving from isolation, syllables, words, sentences, to conversation.
RECEPTIVE/EXPRESSIVE LANGUAGE
5. Verbal modeling and guided practice
In order to learn new skills, it is critical that children are first taught the skill and then provided several opportunities to practice. For example, if you want the child to learn how to explain similarities and differences, a speech-language pathologist must teach what each word means and then demonstrate the skill. During guided and independent practice, the speech-language pathologist should provide feedback about how the child is doing.
6. Visual supports
Most children with language disorders learn best when provided with visual aids. This may be a graphic organizer to help them remember and retell story elements or other visuals to help them remember how to complete semantic and syntax practice exercises. Children can also create their own visuals to illustrate vocabulary or content that they are learning in speech-language therapy and the classroom.
7. Direct vocabulary instruction (Marzano, 2004)
Children need repeated exposures of vocabulary words to truly comprehend them and to accurately use the words in their spoken and written language. Direct vocabulary instruction will increase their background knowledge, comprehension, and overall academic success.
8. Verbal prompts and cues
Speech-language pathologists provide students with verbal prompts and cues to support them in correctly answering questions related to their area of language need. This type of language scaffolding provides a bridge for students to link what they already know to new skills and content that they are learning. By providing verbal prompts and cues during a mini-lesson, the SLP scaffolds or breaks down the instruction in a manner that enables the student to learn a new skill and information. Other language scaffolding involves simplifying verbal directions. Prompts, cues, and language scaffolding should be faded over time.
9. Expansions
The SLP may expand or lengthen a child’s speech utterance to model additional vocabulary or a more complex syntax or sentence structure.
10. Recasts
The SLP modifies a child’s speech utterance by changing the type of sentence or voice. If a child says a statement, the SLP may recast or change it into an interrogative sentence. The SLP may also provide a verbal model by changing a sentence from active to passive voice to show variance of sentence styles.
11. Predictions/Inferences
The SLP may teach students how to make predictions or inferences based on illustrations in a book or the content of the fiction or non-fiction text. The SLP can help students connect what they already know (background knowledge) to deduce what will happen next or infer meanings of unknown words in language and literacy lessons.
12. Mental Imagery
Students practice visualizing what they hear or read to aid comprehension of information. SLPs can teach students to make a movie in their head so a story or topic comes alive or becomes more relatable.
13. Summarizing
The SLP can demonstrate how to summarize fiction or non-fiction information. Students can verbalize or write brief information highlighting the sequence of events or key points about what they hear or read.
14. Questioning
Students learn how to ask questions to ensure they are understanding what they hear or learn. They can write questions on reading passages to extend learning or seek clarification of information.
15. Think Alouds/Problem Solving
The SLP should demonstrate for students how to think critically during language and literacy activities. While reading a book, he or she should pause and model asking questions and making comments about what is going on. The SLP should provide multiple opportunities for children in speech-language sessions to answer critical thinking and inferential questions during a variety of age appropriate tasks.
FLUENCY
16. Speech modification/Fluency Shaping (Guitar, 2013)
These are strategies include pausing, easy onset, rate control, light articulatory contact, continuous phonation, and prolonged syllables.
17. Stuttering modification (Van Riper, 1973)
A child or adolescent will need to learn to recognize the moments of dysfluency by anticipating the non-fluent speech before it occurs, during a stutter, and after dysfluent speech. They will learn to use preparatory set, pull-out, or cancellation stuttering modification strategies to improve their speech fluency.
18 . Desensitization
This involves changing the student’s fear or apprehension about speaking in a variety of speaking situations. In speech therapy, the SLP can demonstrate pseudostuttering in a social scenario in which the client may stutter a lot such as talking on the phone or during a class presentation. The student should also practice this fake or voluntary stuttering as a part of his or her therapy regimen.
19. Cognitive Restructuring (Murphy 2007)
This involves the SLP teaching a student how to think about his or her feelings when they stutter. Any negative feelings must be addressed to reframe a child’s mindset about being a person who stutters. It is critical that the SLP address the emotional contributing factors to stuttering in order to effectively reduce stuttering episodes.
20. Generalization Activities
The SLP should provide opportunities for children and adolescents to practice fluency shaping and stuttering modification strategies outside of the therapy room. She or he could provide fluency strategy cards to use in the general education classroom. The SLP can help monitor the client’s communication in different settings and activities at school such as when checking out books in the library, talking with classmates, or giving a presentation in class.
In addition to these strategies, there are systematic therapeutic programs that SLPs can use to improve the speech-language skills of children and adolescents. However, the programs and techniques implemented will vary based on the clinical decisions of the therapist.
There are more approaches and strategies for students’ success available via ASHA’s Practice Portal for speech-language pathologists. This is an extensive resource that will ensure that SLPs have access to evidence for remediating communication disorders and improving their therapeutic efficiency. http://www.asha.org/practice-portal/
Parent Information for Communication Disorders {Free Resource Guide}
There are many times when parents ask me about communication disorders. They want to know if their child’s speech-language skills are where they should be developmentally. Recently, a friend of mind told me that her daughter received a speech language screening at her preschool. The results indicated that she needed further evaluation. I was concerned when she shared with me that the therapist expressed concern that a 3 year old was not pronouncing sounds such as /l/ and /r/. I immediately saw red flags because it is developmentally appropriate that not all kids will correctly pronounce these sounds at age 3. In fact, there are research based age ranges of typical speech sound development. Yes, some children may correctly pronounce sounds earlier and that’s great. However, the following are developmentally acceptable ages of sound acquisition.
Age 3- w, b, p, h, m, n
Age 4- k, g, t, d, y, f
Age 5- all 3 & 4 year old sounds
Age 7- l
Age 8- j, ch, sh, r, th, s, z, v
Please note that different school districts also implement different eligibility criteria for providing speech therapy for speech sounds in error. If you have questions about if your child needs an evaluation, I suggest that you consult directly with a licensed speech-language pathologist in your area.
I also often get questions about what language skills are expected of children at certain ages. You can access more information about my recommendations from a previous blog post about developmental milestones. Click here
I created a few complimentary parent handouts that explain the difference between speech sound disorders and language disorders. In this resource you will also receive helpful hints for improving receptive and expressive language disorders. These tips are geared towards children in kindergarten-5th grade. This packet also has a list of interactive websites that kids can use to practice improving their language skills.
I strongly encourage parents to give their children opportunities to practice their communication and language skills at home. I may add to this resource in the future so make sure that you subscribe to my blog by entering your email address in the right hand column of this page. You can access this FREE digital download in my TPT curriculum store.
Have a great week! I hope you have an excellent Thanksgiving holiday with family and friends this Thursday!
Tamara Anderson
Building Successful Lives
Speech Progress Monitoring {Product Launch & Giveaway}
Over the years, I have provided speech therapy for several preschool to middle school age children who stutter. I know how valuable it is to have a way to quickly take data on the frequency of a child’s dysfluent episodes, types of stuttering, stuttering severity, and secondary behaviors during therapy sessions. That’s why I am thrilled to share with you what has helped make my fluency intervention sessions a breeze!!
My latest product, Speech Progress Monitoring, was released last week in my TPT online store. It includes my speech fluency data collection tool that is perfect for progress monitoring in the speech room, general education classroom, or home environment. On the form, the SLP should record the setting the speech sample is taken, type of sample (e.g. picture description, story retell, conversation) and write tally marks to indicate each spoken syllable. Under each tally mark for a dysfluent episode, use the provided acronyms to record the types of stuttering. The formula to calculate the percentage of stuttering or severity is included. As a bonus, the SLP can circle if any secondary behaviors were observed during the speech sample. Using this form, will improve your ability to write fluency objectives such as the child naming the types of stuttering and reducing the percentage of stuttering in different speaking situations using fluency strategies.
In speech therapy, there is a definite need to also have a speech intelligibility data collection tool. The progress monitoring form that I created provides a quick and easy way to calculate the percentage of speech intelligibility for children. I currently use this tool for children on my caseload with moderate intellectual disabilities. Many of these children struggle with speech articulation at the word, sentence, and conversational levels as well as with their communication partners understanding their speech. With direct intervention, the SLP can facilitate improving the speech intelligibility or the level that their speech is understood by familiar and unfamiliar speakers. This tool is essential for all speech language pathologists addressing increasing speech intelligibility with kids on their caseload.
So head over to my TPT store to purchase this awesome resource at an incredible price!
Enter here for a chance to win 2 of my latest progress monitoring tools in honor of ASHA in Florida! The winners will be notified next Thursday! :a Rafflecopter giveaway
Tamara Anderson
BSL Speech & Language
