• DISTANCE LEARNING OVERVIEW FOR SPEECH & LANGUAGE STUDENTS

     

    On this page you will find ways to maintain your child's speech/language skills via distance learning. These ideas will provide a general guide as to how to target your child's specific speech/language goals. Please refer to your child's individualized education program (IEP) to familiarize yourself with the exact goals that are being worked on in speech/language therapy. This will help you select activities that best meet your child's needs. Some general tips for embedding speech and language practice into your every-day lives through conversation, books, and play can be found here. Remember, anything you do to foster communication in the home will benefit your child! If you have specific questions about work for your child, please do not hesitate to email me.

     

    Michelle Ostrow

    mostrow@cbsd.org

     

    IF YOUR CHILD IS WORKING ON ARTICULATION OF SPEECH SOUNDS...

    • What we usually focus on in speech-language therapy is increasing awareness of the target sound in words and getting a high number of correct productions.
    • You can use the worksheets in your child's speech/language folder for extra practice of speech sound production, or you could use these pre-made word lists.
    • You can make things fun by using some of the ideas provided in link above under the distance learning overview.
    • This articulation calendar gives ideas of ways to practice your speech sounds for each day of the week for which we are not in school. 

     

    IF YOUR CHILD IS WORKING ON RECEPTIVE / EXPRESSIVE LANGUAGE...

    • Exact language skills targeted in your child’s IEP will vary, but may include things like increasing overall understanding & use of vocabulary words, answering & asking WH questions, understanding how items go together in categories, understanding how two things are similar and different, using correct verb tenses, expanding the length of sentences, describing, and more.
    • You can use the worksheets in your child's speech/language folder for extra practice or review of language skills. 
    • You can embed language skills into daily activities like reading, conversation and games (see the link provided in the speech and language overview above).
    • This language calendar (geared toward k-2 students) gives ways to practice receptive and language skills for each day of the week for which we are not in school. 
    • This language calendar (geared toward grade 2-4 students) gives ways to practice receptive and language skills for each day of the week for which we are not in school. 
    • This March language calendar (geared toward grade 3-6 students) gives ways to practice receptive and language skills for each day of the week for which we are not in school. 

     

    IF YOUR CHILD IS WORKING ON FLUENCY...

    • Times of change, excitement or lack of structure can be especially trying on people who stutter. You may notice an increase in disfluency during this school closure. The most important thing to do over this time of distance learning is provide your child a fluency-enhancing environment. This includes reducing your own rate of speech, providing wait-time to allow your child to think and communicate his or her thoughts, maintain eye contact with your child- even through a moment of stuttering, and establish conversational turn-taking for your child, especially if he or she has siblings who compete for speaking time.
    • Allow your child the opportunity to practice his or her fluency skills using their strategies once per day. You can have them summarize a book, movie or tv show, talk about their day, or read aloud from a book of choice. The specific strategies that your child is learning about in speech therapy may be found in his or her speech folder.  
    • This fluency calendar provides an activity to practice fluency skills for each day of the month. 

     

    IF YOUR CHILD IS WORKING ON PRAGMATIC (SOCIAL) LANGUAGE...

    • Pragmatic language skills typically focus on asking and answering questions, topic maintenance, taking turns in conversation, making predictions, and inferring others' thoughts and feelings.
    • Some of my favorite ways to target social language skills is through the use of wordless books and movies. Check out these silent Simon's Cat videos, or this list of wordless books. You can also use books from your own home library, or can even find books on epic , vooks, or youtube! When reading wordless books or playing wordless videos, pause and direct your child's attention to the character's body language and facial expressions. Ask him or her what they think the character may be feeling. Describe what their body and face is doing that helps lead you to that conclusion. Ask your child to make a prediction about why the character feels that way, or what they think the character may do next. 
    • This social communication activity calendar also provides daily ideas to foster social communication throughout the month. 

     

     

    The resources on this page are either free resources to the public or were provided with permission by:

    @Speech Rocks

    @SpeechiePeep