Do you have a routine for starting your speech sound sessions? While I find myself mixing it up to prevent the sometimes monotonous pattern of articulation drill therapy, I do tend to be a routine therapist, at least to start.
My isolation speech sound board was created to follow progression of speech sound placement in the mouth (front to back). It starts with bilabials and ends with the glottal /h/. I attached my isolation sound board to a MALMA mirror from IKEA that I purchased years ago. They don't seem to be made at this time, but that shouldn't stop you from making your own board. Another SLP used a plastic mirror adhered to the center. I found these by searching on Amazon. You can also just print your board and pair it with your favorite speech therapy mirror. I know you have one of those!
Once your speech sound board is prepped with your mirror, I also like to have the students use a pointer as we practice. It adds some fun and they love taking turns being the SLP! At the beginning of the year, I go a lot slower to instruct each sound, talking about lip and tongue placement, airflow, and voicing. We also talk about phonics terms, like digraph, and we use motions paired with our sounds. It is very important that the students isolate the sound, as to not add a vowel. They get pretty good at following my SLP rules and in what seems like a short time, they are independent with practicing their sounds in isolation! This simple activity remains motivating and is accomplished in a short amount of time.
I can track productions periodically to add new sounds students are able to produce in isolation. This is very helpful is choosing targets. Once we start working on new targets, they are already successful at knowing the sound in isolation, talking about placement, and awareness of the print/text pairing. Whether I am in my speech room or in a classroom, this sound board is always close by.
Are you ready to make your speech sound isolation board? You can get yours free. It also includes a vowel board.
If you are looking for a digital version, check out this Boom Cards(TM) deck and Google Slides(TM) option.
If you like this sound board idea, I have an entire packet of sound boards with words/pictures for all sounds and blends. Check it out.
Tell me some other ways you warm-up speech sounds during your sessions.
