MY 6 FAVORITE SPEECH TOOLS

1. MR. MOUTH – or whatever it’s called.  This is great for showing kids where to put their tongue.  It’s actually a puppet, although I haven’t been able to puppetize it successfully, if that’s even a word.  But the kids like it and it makes it easier to see where their tongue should go.  There are a lot of sounds where this is important, especially /r/, since the tongue goes back in the mouth for that one.

1. TONGUE DEPRESSORS – These come in boxes of cherry or grape flavors, and so the kids don’t mind as much having a stick put in their mouth.  These are great for showing where to place the tongue, or for holding the tongue back where it needs to be.

1. TONGUE LIFTER – This is like a fancy tongue depressor that is shaped to go around the tongue and make it easier to push the tongue back to make sounds like /r/. They are not flavored, but they are smooth and come in fun colors.

1. BOOKS – Colorful picture books are great for getting kids to practice their speech sounds. I like the ones with lots of pictures and just enough words to give a variety of speech sound opportunities.

1. The Lazy Ladybug -- this is one of my favorites because it has all the sounds in it (I think?).  It’s a cute, easy story to read and have them retell, with a fun ending.

1. HAND MIRROR – A must for speech therapy! This enables the child to see where they are putting their tongue, how they are shaping their mouth, if they are holding their jaw still, etc.

1. MY VIDEO COURSES – Well, of course I’m going to include my video courses, because they have lots of practice videos and pdf docs that you can use to have your child practice every sound in every position. Check them out!

You can find links to all these items HERE.

Thanks and have a great day!