Phonological processes are patterns of sound replacements that children use to simplify their speech.  When a child is young, he hears the speech sounds of the language used around him, but he can’t yet produce all of them.  Children don’t sound like adults when they speak.  Speaking with all of the sounds of an adult is too overwhelming to a young child’s brain.  To overcome this, the child’s brain creates rules to simplify speech sounds and make words easier to say.  These rules are called phonological processes.

For example, sounds produced in the back of the mouth (like /k/ and /g/) are difficult for young children to say.  Many children simply this by creating a rule (phonological process) that says “If a sound is produced in the back of the mouth, I will change it to be produced in the front of the mouth (where it’s easier).”  Therefore, /k/ becomes /t/ and /g/ becomes /d/.  This is why it’s common for young children to say “titty tat” instead of “kitty cat”.

Keep in mind that these rules are out of the control of the child.  He is not choosing to drop all consonants off the ends of words or change sounds around.  His brain is doing it for him and he is probably not even aware that he’s doing it.

If a child speaks with a lot of different phonological processes, or if they are very hard to understand, The Cycles Approach to Phonology is a great therapy method that will provide some structure to your sessions.

No-Prep Kits for 9 Phonological Processes

All children use some phonological processes when they are younger.  This a very normal part of learning to speak.  Here are some example of typical phonological processes:

We expect children to use certain phonological processes at certain ages.  When children do not grow out of using phonological processes or are using them longer than is expected, they are considered to be a problem.  Most children stop using these processes without any teaching or coaching.  However, some children require speech therapy to learn not to use them.  Here are some ages for when common phonological processes should stop being used:

Velar assimilation ~ 3 years

Nasal assimilation ~ 3 years

Final Consonant Deletion ~ 3 years

Stopping of Fricatives

/f/, /s/ ~ 3 years

/z/, /v/ ~ 4 years

“sh”, “ch”, “j”, “th” ~ 5 years

Weak Syllable Deletion ~ 4 years

Deaffrication (sh for ch) ~ 4 years

Velar Fronting ~ 4 years

Cluster Reduction

without /s/ ~ 4 years

with /s/ ~  5 years

Gliding of Liquids (/l/ and /r/) ~ 6-7 years

Source: American Speech-Language Hearing Association: https://www.asha.org/practice-portal/clinical-topics/articulation-and-phonology/selected-phonological-processes/

As I mentioned before, all children use some phonological processes in their speech.  These are considered natural or normal phonological processes.  However, in children with phonological disorders, we sometimes see other phonological processes being used that are atypical or abnormal.  We call these atypical phonological processes or idiosyncratic phonological processes.  These are different from the ones we see in typically-developing children.  These can be red flags that there may be something wrong with the child’s phonological system.  Children who use these processes should be checked out by a speech-language pathologist.

If a child is having trouble with phonological processes in that he is using normal ones beyond when he should or is using atypical processes, we consider that child to have a phonological disorder.  To treat this problem, our job is to re-train the child’s brain to overwrite the rule that he/she has created.  This is typically done in speech therapy sessions with a licensed speech-language pathologist.  Here are the steps for fixing this:

If a child speaks with a lot of different phonological processes, or if they are very hard to understand, The Cycles Approach to Phonology is a great therapy method that will provide some structure to your sessions.

Check out this video with a great game you can play using minimal pairs.  In this game, you will hide a penny under one of the pictures and help the child hear or speak the difference between the two words (targeting the phonological error that they are exhibiting).  Click play below to watch!

You can download your own guide to teaching a child a whole class of sounds:

Reference:

Paul, R. (2007). Language disorders from infancy through adolescence: Assessment & intervention. St. Louis: Mosby.

Check out our additional resources for treating phonological processes:

No-Prep Kits for 9 Phonological Processes

Use the Cycles Approach for Severe Phonological Disorders

Hi, I’m Carrie! I’m a speech-language pathologist from Columbia, Missouri, USA. I’ve worked with children and teenagers of all ages in schools, preschools, and even my own private practice. I love digging through the research on speech and language topics and breaking it down into step-by-step plans for my followers.

Fun Fact: I’m a huge fan of Pat Flynn and the Smart Passive Income podcast.  I’ve followed his business advice so much that I even got to be featured on his podcast.  Recently, I was reading one of his books called “SuperFans” and I was surprised to find myself mentioned in the book!  So cool!

Connect with Me:

The post Phonological Processes: Definition, Examples, and Therapy appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

Teaching Adjectives to Children:

Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is a rare, neurologically-based speech disorder where the child knows what he wants to say but the message gets mixed up in the motor-planning and execution phase so the sounds come out all wrong.  Though the diagnosis of CAS is relatively new, experts have agreed that CAS usually includes these 3 generally-agreed upon components:

No-Prep Worksheets for Teaching CV, VC, and CVC Words

Listen to the Podcast on Nancy Kaufman’s Speech Therapy Approach for Childhood Apaxia of Speech

Carrie’s Apraxia Page:

http://www.speechandlanguagekids.com/childhood-apraxia-speech-resource-page/

Carrie’s Apraxia Book:

http://www.speechandlanguagekids.com/products/ (Check the books at the top of the page)

Nancy Kaufman’s Speech Praxis Materials:

http://www.northernspeech.com/search/author/Nancy_Kaufman/

Childhood Apraxia of Speech Association of North America:

http://www.apraxia-kids.org

Nancy R. Kaufman, M.A. CCC-SLP is the owner and Director of the Kaufman Children’s Center for Speech, Language, Sensory-Motor and Social Connections located in West Bloomfield, Michigan.  Nancy has been evaluating and treating children, specializing in CAS since 1979.

Nancy is the author of the Kaufman Speech to Language Protocol (K-SLP) an evidence based method of helping children with CAS and other speech sound disorders become effective vocal communicators.  She is the author of many materials to help children who struggle to speak, published by Northern Speech Services.

Nancy serves on  the Childhood Apraxia of Speech Association of North America (CASANA) advisory board.  She was awarded the Michigan State University College of Communication Arts and Sciences Outstanding Alumni award and the Michigan Speech Language Hearing Association’s Distinguished Service Award.

Nancy continues to work directly with children through intensive programs at the KCC consulting with SLPs and families through video consultations and conferences.

In this approach, you take a word that a child cannot say and you find the closest approximation (or attempt at saying the word) that the child is able to produce.  The therapist teaches the child to say the word in that “close but not quite there” manner.

For example, if a child is able to say the “t” sound but not the “k” sound, the therapist would teach the child to say “tootie” instead of “cookie”.  Once the child had mastered this approximation of the word, the therapist would work to gradually teach closer and closer approximations until the child is able to produce the word correctly.

Conferences and Workshops with Nancy:

http://kidspeech.com/events–workshops.html?task=view

Intensive therapy with Nancy Kaufman:

http://kidspeech.com/services/intensive-programs-for-childhood-apraxia-of-speech.html?task=view

No-Prep Worksheets for Teaching CV, VC, and CVC Words

Access all of our trainings on how to help children with CAS

Hi, I’m Carrie! I’m a speech-language pathologist from Columbia, Missouri, USA. I’ve worked with children and teenagers of all ages in schools, preschools, and even my own private practice. I love digging through the research on speech and language topics and breaking it down into step-by-step plans for my followers.

Connect with Me:

The post Apraxia of Speech: Speech Therapy Approach by Nancy Kaufman appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

Initial consonant deletion is the phonological process when a child consistently leaves off consonants from the beginning of words.  For example, “stick” becomes “ick” and “tree” becomes “ee”.  While young children often leave consonants off of the ends of words, it is not common for children to delete beginning consonants.  For this reason, initial consonant deletion is considered an atypical speech error.  Children with this type of speech error would benefit greatly from being evaluated by a speech-language pathologist.

No-Prep Therapy Worksheets for ICD

Initial consonant deletion is considered a phonological disorder.  This means that the child has developed a rule in his/her head for how sounds will be used.  For this particular phonological disorder, that rule is that all consonants at the beginning of words will be deleted.  Keep in mind that the child is not doing this on purpose.  That is just his brain’s way of making words easier for him to say.  Another type of consonant deletion is final consonant deletion.  In this process, children omit the final consonants off of words.

Phonological processes are a normal part of speech development for young children and so we expect to see many of these until a child grows out of them.  When should consonant deletion disappear?  Well, we expect children to use final consonant deletion up until three years of age.  At that point, it tends to resolve on its own.  If a child doesn’t stop using final consonant deletion by that time, we may want to start therapy.

This one is more complicated.  Deleting initial consonants is not a common phonological process that most children use.  So there isn’t a specific age that we consider it “typical” to use.  For that reason, when we see this type of consonant deletion at any age, we want to go ahead and get that child evaluated for speech therapy.  The presence of this type of speech error could indicate a problem with the child’s phonological system that may require therapy to overcome.

The goal of therapy for initial consonant deletion is for the child to start producing those consonants at the beginning of words.  Here’s the step-by-step process (with activities!) for treating this condition:

The first step is to help the child hear the difference between words that should have a beginning consonant and words that should not.  Find minimal pairs of words that are exactly the same except that one has an initial consonant and one does not.  Examples would be “up” and “cup” or “off” and “cough”.  You can use my word list below or make up your own.  Free Printable Worksheets are Available in our Material Library

up/cup

in/thin

awesome/possum

Get Pictures of Those Words: You will need to show the child pictures of those words.  You can find pictures using Google Image Search, take your own pictures, or draw pictures.  Or, purchase our initial consonant deletion no-prep therapy kit that has them all done for you!

Tell the child what each word is called  (“this is cup, this is up”) and then ask the child to point to one of the words.  See if the child can hear the difference between the two words.  You may need to play games to get the child to do this.  Here’s a video with a fun game called “hide the penny” that works great for this!

Once the child can point to the correct picture about 80% of the time, you’re ready to have the child say those words.  Show the child a minimal pair of two words again.  Help the child say each word, one with a beginning consonant and one without.  If the child is struggling to say the beginning consonant, have him say the consonant by itself first, then say the whole thing.  You may have to allow the child to pause between the beginning sound and the word for now, then gradually work on eliminating the pause.

Now it’s time to help the child start using beginning consonants in short phrases and eventually sentences.  Start by having the child say a repeating phrase like “my ____” or “no _____”.  Cycle through the words he or she has already practiced in the previous step.  Once the child is successful with that, you can start increasing the phrase length up through simple sentences.

Once the child is able to say the sound in sentences, you’ll want to work on the sound in conversation. For more information on practicing sounds in conversation, check out my post on increasing self-awareness and carry-over: Click Here to Learn About Teaching Sounds in Conversation

Check out our additional resources on treating initial consonant deletion:

No-Prep Worksheets for ICD

One of the best therapy approaches for initial consonant deletion

Check out the freebies that we have inside our Free Therapy Material Library!

Initial Consonant Deletion Worksheet

Initial Consonant Deletion Minimal Pairs Word List

Guide to Teaching a Sound Class (Phonological Approach)

Hi, I’m Carrie! I’m a speech-language pathologist from Columbia, Missouri, USA. I’ve worked with children and teenagers of all ages in schools, preschools, and even my own private practice. I love digging through the research on speech and language topics and breaking it down into step-by-step plans for my followers.

Fun Fact: I ran my own private practice for several years.  I rented an office out of the back of my childhood pediatrician’s office and only accepted cash pay patients.  We had enough of a need in my area that I didn’t need to bill insurance.  I closed the practice when my online business was taking off enough that I needed to dedicate my time to it full time.  I referred all of my patients/clients to a friend of mine who was opening her practice.  I have since worked for her practice when I wanted to get back into direct client contact for a bit.

Connect with Me:

The post Initial Consonant Deletion: Minimal Pairs and Therapy Activities appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

Speech-Language Pathologist Barbara Davis joins us today to discuss the signs and symptoms of Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) as well as how it is diagnosed.  Click the play button below to listen to the entire episode or scroll down to view the show notes.

Many other disorders can look like CAS.  Differential diagnosis involves looking at all of these possibilities to make sure the child doesn’t need a different diagnosis instead.  Here are some other disorders that should be ruled out for an appropriate diagnosis of CAS:

**It’s important to note that children with CAS could have these things as well, but a purely CAS diagnosis would come without these things.

CAS is caused by motor planning difficulties.  This means that the child knows what he wants to say, but the signal gets mixed up in his brain during the motor planning phase.  This is what causes the inconsistencies in his errors.  Sometimes, these types of problems are caused by injuries to the brain or nervous systems, but often they do not seem to have any cause at all.

Any speech-language pathologist (SLP) has the basic knowledge and certification to diagnose CAS but based on how tricky the diagnosis can be, it is advised that an SLP have additional training, workshops, and experience with CAS in order to make a confident diagnosis.

In short, cautiously!  Many severe speech problems can look like CAS at first.  It is important to only make the diagnosis of CAS after a course of therapy has been observed.  Children with true CAS often make very slow progress with typical therapies.  You also should not be diagnosing children with CAS before they are consistently using spoken language to communicate.  That means, if the child isn’t talking, even if you observe them trying to make sounds, a diagnosis of CAS should NOT be made.  At this point, CAS looks exactly the same to severe phonological disorders, severe articulation disorders, severe dysarthria, and many more.

Currently, there are very few instruments for differential diagnosis of CAS.  Barbara Dodd and Nancy Kaufmann are two who have created CAS-specific diagnostic tools but you must not solely rely on a standard speech test, such as the Goldmann Fristoe Test of Articulation.  These tests do not measure the variability, prosody, or vowel productions.  If you are an SLP looking into CAS diagnosis, you should do plenty of research about the current diagnostic tools and how they are used.  You should also make sure to do a thorough spontaneous speech sample to collect data on all features of CAS.

If you are the parent of a child with suspected or diagnosed CAS, you should talk openly with your speech-language pathologist (SLP) about CAS.  Talk about the various other diagnoses that need to be ruled out and ask how it has been determined that your child does not have those conditions instead.  Also, ask your SLP about their background, training, and experience with CAS.  CAS is treated quite differently from typical speech errors so you want to make sure to find an SLP with experience.

Click the link below to visit Barbara’s page:

http://csd.utexas.edu/faculty/barbara-davis

Looking for more therapy ideas and resources to help you provide the BEST services to your clients?  Join us in The SLP Solution, our membership program for speech-language professionals!  Inside the membership, you’ll find:

To join us in the full SLP Solution, or to snag a free membership, click on the button below!

The post Signs, Symptoms, and Diagnosis of Childhood Apraxia of Speech appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

What if I told you there was a way for your clients to make faster progress with less time in therapy?  I’m guessing you’d be all about it, right?  Well, the 5-minute model has shown itself again and again to be exactly the solution we need.  By seeing children 2-5 times per week for only five minutes each, we see faster gains on articulation, phonology, and other drill-and-practice skills.  Read on to find out how this works!

Instead of seeing your clients in a group for 30 minutes, you see each child individually for 5 minutes.  I like to pull the students right outside their classroom and do it in the hallway so we reduce the travel time (and I can get more clients seen in less time).  I set a timer for 5 minutes and we drill, drill drill.  No games, no fluff, nothing to prep.  Just me, the child, and our artic cards.  Once the timer goes off, I send them back to class.  Then, repeat!  5-minute speech therapy sessions are usually conducted 2-5 times per week.

Make Faster Progress in Less Time

Yes!  This model has been studied multiple times with amazing results.  Studies show that children learn faster with distributed practice vs. mass practice and results of a meta analysis showed that high intensity interventions (2-3 sessions per week of 70+ trials) were most effective for children with speech sound disorders.

The 5-Minute Kids program conducted a study which showed that children receiving nine 5-minute sessions were dismissed in about half the time of children receiving seven 30-minute sessions per month.

Learning a new skill is all about repetition.  The more times a child practices the new skill, the faster he/she will learn it.  But can we can get the same number of trials/repetitions (or more) in a 5-minute individual session as we can in a 30-minute group session?  Check out this recording of a 5-minute /r/ session that I did while I counted my reps:

The nice thing about 5-minute sessions is that it’s not a long session so most of the time, you can keep a child working for that amount of time.  But sometimes, they start to get squirrely or start to have trouble focusing by the end.  Here are a few tips for helping with that:

I know the hallway isn’t the quietest place around.  Here are some tips for doing 5-minute sessions in a noisy, busy school.

Need some more help getting started with 5-minute sessions?  Check out our full course here:

Make Faster Progress in Less Time

Hi, I’m Carrie! I’m a speech-language pathologist from Columbia, Missouri, USA. I’ve worked with children and teenagers of all ages in schools, preschools, and even my own private practice. I love digging through the research on speech and language topics and breaking it down into step-by-step plans for my followers.

Fun Fact: I didn’t realize that I had ADHD until I was an adult.  It all clicked when I read that people with ADHD are motivated by things that are challenging, novel, or highly interesting.  If a task doesn’t fall into one of those three categories, we have a hard time getting it done.  I’ve subconsciously accommodated for this my whole life by setting challenges for myself or doing mundane tasks in novel ways, like doing my homework in a (dry) bathtub instead of at the kitchen table.  Understanding how our brains work can be incredibly empowering and I love helping children understand these things as well!

Connect with Me:

The post 5-Minute Speech Therapy Sessions: How Long Should Therapy Sessions Be? appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

Today we’re discussing how to teach conversation and social skills to older children who are struggling.  This may include children with autism or other social impairments.

Learn more about supporting students with autism and other communication needs

1. Choose children who need social skills training, group together and add peers if possible

         or

    Tell child you’ll be working on social skills, bring in peers, friends, other children with autism, siblings if possible

2. Observe natural social interactions to choose one target: entering a group conversation

3. Observe typical kids in that situation

4. Write social script/social story

5. Read the story with the group and discuss

6. Act out the story with different people being the person approaching

7. Provide reinforcement about how each child performed

8. Ask peers to rate how other child performed

9. Send home info to parents and have them practice/talk about it at home

10. Take that skill to a natural setting with the same children

11. Have the child rate his own performance

12. Take child to a natural setting with whatever people are there.

13. Talk about skill before he goes in

14. Have him rate his performance after done and give feedback

15. Maintenance:

Learn more about supporting students with autism and other communication needs

Check out the freebies that we have inside our Free Therapy Material Library!

How to Initiate Interactions – Social Story

Tools for Extending Conversations – Visual Aid

Making Inferences from Pictures Worksheets

Hi, I’m Carrie! I’m a speech-language pathologist from Columbia, Missouri, USA. I’ve worked with children and teenagers of all ages in schools, preschools, and even my own private practice. I love digging through the research on speech and language topics and breaking it down into step-by-step plans for my followers.

Connect with Me:

The post Social Skills for Autistic Adolescents and Teens appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

On, this episode of the speech and language kids podcast, Carrie Clark reviews the current research on stuttering therapy for children.  You will also learn how to conduct this therapy yourself.  Note: This information is not intended to replace the guidance of a licensed speech-language pathologist (SLP).  Every child is different and only a licensed SLP will know exactly what kind of therapy is best for your child.  This information is intended to assist SLPs with knowing the best approach to therapy to take as well as to help parents understand the therapy process.

Before getting into the content, I announced on the podcast that I will be writing a full-length e-book about Childhood Apraxia of Speech.

For a full article on this topic, visit the link below:

http://www.speechandlanguagekids.com/stop-stuttering-preschoolers-current-research-based-methods/

i.      Say, “stop”

ii.      Say, “that was bumpy, try it again”

iii.      Say, “oops, hold on”

iv.      Say their name as a reminder

v.      Model the sentence without stutters

vi.      Hold up a hand and raise an eyebrow

**If the child is stuttering so much that you would be doing this kind of correcting constantly, try choosing just the most severe stutters or just some of them.  You can also try choosing activities that require a shorter utterance length as described above.

Source: http://www.asha.org/Events/convention/handouts/2010/1528-Bothe-Anne/

Lidcombe program: http://www.amazon.com/Lidcombe-Program-Early-Stuttering-Intervention/dp/0890799040/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1406736420&sr=1-1&keywords=lidcombe+program

Click here to download the free PDF of the Emotional Impacts of Stuttering Worksheet.

I hope that helped to clarify how to do therapy with children who stutter.  If you would like to download the free PDF of my emotional aspects worksheet, which includes what I recommend you say in response to the child’s answers, click on the link below.

Click here to download the free PDF of the Emotional Impacts of Stuttering Worksheet.

Thanks so much and don’t forget to leave a review on iTunes!

Looking for more therapy ideas and resources to help you provide the BEST services to your clients?  Join us in The SLP Solution, our membership program for speech-language professionals!  Inside the membership, you’ll find:

To join us in the full SLP Solution, or to snag a free membership, click on the button below!

The post Stuttering Therapy for Children appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

In this episode of the Speech and Language Kids Podcast, Carrie interviews chiropractor Dr. Aaron Cunningham of Keystone Chiropractic and Sensory Development Center in Columbia, MO.  Dr. Aaron discusses how his clinic is helping children with sensory issues and nuerodevelopmental disabilities, such as children with autism, ADHD, Asperger’s, etc.  Dr. Aaron is one of about 60 chiropractors across the country (USA) trained in this special approach that combines nutrition, chiropractic adjustments, and movement exercises.

This episode of the Speech and Language Kids Podcast is brought to you by: my YouTube Channel!

Click Here to Visit Carrie’s YouTube Channel

What does this approach do for kids?

Helps get the nervous system in proper working order so that they can take in information from their environment (including info given during speech therapy) and process it for optimal development.

What can you look for to know if there are sensory or neurodevelopmental problems?

What three tools does Dr. Aaron use to improve nervous system function in these kiddos?

How can I learn more about the nutrition side of this?

Where can I find a chiropractor trained in this approach?

Visit the website for the clinic that is pioneering this approach:

Intersect for Kids

Where can I find more about Dr. Aaron Cunningham?

Thanks to Dr. Aaron for being the very first guest on the Speech and Language Kids podcast.  Leave a comment below to let me know who you would like me to interview or what topic you would like to hear an expert speak on!  Also, don’t forget to leave a review on iTunes to help spread this podcast to others who would benefit from it!

Looking for more therapy ideas and resources to help you provide the BEST services to your clients?  Join us in The SLP Solution, our membership program for speech-language professionals!  Inside the membership, you’ll find:

To join us in the full SLP Solution, or to snag a free membership, click on the button below!

The post How this Chiropractor Helps Kids with Sensory Issues appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

The podcast is back!  After a much needed break to take care of my beautiful new baby boy, I am back and ready to get this podcast rolling again!  This episode will give you 7 easy things you can do today to help your child’s speech and language skills.  These are easy enough for you to do them today and effective enough for you to see some results.  Try these seven easy steps today and maybe tomorrow you’ll have the confidence to take on something a little more complex!

Get excited for a new interview format to be used on this podcast!  I’m working on getting some great guest speakers on the podcast.  Is there anyone you would like to hear from?  Let me know if there’s someone you’d like to hear from so I can leverage the power of having an established podcast to get you closer to the experts in the field.  Tweet me on twitter @speechlangkids to let me know who you would like to hear from!

And now, my 7 quick tips for improving speech and language skills.  For elaboration on any of these points, listen to the podcast by clicking the player above or by listening on iTunes!

I am looking to gain some honest reviews on iTunes so that more people will discover the podcast.  If you’re willing to leave me a review, I’m willing to give you a free e-book!  Just head over to www.speechandlanguagekids.com/youtubeoffer.  Thanks so much for reading/listening and have a fantastic day!

Looking for more therapy ideas and resources to help you provide the BEST services to your clients?  Join us in The SLP Solution, our membership program for speech-language professionals!  Inside the membership, you’ll find:

To join us in the full SLP Solution, or to snag a free membership, click on the button below!

The post 7 Easy Things You Can Do Today to Help Your Child’s Speech and Language Skills appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

This is Episode # 14 of the Speech and Language Kids Podcast!  This is the podcast with activities and resources for families of children with speech and language delays and disorders. Today I’m going to tell you about cooking activities that you can do with your child to work on speech and language skills.  And in the quick tip I’ll share a blog that’s all about improving speech and language skills as well as healthy eating at the same time.

Click here to download in I-Tunes!

Ideas for Working on Speech and Language during Cooking Activities:

Looking for more therapy ideas and resources to help you provide the BEST services to your clients?  Join us in The SLP Solution, our membership program for speech-language professionals!  Inside the membership, you’ll find:

To join us in the full SLP Solution, or to snag a free membership, click on the button below!

The post Cooking Activities for Speech and Language: Podcast 14 appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.