Say and Play Family

Speech Therapy, Language & Oral Motor Therapy, and Kindergarten Prep For Children in Manhattan

  • Home
  • About Stephanie
  • Speech Programs
  • Oral Motor Therapy
  • Kindergarten Prep
  • In The News
  • Kids’ Books
  • FAQs
  • Blog
  • Contact

Treating Articulation Delay

June 12, 2007 Stephanie Sigal M.A. CCC-SLP

It is difficult for people who don’t know my child to  understand what she says.  What is your approach for improving articulation  problems in children?

Along with traditional speech therapy techniques (targeting individual speech sounds), I  use a muscle-based (oral motor) approach to improve the strength and coordination of the  jaw, lips  and tongue.

When completing a  muscle-based assessment, I begin at the level of the jaw, administering  child friendly exercises that a parent or caregiver may carryover for  homework.  Exercises for the lips or tongue may be incorporated as well,  depending on your daughter’s skill level.  These exercises may include blowing  horns and bubbles using specific, hierarchical, adult directed methods that  target the necessary movements for speech clarity.

Exercises to be completed at mealtime may also be  incorporated.  For example, when a child drinks from an open cup, we only want her to use her lips to take a sip.  We do not want her using her teeth  (jaw) on the cup.  It is best to see dissociation – the jaw, lips and tongue  working independently.  The same is true for removing pureed food from a spoon.  Children should remove the puree with only their lips.

We also want to eliminate the  use of pacifiers, bottles, sippy cups, and thumbsucking, as the suckling action that occurs  will work against all our efforts.   Nutrition should never be compromised; the  bottle or sippy cup should be removed when your child can drink effectively from  an open cup or straw.

I discuss the recommended exercises with parents during or at the end of each therapeutic session, and a written  program plan along with detailed instructions is consistently provided.  Parents  are encouraged to call or email me with questions about the homework in-between  sessions.

The specific sounds your child is having  difficulty producing are analyzed using a standardized test.  It is then  determined which, if any sounds are appropriate to address.  This depends on her ability to say the specific sound (maybe she can say the sound in isolation, but not in a word) and the muscle-based results.

I have found that using a muscle based  approach, along with traditional articulation therapy  increases speech clarity in conversation, rather than  simply at the word level.

If you have concerns about your child’s articulation skills and you live in Manhattan, please contact Stephanie at sayandplay@yahoo.com.  Stephanie visits children in their Upper East Side Manhattan homes.

 

Articulation, Oral Motor Therapy, Speech Therapy speech, speech therapy

Subscribe to This Blog:

Recent Posts

  • Tips for NYC Private School Admissions Results
  • Kindergarten Interview Math
  • FLI Assessment 2022-2023
  • Strong Writing Fingers
  • Making Connections While Reading

Categories

  • Articulation
  • Bilingual
  • ERB
  • Fine Motor
  • Gifted and Talented
  • Hearing
  • Kid Books
  • Kindergarten Prep
  • Language
  • Language Delay
  • Lisp
  • Occupational Therapy
  • Oral Motor Therapy
  • Pre-Reading
  • Reading
  • Speech Therapy
  • Tongue Thrust
© Copyright 2023. All Rights Reserved
Speech Therapy, Language & Oral Motor Therapy, and Kindergarten Prep
email: sayandplay@yahoo.com
phone: 646-295-4473