Hi All! October has to be one of my favorite months for creating activities. My kiddos especially love monsters, ghosts and more! The Old Lady (AKA Granny) is a favorite - Greedy Granny game, Sneaky Snacky Squirrel, Go Away Monster game (wait for it to go on sale - I got it for $14 last year!) , Old Lady Swallowed a Bat and Leaves. I can target so many goals with books and I love making book companions for my favorites, e.g. sentence building, pronouns, absurdities, etc. For speech sounds, if I’m working on L - I focus on Old Lady, If G or K I change the name to GRANNY - maybe add gobbled, go, get. I model blends at the same time. I go through the books to write all the target sounds on a post-it and model carrier phrases as well.

So I have a new student who is using the phonological process of FRONTING - she substitutes T for K and D for G. q3This year working on K and G. She is in preschool and turning 5 in December. Here are some strategies for K & G - I work on both sounds at the same time.

1. First I always use a timer on my phone - set it for 25 min - 5 min to write note to mom or quickly share info with teacher. We have had 6 sessions so far. This is everything we have done in 6 sessions and she is already able to produce beginning K and G in words and short phrases 80%. I found about 3 words she continued to produce /t/, but when I made it a nonsense word with the same vowel she could say it. We are in the process of shaping these words.

2. I started with Knowledge of Performance. This is the first place I start with any student working on phonemes. Knowledge of Performance is showing the student how a sound is made. I take out my mini mouth puppet from SuperDuper Publications and show student how the sound is made. I will show them my mouth and then use Speech Tutor Pro app ( big sale about twice a year) to watch a video with the movement of the tongue for K & G.

3. I utilize my PROMPT training and show prompt the student for the sound, placing my finger under back of the chin starting with /ggg/ (frog sound ) because you can actually feel the tongue move. Verbal prompt is mouth open, back of tongue is touching roof of mouth. I sometimes use a mirror if needed. In the past I have used a tongue depressor to hold tongue tip down.

4. To teach the K, I connect it to the CUT sound (when you say the word cut you really don’t produce the final t in connected speech. First activity is CUTTING - student says kukuku every time they cut believe it or not you can get about 50 repetitions!. ) I have an image I use to remind student. Then I chose an activities to work on core words, I start with “LIps Ready at the beginning of each session.”

• Then I made a G for her name with starts with a /g/ sound! She cut it out - kukukuku. She also played with playdough and CUT the dough - kukuku and made cookies. This is where Knowledge of Results come in - student is given feedback and praise on how they said their sound.

• We started a K dot paint game with a spinner - she imitated - cat (she has 2 cats), key, cook, cut, game, go, okay (we write OK too.) I will tie in a minimal pair as a semantic strategy, e.g. if she says tea - I’ll say, “Oh you want a cup of tea or do you want a key for the door?” I include letters too pairing the letter with the sound.

• Next session was cutting out pics for a HAUNTED HOUSE - key words - cut, key, ghost, color - we still need to finish this. I also created BUILD A HAUNTED HOUSE - we will do that next. We also played 3 other games - Pancake Pileup and the Pop Fidget game - I hid a mini object CAKE under the fidget. We took turns saying I go, spin the spinner and POP - the winner is whoever finds the object - you can feel the object when you press down the popper. She loved this! You can add 2 or 3 mini objects under the popper! Playing COOKIE DOODLE on the iPad - practiced cookie, crack, egg, cook, bake, sugar, cut butter

• Battat Shape Sorter House - I am converting to a Haunted House - work in progress - she will request a color key to open a door which has a Halloween windup - will work on more carrier phrases. Greedy Granny and Raccoon Rumpus are in my back pocket too!

  LAST NOTE: CONNECT WITH PARENTS TO ENSURE CARRY OVER AT HOME - give ideas e.g. scavenger hunt in the house - put words on post-its - kids can draw pics too - kitchen, cook, corn, popcorn, cookie, cracker, comb, car, closet, cabinet, game, ghost, girl, goat, glue. Using carrier phrases, eg, I go, I got, Can I?. When parent hears a word with their sound they can say and model the word, , e.g. “Car” - that’s your sound - car has a K sound.”

Please don’t hesitate to let me know if you like any of these ideas or if you have additional ideas that I can post in the next blog!

PRESCHOOL SPEECHIE PLUS JUST HAD A MAKEOVER!                                            INTRO PAGE NOW HAS LINKS TO TOPICS OF INTEREST!!

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PLEASE CHECK OUT THE SEASONAL FALL SECTION FOR MORE IDEAS!. SEASONAL LINK IS IN THE HEADER, INTRO OR CLICK HERE . You will find some FREEBIES here, e.g. Five Little Pumpkins, Monsters, Make Your Own Feed the Old Lady & More DIY

Enjoy!

Ricki