Let’s be honest, completing speech therapy at home isn’t always easy. I have no done speech therapy homework with my son for two years. There are days he happily complies and practices his heart out, and there are days full of tears, whining, and all out fits. Over all this time, though, I have learned a few tips and trips to help make it more successful. Here are 10 ways to practice speech therapy at home (and make it fun!)
1. The Mailbox
Hands down, my favorite and most beneficial trick is my mailbox. This is a simple and cheap mailbox that I decorated years and years ago to use in my classroom. I now use it at home for speech therapy homework practice. The idea is simple: whatever you are practicing that day or using as a help or resources to go with your homework, stick it in the mailbox. I sometimes stick it in minutes before our practice session, and sometimes hours before. Put up the flag to let the child know something is inside. It builds the excitement and gets the ready to start practicing. I always make it a big deal when its time to open the mailbox and we can’t wait to open it up, find out what’s inside, and start working!
2. Combine practice with other learning topics
9 times out of 10 if I say, “Brody it’s time to practice speech,” I hear groans in the background. Instead if I say, “Hey Brody, we’re going to play a game to practice our colors” (or whatever other educational topic we might be learning about) he gets much more excited to learn. Here we were practicing the color green. He had to run around and find all the toys that were green in our house in 3 minutes. Then, we counted the green objects and every time we held one up he practiced a speech phrase he was working on. We killed 3 birds with one stone: exercise, practicing the color green, and speech homework. Combining multiple learning topics is a great way to practice speech therapy at home.
3. Make it seasonal
I have worked with my 2 year old all the way up to teaching 6th graders. It doesn’t matter their age- holidays are so important to children! So, I’ve learned that if I make our speech therapy focused on the season at hand it makes learning so much more fun. Keep it simple. We rotate holiday themed sensory bins. We learn holiday songs that have specific sounds we are working on. And, for this fun activity we matched pumpkin pictures together to practice specific speech sounds for that week.
4. Use art
My son was 4 when we did this activity at home. It was close to Dr. Seuss Day and we had learned about the Cat in the Hat. I decided to do a step by step art project for our speech therapy homework. We were supposed to practice words that started in D. So, I drew a shape, he copied drawing that shape, and as he drew he said an initial D sound word over and over again. Then, when he finished drawing that shape we moved on to a new shape and a new word. This could be done with so many different art projects, but it was simple, fun, and kept him entertained.
5. Sensory Bins are Key
I have decided, in all of our hours of practicing, that if I took away all of my tricks, games, and ideas, as long as I still had sensory bins we could accomplish almost any speech therapy homework task. Sensory bins are SO versatile. I often fill it with a fun filling (our favorites are water beads, beans, crumpled paper, and pom pom balls) and then pictures of words we need to practice. Usually we will match the same pictures together and then practice saying the words that correlate with the picture. However you choose to practice your homework for the week, putting it in a sensory bin will automatically make it more exciting and engaging.
6. Make it a game
Anytime you can make speech therapy homework a game, it will automatically go much more smoothly. You can keep your games simple, like playing hopscotch outside with speech therapy words written on each square. Or, play tic tac toe and each time someone wins they have to say a specific phrase from your homework list. It can also take a little more preparation but also be a little more fun to prepare games with printable pictures and hands on activities. Here, I printed off these D picture rings We set up an obstacle course through the house and he placed the D pictures one at a time on our spaghetti tower, pictured above, and practiced saying the word. You can find that activity here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/D-Sound-Speech-and-Language-Curriculum-4165209
Hands down, the best way to get through your speech therapy homework, go prepared to your next session, and help your child succeed is to try a few of these tricks and to dedicate your time each week to accomplishing their homework. It’s not easy with the hundreds of other things you have to do each week, but a little preparation and a lot of smiles can make the sessions go more smoothly and help more growth happen!
If you want to see more ideas related to specific sounds with loads of printables, book ideas, songs, and more, check out the link below:
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Speech-and-Language-Curriculum-Growing-Bundle-3882093