Why Your Child’s Speech Skills Are Important
Speech skills are extremely important to good communication. Good communication is important for many reasons but critical to the development of literacy skills and future academic success as well as social development. Speech skills start with proper articulation. Articulation is the placement of the articulators (e.g., tongue, teeth, lips) and in the timing, direction, force, and speed of movements for the correct production of speech sounds.
Working with children to improve speech sound production is more complicated than just reminding them to use their sounds. Examples of speech difficulties would be if your child uses the ‘f ’ sound for the ‘th’ sound, like ‘fum’ for ‘thumb,’ or ‘baf ’ for ‘bath.’ If the sound is stimulable (i.e., the child can produce the correct sound by him or herself ), then therapy can begin.
About Our Program
Our Parent Articulation Training Program is designed to teach parents how they can help their children overcome mild articulation difficulties through training and proper resources for home use. A training workshop is normally offered in the evenings at the District’s administration building on Greenbank Road.
At the training workshop you will receive an overview of speech sound development, the stages and phases of therapy, as well as games and ideas for working with your child. If you wish, you will be able to participate in a demonstration therapy session. Individualized home program materials will also be provided.
What Parents Can Do
Talk to the classroom teacher to see if your child participates orally in the classroom. Sometimes when children are aware of their articulation difficulties they prefer to speak only to a few friends rather than in front of a whole group.
Listen to your child speak with their peers, siblings, and other adults. Listen to see if your child is understood by everyone or if they have to keep repeating what they have said.
Review the impact that your child's speaking has on their reading, spelling, and writing. Do you see the same errors in their printing as their speech errors? For example, are they printing 'wed' instead of 'red'?
Check your child's hearing. Sometimes fluctuating hearing due to fluid, wax, etc. can have a significant impact on your child's speech production.
How To Get Help
If you have any questions or concerns about your child’s speech sound production abilities, please call your child’s teacher or contact the speech and language pathologist serving your child’s school. The speech and language pathologist must assess your child’s speech sound production abilities and help determine if a referral to the Parent Articulation Training Program is appropriate.
Dates for the 2016/2017 Learning Support Services Parent Articulation Training Workshops are as follows:
November 3, 2016
January 12, 2017
March 2, 2017
June 1, 2017
They continue to be on Thursday evenings in the cafeteria at the board office, 133 Greenbank Rd. Registration begins at 5:45 p.m. and the workshop begins promptly at 6:05 and ends at 7:30 p.m.