Speech-language Newsletter
READING
Reading to improve speech-language skills
The Speaking, Listening, Reading, Writing Connection: LANGUAGE is the Key!
Strong listening comprehension and oral expression skills intersect with strong reading and writing skills--------they are all language-based! Interacting often with high-quality books by listening to them being read, talking about them, reading them, and writing about them helps develop your child’s language skills. Strong language skills help your child to be successful in school.
Improve language skills
Do you read to your child every night? Even after your child learns to read, it is an excellent practice to continue to read aloud AND to discuss the book you are sharing. The benefits are substantial and include:
1. Supports listening and reading comprehension
2. Helps to improve academic performance
3. Aids with writing skills
4. Exposure to more sophisticated vocabulary
5. Builds background knowledge
6. Increases familiarity with more complex sentence structures
7. Children are likely to pick up a book to read on their own if they have heard an adult read it to them first
8. Offers opportunities for parents and children to spend enjoyable time together
Common Core Standards
Improve Articulation
Using Books to Aid with Articulation Practice: You can use any book (or magazine) at home to help your child practice targeted speech sounds. Keep in mind the level of production your child is working on in speech support. You only want to practice at home at the level where they can be successful.
Ideas For Books To Enhance Articulation Skills
by Harriett Hoeprich, Speech/Language Specialist
Click here for a brief beginning list of possible books to enhance articulation skills. One reason that reading can be a helpful way of enhancing articulation is by "bombarding" the child with many opportunities to hear the correct pronunciation of the targeted sound. When you know your child has worked on a certain sound in therapy, it can also be another way to practice new skills. When you talk about the book with your child, the sound should come up naturally because of the topic or words in the book. You can use a "closure" technique to elicit certain words, if you feel fairly confident that your child can produce the sound. (For example: "Caps for sale! Fifty cents a ____." letting your child fill in the blank.) Or you could have the child "read" part of the book with you, if it's a story he is very familiar with. Very repetitive stories are also helpful in eliciting phrases--such as "Polar Bear, Polar Bear, what do you hear?"
Remember to use a very natural, low-key approach. Drilling under pressure will probably result in the child disliking the activity and possibly the whole idea of reading and speaking, which is certainly not your goal! Remember that even if your child is "only" listening, she is still gaining the auditory bombardment of the sound and opportunities to hear the correct pronunciation in a controlled setting, not to mention all the other benefits of spending time with you and reading.
Examples of ways you can practice articulation with books
2. Find words with your sound and make flashcards with them
3. Summarize the story using appropriate articulation
4. Tape yourself reading and see how your articulation sounds
5. Keep a notebook with 15 words that contain your sound. Put a tally mark each time the word is written in your book.
6. Find 5 sentences from the text and say all words within the sentence that have your sound correctly.
Improve Fluency
When a person who stutters is reading, they don't stutter nearly as much as when they are talking. So, it's a good idea for a stutterer to practice reading aloud using a slow but steady pace. By reading out loud, you are internalizing the pace where you can talk without stumbling over words. Encourage your child to use phrasing which is pausing at natural linguistic breaks such as commas and end marks. Other suggestions to enhance fluency:
1. choral reading
2. acting out plays
3. repetitive phrase books
4. rhythmic poems
5. put a slash mark to break up any sentence that is more than 5 words
Follow this link for information on stuttering and reading fluency
How to help your child select a book
Mrs. Jamie Pasternack, SLP
Email: jpasternack@cheltenham.org
Website: http://www.cheltenham.org/webpages/jpasternack/
Phone: 215-881-6440