Educating Teachers About Articulation

Last week I presented to the staff of LEAP International Montessori School about articulation development, delays, and treatment strategies. It was a fun hour, and I truly enjoyed sharing specialized information to help educators understand the anatomy, physiology, learning, practice, and cues necessary to help children produce mature speech sounds.

Here are some of the highlights:

·      Review of the brain, ears, and speech mechanism (lungs, larynx, mouth, nasal cavity)

·      Infants less than 24-hours-old can discriminate between sounds (we are built for language!)

·      Cooing is the beginning of vowel production

·      Babbling in the beginning of consonant production

·      18-month-old toddlers should be 25% intelligible and 4-year-old children should be 100% intelligible

·      The most common simplification patterns include backing, fronting, stopping, gliding, initial consonant deletion, final consonant deletion, and consonant cluster reduction

·      Positively reinforce all communication

·      Allow extended processing time and extended planning / executing time

·      Probe for auditory discrimination

·      Model with verbal and gestural cues

If you or your team is interested in a presentation related to speech or language skills, then contact me at sara@soundstepsintervention.com !