I'll let you in on a little secret - you can use ANY activity in Childhood Apraxia of Speech treatment, as long as you are getting a LOT of productions and using the Principles of Motor Learning! Books, games, toys, and songs are all appropriate activities.
Read to see how you can tonne of trials during your speech therapy sessions with your preschoolers, toddlers, and kindergartens with Childhood Apraxia of Speech.
If you’ve been here for a hot minute, you know that I love natural, play-based therapy. This stands true for my students with Apraxia. I’ve put together my top play-based therapy activities for students with Apraxia of Speech. Remember - this is just an example of how you can take target words and incorporate them into play!
1) Repetitive Books: These are my GO-TO for therapy for my students with Apraxia of Speech. The repetitive nature allows for a tonne of trials since target words appear over and over.
The predictability of repetitive stories allows my students to learn the text and build independence in saying their words!
I found some of my students don’t LOVE sitting for stories, so I created an entire line of Repetitive and Interactive Stories designed specifically for Children with Apraxia of Speech. Check them out here!
Students love the hands-on component of each story and I love that they are loaded with early word shapes! (For more reasons WHY you should be using repetitive books, check out this blog!)
2) Dollhouse with people and animals: There are SO many early word shapes that you can target with a dollhouse! The best part is that these are all words that your students will be using ALL THE TIME.
You can target words such as mama, up, uh oh, dada, down, mine, me, show, up, in, out! Most families also own a dollhouse, so it is also a great toy to encourage practice at home.
To encourage students to say these words, set up play routines. For example, have all the family members climb "UP' the stairs one by one. Another idea is to have them all "EA" a piece of food. By using a number of chracters and getting them to do the same thing, you can get a LOT of trials! The best part is your students won't even know they're practicing!
3) Songs: Nursery rhymes and music are perfect for Apraxia of Speech because they are repetitive AND they have varied intonation (to read more about target intonation, check out this blog post)!
You can pair the songs with fingerplays to make it even more interactive for your student.
Some of my favorite songs are Five Green and Speckled Frogs, Old McDonald Had a Farm, and Ring Around the Rosie.
Songs are so easy to find on Youtube and are a quick homework activity to send home with families.
4) Anything the child enjoys: This might sound silly, but ANY game, activity, toy, or book your student likes is PERFECT for therapy. Why? Because you can get a GREAT list of FUNCTIONAL words that your student will use ALL the time!
So, if you students LOVES Transformers, learning how to say “Bumblebee” will be important to them! You can ask your student to bring one activity/game/toy per session! (It’s also great to send these words for homework because you KNOW that the child will be using these items at home!).
Do you want to know my secret to using play-based activities to target Apraxia of Speech?
A comprehensive list of simple and functional words that I can use in ANY activity!
I have compiled a list of the words I target most often with my little ones that you start using today! Check it out here.
Remember - at the end of the day, you don’t need any fancy resources! You can use the materials, games, and toys that you already own.
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