We’ve been talking about using books to expand expressive and receptive language skills, but did you know books are also helping improving speech sounds? The key is to choose books that contain tons of repetition of specific sounds.
If you’ve ever sat in on an articulation session, you’ve probably noticed the SLP starting the session reading a list of words with a specific sound to the child. In the speech world, we call this Auditory Bombardment. There’s evidence behind hearing a sound multiple times over the course of a few minutes and improvement on speech sound production. Reading a book can supply the same benefits, if the sounds is in the story enough times. For example, I love reading “The Old Lady Series” to my kids working on S and SH sounds since each story contains the repetitive line, “I don’t know why She Swallowed the …”. This gives the client ample opportunities to hear the sound.
Children are also more likely to be motivated to practice sounds, through reading stories than through drill practice. Read the same story enough times and your child will likely be able to fill in missing words. Pause while reading and see if your child can finish the sentence. The key is to choose the part of the sentence that contains the word with the speech sound.
What books will you be reading this summer to target speech sounds?
Talk soon, Kim
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