You probably have some emerging readers on your caseload. I certainly have quite a few! While working on articulation with my emerging readers, I like using lots of visuals in my therapy sessions. However, when those students master word and sentence level and are ready to work in connected speech, I find it super tricky to find activities that will target their generalization of skills and carryover without requiring them to read. I decided to find and make resources that include vibrant visuals in connected speech, and would like to share these activities with you all! Here’s a list of my 5 best activities to support articulation carryover for emerging readers.
1. Would You Rather
Would You Rather activities are perfect because the speech therapist can read the question to the students and get them to answer. I prefer Would You Rather activities with pictures included to support the child using the visuals. I like to use regular Would You Rather activities that have visuals or even an innovative dice-edition of Would You Rather so the students can replay the activity over and over and get novel utterances!
Want to try the freebie for Would You Rather – Winter Dice Edition? Get the freebie which includes /s, z/ and /s/ blends on TPT!
2. Guessing Games
I use either articulation cards or the Articulation Station App to get the student to guess what I’m describing. I will get the deck with the student’s target sounds and describe items I see. The student has 2 minutes to guess as many as they can. Then, we switch and the student has 2 minutes to describe to me (while paying attention to their speech sound) what the pictures are. The added time pressure is a great opportunity for students to practice their self-monitoring skills in a fun way! You can also do this using Headbandz or Heads up Charades.
3. Roll a Story
In Roll a Story activities, the student rolls the dice to select a character, a place, and an event. Then, they create a story and can refer back to the elements of the story by just looking at the pictures! There’s of course the word next to it so the student can see the word associated with the picture. They can make so many novel utterances and stories when they roll various characters, places and events. It’s perfect carryover practice for emerging readers!
Try out the Roll a Story activity in the FREE vocalic R home program!
4. Articulation Menu
I love using articulation menus because it offers naturalistic and fun practice! Student can place their order and talk about the food items using the visuals. I like doing role plays where I start by taking the student’s order and model different ways to use their targets. It’s great for the students to use their creativity as well! For example, if you’re working on /s/ and one of the words is “ice cream”, you can expand on the item and ask the student if they want “raspberry ice cream” or “strawberry ice cream” etc. I like to go first to model various different ways to have fun with the articulation menu. The students pick up on that right away and do the same on their turn when we switch places!
Articulation menus are also great in a group. One student can go up to the other student and take their order. It is also a great way to get the students moving around and to engage everyone in the therapy group. The student who is taking the order can use the menu to practice their speech sound. The other students can practice that sound as well or provide peer-modelling for the correct production for the student who is practicing. Win-win!
Try out the articulation menu activity in the FREE vocalic R home program!
5. Picture Scenes
Picture scenes are great because I can listen to my students speaking in conversation as they describe the picture. You can support their ability to self-monitor their own speech while they’re describing the picture scene to help carryover the speech sound to conversation! It’s also super easy to use with groups as picture scenes can keep the other students busy while they color and wait for their turn, which is one of the many reasons why I love using picture scenes in articulation groups.
We’ve discussed 5 of my best activities you can use to support articulation carryover with your younger students or emerging readers! I usually use 1-2 per session once my students are at the connected speech level. My students have a blast with each of these activities! Which ones do you like to use? Let me know at [email protected]!
