Articulation Therapy Ideas

Articulation is an aspect of pronunciation that involves bringing articulatory organs together, so as to shape the sounds of phonemes (speech). The main articulatory organs are tongue, upper and lower lip, upper teeth, upper gum ridge (alveolar ridge), hard palate, velum, pharyngeal wall, uvula, and glottis.

When any one of these organs malfunction or are undeveloped, they produce irrelevant and incoherent sounds, that result in articulation disorders.

Articulation disorders, also known as phonetic disorders, come under the broad spectrum of speech disorders. They are mostly found in children, and can be corrected with early diagnoses and treatment.

All therapies have the same basic objective ― to teach the use of phonemic sounds meaningfully and distinctly and correct mispronounced sounds of consonants and vowels. Following are a few ideas that can be easily practiced.

Children enjoy playing with colorful alphabet blocks. Ask them to recognize the alphabets and at the same time, teach them the concept of consonants and vowels. Once they start clearly pronouncing the alphabets, start with two-three letter words.

For example, teach them the difference in the sounds made while pronouncing of and off. Gradually, lead them to more difficult words.

Take your children through different routes each day and point out things for them to pronounce. Start with the things in and around the house. Follow-up with a walk in the park or a shopping mall. It is important to make them understand the meaning of the words they pronounce, as it will enhance correct usage of the language.

It aims to understand the target sound and the ability to recognize the alphabets or words that contain that particular sound. One needs four colorful baskets, picture cards, and alphabet (sound) cards.

The first basket should contain picture cards (animals or objects), second should have the beginning of the target sound, third will have the middle target sound, and the fourth shall have the end target sound. Ask the child to pick one picture card, pronounce the word and select from the other baskets, the beginning, middle, or end of the target sounds.

As children enjoy and learn faster in their own age group, this game can help them pick a lot of new words, and encourage the use of full sentences to express themselves.

• Teach them to pronounce each others name singularly and collectively.
• Ask them to collect target sound cards of the words pronounced and place them in order.

• Also ask them to describe the color of their attire.
• Show them the picture cards of animals, objects, any sporty games, and ask for correct pronunciation.
• Reward them with a second chance and an applause every time they are correct.

Art Projects: This method works well for older children (above 10 years), and will encourage categorizing and organizing. Make them cut pictures of objects containing similar target sounds from magazines, newspapers, coloring books, etc. Help them to arrange and glue the pictures onto a piece of cardboard or a craft book.

Speaking in front of a receptive and appreciative audience will boost the child's language skills. Reciting rhyming poetry is an excellent way to teach phonemes to produce different sounding words. For e.g., the end sound of K, with different beginning sounds such as cake, bake, wake, rake, make, take, etc.

Most of the above mentioned ideas should be only implemented after consultation with a qualified speech pathologist. Teaching a child with speech disorders can be difficult even for parents who are patient in nature.

However, patience and constant encouragement will speed up progress, and help the child to overcome articulation disorders. These ideas can also be used by people who want to encourage good and clear pronunciation in their wards.