More than any other question, Bri and I get asked, “How should we work on this at home?”  Today I will give you a few fun ideas to target your speech therapy homework at home.  Kids tend to work better when something is fun or there is an incentive. These ideas will help make your speech homework both fun and rewarding!

• Play ‘I spy’ – you can play this anywhere, at home, in the car, at the grocery store, etc.  Have your child find words that either fit into the vocabulary they need to work on, the sound they need to work on, or work on building the length and grammar of their sentences.
• Detective – What child doesn’t want to be a detective?  Have your child look for items that begin with their sound or have the sound they are working on and put a picture in their detective book.  It helps you think of new words and it also keeps them organized.
• Penny jar(s) – For this activity you need two jars or containers and $1 of pennies.  Place 50 pennies in your jar and 50 pennies in your child’s jar.  Choose 5-10 target words and write them down then post it where everyone can see.  Throughout the day, if your child says one of the words correct without being reminded, they get one of your pennies.  If you catch them saying it “the old way” you get one of their pennies.  The goal is for your child to earn all of your pennies (and possibly a greater reward by doing so). Penny jars is a great way to help your child become more independent using new sounds in conversation.
• Hide and go seek – Take your target words/vocabulary and hide them around the house.  Send your child off to find the words.  Even this little movement makes them feel like they are doing something a little more fun than drill work. You can then practice the words in sentences talking about where you found each word.
• Collage making – For those wonderful children who are artistically driven, have them make collages for their target sound or vocabulary.
• Story telling – Rather than just reading to your child (WHICH IS GREAT), have your child tell you the story.  This activity targets excellent vocabulary building, has them work on their nouns, adjectives, and verbs, as well as increasing their sentence length.
• Play games – Play fun board games like Candy Land, Trouble, Sorry, etc.  Simply paying these games helps children work on skills such as turn taking and sportsmanship. You can also target their specific sounds or vocabulary.  Every time they take a turn they say 5 good target words.
• Categories game – This is an excellent activity when you are on the go.  Give your child a category and have them name 3, 5, or 10 items in the category. See who can think of the most.
• 20 Questions – For older children working on language, have them think of a person, place, or thing and you ask yes/no questions to figure out what they are thinking.  Then you can reverse the roll.  This activity is great for improving vocabulary skills and understanding of different types of questions.

Last but not least: HAVE FUN!  We learn best when we are having fun.  Keeping a positive attitude and being creative with your children makes any activity more enjoyable.  Those few extra minutes you spend working with your child on their speech therapy homework will help tenfold in the future! We are ALWAYS happy to replace your words if you “ruin” them having fun!!