Symbolic play is a childs ability to use

Symbolic play is a child’s ability to use one object or action to represent another. This is an important early social communication skill. Here are some examples for play at home: Articulation refers to the way we use our oral cavity (i. e. lips, teeth, tongue, vocal cords) to produce speech sounds. • Play kitchen time! Make cupcakes, put juice in the refrigerator, make mom dinner! in a certain sequence. • Doll or teddy bear pretend play. Feed the bear, put doll to sleep give her a bottle. • Play doctor! Use a long necklace as a stethoscope & some ribbon as a Band-Aid. • Use a paper towel roll as a hose. Pretend to be a firefighter • Play zoo! Turn laundry baskets upside down as the cages for your stuffed animals. Bear Wants More by Karma Wilson This book includes many different early developing sounds including “b” “w” and “m. ” The phrase “bear wants more” is repeated often throughout the book giving you plenty of chances to model and your child many opportunities to repeat the phrase. Sound Development for many children occurs Early 8: m, b, y, n, w, d, p, h Middle 8: t, ng, k, g, f, v, ch, j Late 8: sh, s, z, l, r, zh, th Each child is unique and may develop the above sounds in a different sequence. Errors in Typical Development It is not uncommon for children to make errors while learning to speak. Certain sounds can be more challenging to form with your mouth, making them naturally later developing sounds. Developmental errors such as substituting “w” for “r” and “l” are common up until a certain age. If these errors persist, however, the child may have a speech sound disorder. Intelligibility refers to the way we are understood by our listener. As a child develops speech, we cannot expect them to be 100% intelligible all the time. They are still learning! As a child grows his/her intelligibility should become more stable. Focus on understanding the entire message rather than individual sounds or words. For some children a verbal cue may not be enough. In this case a tactile, or touch cue, can be helpful. For example, gently touching the lips before saying a lip sound such as “m” or “b” can help ease your child into a correct production of the sound. Some other examples include, touching the top of your neck to indicate back throat sounds, “k” and “g” or touching a finger to the bumpy ridge behind your teeth for sounds “t” and “d. ” Tactile cues are more of an advanced prompt, so be sure to only do these under the guidance of your SLP. Klamath Early Childhood Intervention SLP Team- 541 -883 -4748