Speech and Language Pathologists are essential in assisting youngsters in improving their coordination of speech movements when moving from one syllable to the next. Some children suffer from childhood apraxia of speech. A youngster with apraxia may utter a word correctly (for example, tomato) and then transmit it as (pagu) or (gogu) a few minutes later. Syllable shapes and multisyllabic words are used during play (bah-gah-puh, mah-gee-moo, dah-bee-doo).
The character Scooby Doo comes to mind. Do you remember Shaggy’s “Scooby-Dooby-Doo?” CV (consonant/vowel) VC (vowel/consonant) and CVCV (consonant/vowel/consonant/vowel) syllable shapes are examples of early syllable shapes. Games can be created by your Speech and Language Pathologist to enhance your child’s syllabic shapes.
Here are some tried-and-true tactics for starting students to consider.
Eventually, children learn to use common phrases such as:
I need help, my turn now
- vary your intonation
- sing the phrase
- say the phrase in a high pitch
- place the stress on different words
- exaggerate the phrase
- say the phrase with different feelings
- incorporate phrases into a social story
- say the phrase in a low pitch
- reduce volume or loudness
Therapy should be enjoyable, appealing and amusing for your child.
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