By Pam Marshalla
Q: I have a preschool client who prevocalically voices everything – b/p, d/t, g/k, and so forth. Do you have any suggestions? Most kids get voicelessness in the final position months before they can do it in the initial position. Here is the order in which I usually work these sounds into the child’s phonological repertoire: Take a step back and work on final voiceless stops — /p/, /t/ and /k/. Use words like up, cup, eat, out, ick, book….
By Pam Marshalla
Q: My preschool client uses a whisper instead of a “real voice” when he talks. We are using PECS with him, and he can build sentences up to 5 words. Do you have suggestions for developing his voice? First, he needs to be seen by a physician – an ENT – to determine if there is a medical reason for his lack of voice: nodules, polyps, paralysis, malformation, etc.. You need this so you know what you are working with….
By Pam Marshalla
Q: I use your “butterfly position” on many school age kids and most of them are able to understand it and follow directions. However, many of the preschoolers have a hard time understanding “biting the sides of their tongues.” Do you have a different way of approaching preschoolers when you want to stabilize the back of their tongues? I also have found that many preschoolers have a hard time understanding how to make the butterfly position. And children with lower…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: I have a preschool student who produces vocalic /r/ with more of a [ng] phoneme. If I address it, what can I do? There are always several ways to attack a question about articulation therapy. Let me offer two basic ideas to try: Normal Path of Development You could teach the client to substitute w/r instead if she can do a /w/ correctly without nasality. Teach her to say “Rabbit” as “Wabbit” and so forth. That puts her development…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: I am a preschool teacher and am wondering how to teach the “K” sound to one of my students. Let’s broaden your question to: How does one teach a child to say a new phoneme? This is what I would tell a preschool teacher: Show her how to make the sound: Ask her to watch and listen to you say the sound. Pause slightly before you say it. Make the sound stand out by saying it a little louder, by…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: How often should a young child (2-4 years of age) with apraxia or dysarthria receive speech-language therapy services? I have a baseline that all my clients with motor speech disorders have to meet. They must attend once per week for one hour at a minimum. Twice per week is very nice. Three times per week is a complete luxury. More than that is unnecessary because these children do not change very fast. Children with motor speech disorders take a…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: Is it wise to talk to a preschool child with childhood apraxia about their disorder? I never tell little kids that they have a disorder. I let them know that they are speaking very well, that they are still learning, and that I am thrilled that they are speaking as well as they are. Often I imitate back to the child what he said and how he said it, then I model for him how to say it better….
By Pam Marshalla
Q: Do you recommend therapy breaks for preschoolers with phonological delay? For example, summer off after the year of early childhood in a public school? I have usually found that a break from therapy (especially in the summer) is a fruitful experience for kids. Most often they come back to therapy having made considerable progress on their own. It always seemed to me that all that sunshine, gross motor activity, and new experiences helped them move along. Plus, they are…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: My preschool client with apparent childhood apraxia is not willing to participate and often walks away from or gets annoyed with therapy plans and procedures. What should I do? He sounds like most of the kids on my caseload. Childhood apraxia comes with its pure stubbornness at times. But I don’t think that “behavior” itself is always the issue. There is a reason for the stubborn behavior. What I usually see with preschool kids like this is that they…
