Modeling Good Speech Reduces the Need for Speech Therapy

Modeling back good speech is a powerful way to help children learn speech sounds and good grammar. In some cases it can even decrease the need for speech-language therapy.

For sounds:

• When your child says a word and “misses” a sound say the word back to them in a very positive way placing emphasis on the sound that they had problems with. Place emphasis by saying the sound louder, longer, by tapping your finger on the side of your mouth when you say the sound and by repeating it. If he said “The tat is nice” you could say “Yes, that is a very nice cat. I like cats. I think the cat likes you. Look the cat has a brown foot.” By repeating the word several times you are adding power to the modeling. Of course you would never want to correct your child in a way that would make them feel bad about how they are talking. Saying “No that’s not the right sound. Say it this way, say cat.”, only makes your child feel bad about their talking.
• Once your child has gotten fairly good at saying the sounds you could draw their attention to problem sounds a bit more by asking if they heard the right sound when they say a word. If he tried to say “spoon” and it came out “poon”, you could say, “Hmmm, I didn’t hear the snake (s) sound, did you? Lets try again.” Giving sounds labels such as “the snake sound” often helps younger children understand what you mean. Make sure to also point out times where your child has gotten sounds that he is working on right. Especially praise times where your child goes back and “fixes” sounds on his own.