Speech therapy is one of the most important services we can give our children who have T21. However, in many states homeschoolers do not have access to publicly funded speech therapy services. Private speech therapy services are a wonderful option if you can afford them. Even then, sometimes the waiting list to get into private services are long.
Another option, which we benefitted from, is to find a university that has a graduate program for speech language pathologists. These programs need children for their graduate students to gain experience with. These services are generally much more affordable than private services and the sessions are usually supervised by highly experienced therapists. I learned so much by watching my son’s speech therapy sessions and having weekly conversations with my son’s speech supervisor at Loyola College. Having served the Down Syndrome population for over 30 years, she had a wealth of knowledge and experience which she so generously shared. Knowing my son needed daily speech practice, I would take note of everything the therapists did during each session and find similar resources to practice the skills he was working on in therapy at home.
When it comes to the acquisition of language skills, time is not on our side. Because plasticity of the brain is greatest when children are young, I try to prioritize speech, targeting specific skills and working on them in a structured and non-structured way every day. Generally, children with T21 have so much to work on in order to develop their speech skills, from articulation to receptive and expressive language, to grammar and semantics, and so on.
So, in the event that your child has no or not enough access to speech therapy, I’m sharing some of the speech therapy resources my son and I have found most helpful. I am not a speech language pathologist, but most of these resources have been designed by SLPs and are quite straight forward to use.
Articulation
Arcticulation cards – this is a link to the bundle, but they come in smaller sets. Buy only the set you need. These offer practice of targeted sounds at the word, phrase, sentence, and sound-loaded sentence level. We have used these to work on /v/ and /h/ and will continue to use them to practice /ng/ and /th/.
Minimal Pairs Toolkit from Adventures in Speech Pathology. If your child often mixes up two sounds, (such as always substituting /f/ for /th/) try using the Minimal Pairs Toolkits. (You will need to find the right kit based on the substitutions your child is making at the Adventures in Speech Pathology Store. If your child is mixing up /y/ and /l/, try this set: Minimal Pairs L and Y Gliding.
Practicing articulation can get tiresome because it requires a lot of drill. Finding ways to make games out of articulation practice is a good way to motivate our kids. This particular one is for practice with the /v/ sound. You can find lots of articulation bingo games at TeachersPayTeachers.
These Three-Syllable Word Cards are available on this blog for free. First practice just saying the word while pointing to the dots (one dot per syllable). Next move on to repeating the sentences. Four-Syllable Word Cards are also availiable for free 🙂
Verbs
Verb and Action Words Cards – My son really enjoys working with these. I put out five cards at a time, and I name the action for him. Next, I have him select the action I call out. After that, he makes a sentence about each card, such as “The girl is sleeping.” We also practice using pronouns and prepositions in our sentences.
Here’s another simple way to practice verbs: every time you’re reading a book together, point to pictures in the book and ask, “What is he/she doing?” Encourage your child to answer with complete sentences.
Verb Tenses in Photos is a great visual way for our kids to learn about future, present, and past tenses. I really like that this resource uses real pictures instead of cartoon people. Be sure to act out the verbs, too!
Emotions
This set of Emotion Cards has been fun to use. We sort the cards by emotion, and practice acting them out. We make sentences using pronouns, such as “She feels tired.” Since my son can read, once he became adept at sorting the cards, I cut off the words and wrote the answer on the back of the cards. Now we play “Guess the emotion.” We also talk about what makes him feel happy, excited, scared, and so on. To carry over, I ask my son to identify the emotions in pictures books as well as in real life.
All of the Bear Books by Karma Wilson are great for talking about emotions. Each book features a different emotion that bear feels: tired, hungry, excited, curious, sick, etc.
Prepositions
“Begin teaching prepositions by having him act them out with props,” instructed my son’s speech supervisor. So I made these preposition action cards, which are available free on this blog. They cover prepositions of movement (such as across and around) and place (such as in, out, under, on top).
These cards (also for free on the blog) offers more practice using prepositions. There are three sets available: Set 1: In and On, Set 2: Behind, In front of, Beside, and Set 3: On top of, Over, and Under. Practice one preposition at a time before mixing the cards up.
It’s also important to practice prepositions in the context of real life, for example: put your shoes in the closet or put the book on the table. To give your child practice using prepositions expressively you can ask questions such as, “Where do the shoes go?”. Then, reinforce the correct answer while emphasizing the preposition: Yes, they go in the closet. In the closet.
Pronouns
Pronouns for Early Learners is a great hands-on way to systematically teach the pronouns. I use this to help my son understand and practice using subject pronouns, object pronouns, and possessive pronouns. Sometimes, instead of using the sheets, we use Duplo people and small trinkets.
Word Associations
Many children with T21 have difficulty with word retrieval. Building word associations may help our kids recall words. Word associations we have worked on thus far are: object function, go-togethers, opposites, and categories.
Object Function
Object Function Speech Therapy Activity I like that these cards are large and uncluttered. At first, for each card, I would give him three cards to choose the answer from. Eventually, he was able to simply tell me the function without visual choices. Carry over into real life by walking around the house and asking “What do you do with….?”
Go-Togethers
What Goes Together? Puzzle – To help with errorless learning, give your child only four pieces at a time.
Opposites
Opposites Flash Cards – To teach opposites:
- 1. Demonstrate how to pair the opposites together,
- 2. Ask, “What’s the opposite of ______?” Give your child three cards to choose from.
- 3. Give your child 3 pairs of opposites and help him/her match the pairs
Categories
Categories Flash Cards – Help your child sort the cards into their different categories while naming the item and the category. For example: A drum is an instrument.
This Doug and Melissa Play House Sticker Pad is great for playing Where Does It Belong? Categorize household items by the rooms where they belong. Use simple sentences such as “An oven belongs in the kitchen.” My son really enjoys all the Doug and Melissa Sticker Pads.
Sequencing
3-Step Photo Sequence Cards – We used these to practice sequencing, an important skill since speech itself is made up of sequences of words.
Sequencing events in picture books is another great way to practice this skill and to strengthen comprehension.
You may have noticed that most of these resources are flashcards. It is really important that in addition to practicing with flashcards, we help our children practice these skills during play-based therapy. This will help them generalize these skills and use them in real life.
Finally, two of my favorite SLPs to watch on Youtube for ideas are:
Laura Mize at Teach Me to Talk
and Kellie Meyer at The Speech Scoop.
There you have our favorite speech therapy resources for young children with T21. Keep in mind that one of the most important ways to improve your child’s speech is by teaching him/her to read. And many children with Down Syndrome as young as 2.5 or 3 can learn to read words by sight. Learning letter names and sounds also helps with speech production. And when they are ready, phonics is a great way to work on articulation.
Looking for resources for toddlers? Check out Speech Therapy Resources for Toddlers with Down Syndrome
Hope these are helpful!
