Basic Speech Therapy Exercises for Children

There is no single set of speech exercises that suits every child: it all depends on why a child finds certain sounds hard. Here is how pronunciation develops with age, what kinds of sound difficulties there are, how specialists work on them and what you can do at home. If your child started talking later than others, begin with How a Speech Therapist Helps Children with Speech Delays.

How Pronunciation Develops

Pronunciation takes a long time to settle and only becomes fully adult-like in the teenage years. By two, children already enjoy rhymes and playing with words. In one study where children were asked to tap out the syllables in a word, about half of the four- and five-year-olds managed it, compared with nine in ten six-year-olds. Most children only start to pick out the separate sounds in a word at school age, as they learn to read. So sound errors in a preschooler are often just a stage.

Kinds of Sound Difficulties

• The child finds a sound hard to make because the lips and tongue do not yet get into the right position. These difficulties are named after Greek letters: sigmatism for s, z and similar sounds, rhotacism for r and lambdacism for l.
• The child does not hear the difference between sounds that change a word’s meaning. They can say the sound but mix up where each one belongs, for example saying “call” and “tall” the same way.

According to one American study, about 4 to 5 in every 100 six-year-olds have sound difficulties of one kind or the other.

How Specialists Work on Sounds

The approach depends on the cause, so a speech therapist starts by assessing the child’s speech. If a sound is hard to make, the child is shown how to form it, with the lips and tongue in the right place, and practises until it comes naturally. If the child mixes sounds up, the work uses pairs of words that differ by one sound, so the child can hear and show the difference. Research suggests that for most children sound difficulties do not last a lifetime, and practice at home that the therapist has shown parents supports the lessons.

What You Can Do at Home

• Play with rhymes and with words that start with the same sound.
• Clap once for each syllable in a word.
• Match pictures to pairs of words that differ by one sound.
• Repeat the exercises the therapist has shown you, a little and often.
• Read aloud and talk with your child.

If your child would rather play than do tasks, see Speech Therapy Games: Fun Learning for Children.

How to Get Started

In our lessons, the speech therapist first assesses how the child speaks and discusses with the parents what they hope will change, then draws up a plan covering pronunciation, vocabulary, connected speech, reading and writing, and shows parents how to repeat the exercises at home. Lessons are open to children from age 5. A trial lesson costs $8: it is individual and lasts 45 minutes. More about the course is on the Speech Therapy Classes page.