Jake's Journey with Apraxia

Reinforcing the words that Jake practices at speech therapy has always been important to me. I haven’t always met my goals or been successful with my attempts, but through trial and error, I have found out what makes Jake tick. He likes adventure, variety, and he likes to move. Most importantly, he doesn’t mind saying his words as long as there is something fun in it for him.

I have also found what works for me. I don’t mind hard work and I actually enjoy coming up with creative new games for him. But, I must have a plan. If I don’t, in the heat of the moment I get flustered and can’t think of anything to do. And usually I don’t have time to ponder it, or cruise through all those pins in Pinterest, or search through bookmarks on my computer.

To combat this problem, I reviewed some of the research I’ve done and came up with a list of speech activities to choose from.

With all of these activities, I will be using my DIY Flash Cards. I am so glad I took the time to do these cards. Laminating them has been key and they still look great even though they’ve been bent, thrown, etc.

My go-to list for speech games to play over the next few weeks are as follows:

•  Play a game (Flyin’ Frogs, Hi Ho! Cherry-O, Cootie, etc.) & before taking a turn say a few words.
• The Hungry Penguin (If you missed this post, click here to find out how to make.)
• Freeze Frame (If you missed this post, click here to read more.) *
• Sit on the floor and roll a ball back and forth while saying words. *
• Scavenger Hunt – Many of Jake’s flash cards are pictures of things around our house and photos out of his favorite books. Take these cards & put them on a ring together. Have him say all the words that he is about to go hunt. Once all the words have been found and put into a bag, dump all items onto floor & have him say what each thing is.
• Exercise first (maybe with an indoor obstacle course or turn on a kid’s exercise show) & then do flash cards. *
• Echo Game – Start by saying “yoo hoo” and have child repeat it. Then, adult says a word and child repeats it. Parent and child take turns echoing.**
• Good Dog – Make the following cards before beginning: 5 cards that say “Good dog!” and 5 cards that say “Woof!” Mix these cards in with flash cards and lay face down. Draw cards from pile. If a regular flash card is selected, child says target word. If a “Good dog!” card is selected, child pats mama’s head and says “Good dog!” If a “Woof!” card is selected, child gets on floor and barks. **

* Activities from “Speaking of Apraxia” by Leslie Lindsay.

** Activity ideas from “I Love Letters” by Dr. Jean Feldman.

We’ve done four of these activities this week and Jake has loved every minute of it. Success!