Miss Levesque's Speech and Language Spot
Lauren Levesque
KEENEY SCHOOL
Zip Code: 06040
Contact Lauren Levesque
Page Last Updated 11/06/2008
Number of Visits: 17380
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Upcoming Events

Miss Levesque's

Speech & Language Spot

Conferences 

Parent/Teacher conferences will be held on November 18th, 19th, and 20th.  Report cards will be given and discussed at this time.  If your child receives speech and language services, I will be in attendance.  At times, I have conferences scheduled at the same time.  I will do my best to be there!  Reminder: These days will be half days for students.  See you then!

Facts About Speech and Language Disorders

A person experiences a communication disorder when his or her ability to receive, process, or send information is impaired.  Speech and language disorders range from mild to severe and can affect people of all ages.  People may have difficulty producing speech sounds clearly, understanding or producing language (includes reading and writing), using voice properly, or speaking with a normal rhythm.  Areas of difficulty could include  articulation, language, voice, and fluency.

Strategies to Foster Language Skills

1. Basic concepts such as on, under, over, above, below etc. can be taught using everyday experiences.  For example, while shopping, hold up three different sized shirts, small, medium, and large or while outside at the park, talk about what things are above you…birds, clouds,sun, and what items are below you…grass, flowers, dirt.

2. Exposure to new vocabulary words will help to improve receptive and expressive language skills, giving your child a larger library of words to choose from, use, and understand.  Look at books and discuss the different things that you see. During everyday activities, label new objects in the environment.  Make sure to define and explain the word in addition to labeling it.  For instance, say,“a tulip is a kind of flower that grows in the spring and comes in many colors”or “a pig is an animal that lives on a farm and loves to roll in the mud.”.  Give your child objects to smell, touch,taste, see, and hear while describing them. For example, “Listen to the leaves crunch as you walk on them.”

3. WH questions are always a great way to promote understanding.  While reading a book or doing an everyday activity, ask questions starting with Who, What, Where, When, Why.  These will encourage problem solving and inference skills, and comprehension.

4. Retelling stories is a skill that your child will need in school.  After reading a story with your child,identify and discuss the characters (people/animals in the story), setting(where the story takes place), conflict (problem/s) in the story), resolution(how the problem/s is solved), and the outcome (the ending or wrap up of the story).  Also, discuss how the characters feel (happy, sad, scared, etc).

 5. Imaginary play is a wonderful way to promote language skills.  Help your child put on puppet shows, skits,and variety shows (singing, dancing)- involve siblings or neighborhood children and friends.  Collect old clothes or items to use for costumes.  Let him/her dress up and pretend whatever he/she wishes to pretend.

 6. Categorization helps children to organize items and the world around.  Talk about objects similarities, differences,and attributes.  Practice divergent naming tasks, that is, give your child a category such as fruits, and have them provide as many items within that group as possible (apples, bananas, pears etc.)  Also, practice convergent naming-say the names of some items that are in the same category (bus, car, van)  and they can provide the group name (vehicle).

 7. Promote better expressive language skills with lots of modeling. Expansion is a great way to model and encourage better language.  With expansion, the adult provides an example that is a bit better than the child’s. For example, if your child say, “Him riding”, you say, “Yes, he’s riding”.  If your child says, ”He’s riding”, you say, “He’s riding in the car” and so on.  Always remind your child to use his/her words to communicate.  Also, avoid asking simple yes/no questions.  Instead, ask open-ended questions that elicit a longer response.  For instance, say, “Tell me about your day at school” vs. “Did you have a good day at school?”

 8. Opposites can be taught in everyday experiences and/or with visual support such as pictures.  Teach opposites such as hot/cold, wet/dry, full/empty, soft/hard, heavy/light, skinny/fat, narrow/wide,black/white, light/dark etc. 

 9. Talk, talk,talk to your child!  Talking with your child as often as possible will provide him/her with an adult like model to imitate.  Conversing will also teach your child countless new vocabulary words and ideas. 

 10. Read, read,read with your child!  What a great way to learn! It will make a world of a difference!

 



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