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Depending on the severity of your child's speech problems there are a variety of ways to approach the issue of speech therapy. As a mother of two children with differing levels of speech development problems I have found inventive and sometimes just common sense answers to moving beyond speech impediments.

Start at home - as a parent you are the one who spends the most time with your child, you know best what letters and sounds they are struggling with. Use these observations of everyday speech patterns to give you an overall idea of where you need to focus your attention. Usually a child will struggle with certain tongue movements and just needs additional practice with those words enunciated in the correct way.

Once you have found the areas that need improvement let your little one know that you are going to be helping them talk like a "big" boy or girl. Don't put too much pressure on either yourself or your child for immediate perfection, it may lead to rebellion and refusal on your child's part to participate. Many children know how to pronounce words correctly but fall into the habit of using what we call in our home "lazy words".

Come up with fun activities that stimulate your child so they don't become bored with repeating words over and over again. The letter C was a problem for our son so we found printables on the internet where he could color and cut popcorn squares. Then we gave him a bowl and let him drop each popcorn square into it while singing with us "pop goes the popcorn" with emphasis on the corn.

Another fun activity is to make up silly sayings that emphasize the letter or sound your child struggles with. For example if the letter S is giving you grief you sing "Silly Sammy Sings to Snakes So they Sleep". Always make sure to place a lot of emphasis on the letters which are troubling.

Sometimes, a child has trouble even knowing how to make a certain sound required - like using and F sound in place of the T sound because they don't get the concept of touching their tongue to the top of their mouth. In this case you could show your child by holding your bottom lip and saying words that begin with the letter T. If your child is like my daughter was they will be giggling the whole time they are learning to form words correctly.

Speech therapy for children can be a fun and bonding experience as long as you don't pressure yourself or your child. Make all your learning and therapy activities fun and know that not only will your work pay off in regards to speech but also in the extra quality time your get to spend with your little one in the guise of teaching.

Learn more about this author, Christina McCreedy.
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