Blog
Tips, research, and resources for speech therapy. Practical guides for SLPs, parents, and anyone helping a child find their voice.
32 articles, all free to read.
Speech Practice for Grades 3-5: Making the New School Year Count
By third grade the easy sounds are gone and what is left is usually r or th, in a child who has been in speech for years and is tired of it. Here is how to run a year that actually finishes the job.
New School Year Speech Activities for 1st and 2nd Grade
By first grade your child brings home reading every night. That homework is the best speech practice available, and it costs you no extra time. Here is how to run it, plus a weekly plan and the first steps toward self-monitoring.
How Teachers Can Raise a Speech Concern With Parents
You noticed a student is hard to understand and now you have to tell a parent. Here is exactly what to say, what to bring, and where your role stops and the speech-language pathologist's begins.
Fall Articulation Word Lists by Sound: Apples, Leaves, Pumpkins and More
Seasonal word lists keep practice interesting, but only if the words really contain the sound you say they do. These fall lists are grouped by position and checked by ear, with carrier phrases and three activities you can run in five minutes.
English Language Learner or Speech Sound Disorder? How Teachers Can Tell the Difference
A student learning English will sound different from their classmates. That is a difference, not a disorder. The signal that separates the two is whether the errors show up in the child's first language as well.
Articulation IEP Goal Bank: Measurable Goals by Sound and Level
Every measurable articulation goal has the same four parts. Here is the formula, then example goals at each level of the hierarchy for the sounds you target most, plus phonological process goals and short-term objectives.
Speech vs. Language Disorders: A Two-Minute Explainer for Teachers
Speech is how a child sounds. Language is what they mean. Telling the two apart takes about two minutes, and it changes what you write on a referral and what you do on Monday.
Parent Letters for the New School Year: Templates for School SLPs
Four complete parent letters you can copy, fill in, and send in the first month of school, plus notes on tone, reading level, and translating for families whose home language is not English.
Classroom-Friendly Speech Activities That Take Five Minutes
Ten whole-class routines you can run in the five minutes you already lose to transitions. Every one of them helps a student with a speech goal, and none of them puts that student on the spot.
Setting Up Teletherapy for the New School Year: A School SLP's Checklist
Most teletherapy problems are set up in the first week and then lived with all year. Here is the checklist to run before your first session, from microphone testing that protects fricatives to what to tell the adult sitting next to the student.
Speech Delay vs. Language Delay: What the Difference Means for School
Speech is how a child says words. Language is which words they use and how much they understand. The two look different in a classroom and often show up together. Here is how to tell them apart and what to ask the school.
Home Practice Packets That Parents Actually Use
Most home practice packets never get opened. The fix is not more pages, it is one page with a single target, a cue a parent can copy, ten words, and a reply slip. Here is the layout, the hierarchy variations, and the send-home cadence.
Back-to-School Speech Activities for Kindergarten
Kindergarten is where speech practice and reading instruction start pulling on the same rope. Here are twelve activities that use the letter sounds your child is already learning, and a plain answer on which sounds are still normal to miss at five.
Shy, or Something More? Speech Red Flags to Watch in the New School Year
Plenty of children go quiet for a few weeks at a new school. The useful question is not how much your child talks but how well, and whether the pattern is the same everywhere. Here is what to watch, what to ask the teacher, and how to request a screening.
Baseline Data in the First Two Weeks: Articulation Probes That Don't Eat Your Sessions
A usable articulation baseline is a ten-word probe, a hierarchy check, and a short speech sample. Here is how to collect all three for a full caseload in two weeks without turning September into a testing month.
The 10-Minute After-School Speech Practice Routine
Ten minutes, five parts, same order every day. Here is the exact routine, the best time to run it, how to choose the ten words, and five variations so your child does not get bored of it by October.
When to Refer a Student to the School Speech Therapist (and What to Say)
The question is not whether a student sounds a little different. It is whether an adult who does not know the child can understand them, and whether the errors are still there past the age most children have outgrown them.
Back-to-School Articulation Activities by Sound (R, S, L, TH, SH, CH, K)
School vocabulary is free stimulus material in September, because every word is already in front of the child all day. Here are eight to ten checked target words and one activity for each of the seven sounds you target most.
Is Your Child's Speech Ready for Kindergarten? A Milestone Checklist
By about age five most children are understood by strangers nearly all of the time, even though r and th are usually still in progress. Here is what to listen for before kindergarten, and what to do if something is not there yet.
Start-of-Year Articulation Screening: A Practical Guide for School SLPs
A start-of-year screening should take about five minutes and answer three questions: which sounds are in error, can the student imitate a better production, and is the speech hard to understand. Here is how to build the probe, judge intelligibility, and write a result that still makes sense in January.
Back-to-School Speech Activities for Preschoolers
Twelve short, playful activities you can run at drop-off, at snack time, or in the car, each with the steps to follow and the speech or language skill it builds. No worksheets, no drilling, no special materials.
12 Questions to Ask the School Speech Therapist at Your First Meeting
You get one meeting and about thirty minutes. These twelve questions cover the goals, the minutes, how progress is measured, and what to do at home, with what a good answer sounds like for each.
Starting Preschool With a Speech Delay: What Parents Can Do Now
A speech delay does not have to make the first weeks of preschool harder. Here is what to practice before day one, the one page to hand the teacher, how services change when a child turns three, and what to do at home each day.
How to Talk to Your Child's Teacher About Their Speech
The teacher hears your child talk more than anyone else at school. Here is the first-week email to send, what to tell them, what to ask, and how to keep it to a monthly check-in.
How to Support a Student With a Speech Sound Disorder in Your Classroom
You do not need clinical training to make a real difference for a student who is hard to understand. You need three habits: model instead of correct, give more wait time than feels natural, and offer choices instead of exemptions.
First-Weeks Speech Therapy Games for Mixed Articulation Groups
Your Tuesday group has a third grader on vocalic R, a first grader on S, and two kindergarteners on final consonants. Here are the games that keep all four working on their own sound at once, plus a session plan you can run on day one.
What School Speech Therapy Actually Looks Like: IEP vs. 504 for Speech
An IEP provides speech therapy with measurable goals and service minutes. A 504 plan provides accommodations, not therapy. Here is how a child gets from a first concern to either one.
Summer Speech Regression: How to Catch Up in the First Month of School
After a summer off, most kids do not lose the sound. They lose the habit of using it. Here is how to tell what slipped, a week-by-week plan to rebuild it, and what to tell the school SLP so goals get re-baselined.
The School SLP's Back-to-School Checklist
Eight things to finish before the first therapy session, in the order that makes the rest of the year easier: room setup, caseload master list, schedule, teacher introductions, first-week routines, screenings, parent letters, and protected planning time.
Back-to-School Speech Therapy Checklist for Parents
Speech services do not always restart on day one, and the first month sets the tone for the whole year. Here is exactly what to do before the first day, in the first two weeks, and by the end of the first month.
How to Practice Speech Sounds at Home: A Parent's Complete Guide
Your child's SLP sees them for 30-60 minutes a week. The other 167 hours are up to you. This guide covers practical, evidence-based strategies for making home practice consistent, effective, and actually enjoyable for both you and your child.
Signs Your Child Needs Speech Therapy
When should your child be able to say /s/? Is it normal that they still struggle with /r/ at age 6? This comprehensive guide covers the typical timeline for speech sound development, when to seek help, and what to expect from the therapy process.