Can you make a kissy face? How about puff out your cheeks? Now say "ooo, eee, ooo, eee" No, I'm not trying to make you look silly! These are a few exercises that I use with my students in order to strengthen muscle tone and foster motor planning/coordination while promoting speech intelligibility.
My students are in grades K through 5 and have a range of speech and language abilities and challenges.
There is one thing that they all have in common-- they all strive to be understood. However, some of my students have delays in phonological processing, articulation and/or Apraxia, a motor planning disorder, which impede their ability to produce clear and intelligible speech.
It is crucial for my students to feel comfortable expressing their thoughts and feelings. It can be incredibly frustrating when the person listening to them doesn't understand what they are trying to say. These delays and frustrations can negatively impact social-emotional development as well as academic performance in the areas of reading and writing.
My Project
When working on improving speech intelligibility, it takes a lot of repetition and drilling which can become extremely boring! The "Can-Do" Oral Motor Fun Decks, Photo Decks and Game Sheets from are bright, colorful and kid-friendly visuals which will help to improve my students' muscle strength and coordination. The Webber articulation card sets target specific sounds, such as S, R, and TH. These are common sounds that are tricky for my students. I plan to use these cards along with the magnetic wands in fun and engaging games in my therapy room. My students love going on scavenger hunts throughout the school looking for objects with their target sounds. Clipboards will help them keep track of all the items they find with their target speech sounds. Additionally, I will be able to make copies of the articulation and oral motor picture cards to send home for practice in order to reinforce skills learned in speech sessions.
The goal of all speech and language therapy sessions is to generalize skills learned to all environments.
The materials I am requesting in this project will help my students with their speech intelligibility and oral motor skills in a fun and playful way! Not only will these materials help my students carryover their skills from the therapy room to their classroom but also the playground, the lunchroom, and their home.
Thank you in advance for supporting this very important project!
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. Bulavinetz and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
