Speech sounds & Literacy: Three simple activities you can use today to support speech sound practice during shared storybook reading

Practicing literacy skills AND speech sounds…the ultimate practice duo! Let’s dive into 3 fun and easy ways to turn shared book reading into a speech sound-boosting activity!

In the first two posts of our literacy series last month, we learned about foundational literacy skills and what skills our kiddos should master in preschool and kindergarten to lay a strong foundation for later skills. If you missed that post, check that out here or follow along with our easy-to-follow graphics on our Instagram here! We also learned about a strategy called dialogic reading, which helps us, as caregivers and teachers, to facilitate a dialogue around the story that boosts both language and comprehension (understanding) of the story. Read our entire blog post here to learn all about how two simple acronyms can equip us with reading-boosting superpowers when supporting our kiddos. Today, we are expanding the ways that we can support our literacy and speech sound practice at the same time. Check out these 3 easy activities that you can incorporate to add articulation practice into shared reading this week!

Whether you are sitting down for a quick book before bed, or planning in some family reading time, here are three easy ways to incorporate speech sound practice into your daily reading routines! 

1) Go on a book ‘speech sound hunt’

Before you start reading, ask your child to remind you of the sound (or sounds) that they are working on. As you read, have them listen for the sound in the words in the story and even in the items within the illustrations. Come up with a fun way for them to tell you that they heard the sound (raising their hand or pushing a button) and keep a tally to see how many sounds they can find! 

• How to expand this: each time they push the button or raise their hand, have them tell you what word they heard (automatic speech sound practice!) 

• How this helps: Not only is this activity a great way to help kiddos practice saying their speech sounds during reading, but it is also a fantastic activity to practice listening for their sound and tuning into the speech sounds. If they can read the story, have them listen for their specific sounds and practice saying the words clearly as they read. You can preview the sounds by pointing to them or highlighting them before they read if they need the extra support! This active listening and monitoring for their own clear productions builds the foundation for self-monitoring skills that they will need as they learn to generalize their sounds later in their learning journey. 

2) Use post-it notes as DIY ‘book flaps’

Find a book that has illustrations and spend a quick minute before you start reading looking for illustrations in the book that contain target speech sounds (you can get creative here and look for sounds that are in the beginning, middle, and end of the words)...then, use a post-it note with a number written on it to cover up the picture. As you read, kiddos can lift the flap of the post-it note to ‘reveal’ their speech-sound loaded picture! They can practice saying the word under the post-it note to match the number written on it! Hint: we like to write numbers between 5-10 so that they have to practice the word a good amount of times for each post-it note! 

How to expand this: If your child is working on sounds in the context of sentences or conversations, they can practice describing the picture that is under the post-it note and incorporate the target word in their sentences. If they are working on conversations, you can have them play the ‘guess game’, where they can describe the item to you using their speech sounds and you can guess what is under the card. If they are working on sentences, ask them a specific question and have them answer in a sentence with their speech sounds…check out some examples below for a child working on the /k/ sound with a cat under the post-it note: 

1. What color is the picture? (the picture of the cat is green)

2. What size is the picture? (the cat is big) 

3. Is there anything around the picture? (In the picture, there is a cat, a dog, and some kittens). 

4. What is in the background of the picture? (Behind the cat is a park). 

How this helps: Practicing speech sounds in short bursts for large numbers of practice trials (saying the sound lots of times!) is what really helps our kiddos to create successful motor patterns (think of this a little bit like ‘muscle memory’ for the sound). By placing numbers on the post-it notes, you are guaranteeing that a single book will help with LOTS of practice trials! 

3) Talk about the pictures

For kiddos that are working on their speech sounds in sentences and conversations, you can practice talking about the pictures in the story. Remind them that you are listening for their ‘clear’ sounds and they can get a point every time they use their sound clearly while telling you about the pictures. To make this even more fun, set a goal for the number of sounds they will say when describing the picture and do a fun movement activity if they meet their goal (e.g., I think we can say our sound 10 times! If we get 10 points, we will have a 30 second dance party!).

How to expand this: you can expand this activity by having kiddos listen to you talk about the photos and ‘catch’ your sounds. Have a competition to see who can say more clear sounds for each picture! 

How this helps: This is a great way to practice speech sounds at a more complex level with sentences and conversations while still providing the structure of the story! You can talk about the words that you might use based on what words are in the picture and see if you can incorporate those words in silly sentences. This helps kiddos practice that self-monitoring of their sounds at a trickier level while also supporting them with the structure of previewing the words that they will be using during the activity!

What if I am not sure whether my child needs support with speech sounds or literacy skills?

Check out our speech sound development chart below if you are not sure whether your child might need some extra support! If you hear speech sound errors that are past the age that our kiddos typically master them, it is a good idea to reach out to an SLP. This is just one aspect that we look at to help determine whether a child would benefit from speech therapy, so when in doubt, reach out! If you are unsure whether your child might need some extra support with literacy skills, you can check out our charts on foundational skills for kindergarteners and preschoolers over on our Instagram page here. 

We advocate for the earliest intervention to help our kiddos be successful with learning new motor patterns for speech as well as building those early literacy skills. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us with any questions or concerns and we can guide you in the right direction. We have experienced SLPs with speech sound specialties and our very own literacy specialist available to answer your questions and provide support!  Check out contact information on our website or learn more about our team.