What it is
An area of student need, based on his/her speech pronunciation.
Teaching Strategies
Instructional
• Implement strategies provided by speech-language pathologists.
• Focus on one particular sound, as per the speech and language pathologist’s direction. Often the sound is being worked on in a specific position within a word (beginning, middle or end).
• Use visual pictures with words for the specific sound being targeted.
• Model correct speech to the student, emphasizing the misarticulated word.
• Use a slower pace of speech.
• Pronounce the particular sound longer and slower to the student, while being careful not to distort the sound.
• Do choral reading.
• Use printed words and letters and clarify mispronounced/substituted sounds.
• Provide access to technology, such as text to speech, that allows student to hear proper articulation or to make themselves understood by others.
• Consider the establishment of alternative programming on the student’s Individual Education Plan (IEP) for articulation goals, developed with parents/guardians, student and speech support staff.
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Environmental
• Use preferential seating, so that the student can see the teacher’s mouth when he/she is speaking.
• Reduce background noise in the classroom.
• Use preferential seating, so that the teacher can more privately model correct articulation to the student.
Assessment
• Give additional time for the student to speak.
• Ignore articulation errors and focus on content for assessments.
• Provide advance notice and specific expectations for presentations in front of the class.
• Allow for use of written prompts when the student presents in front of the class.
• Allow the student to choose to do an oral presentation to a small group or just the teacher, instead of to the whole class.
• Provide access to a spell checker, and additional time.
Resources
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General information on articulation. |
An outline of symptoms, causes and treatments for speech problems. From The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids). |