3 Speech Therapy Tools to Help Kids Read

Posted on May 17 2017

3 Speech Therapy Tools to Help Kids Read

Promote better reading skills with these highly effective tools.

In addition to helping children speak more fluently and confidently, another primary speech therapy goal is to promote better reading skills. With young children, the best way to encourage reading and speaking skills is to make it fun! Here are some speech therapy tools designed to help kids read. These are perfect for parents, teachers, and speech therapists – or really anyone working to help children build their fluency and confidence.

1. Flashcards

Flashcards with both a vocabulary word and a picture offer a fun way to practice reading and speech. To practice, hold up the cards and let the child guess what the word is, then check the answer together. For older kids, create a “Go Fish” flashcard game with synonyms by asking whether they have a word that means the same as the one you have. Be mindful to create age-appropriate challenges that stimulate learning and make it fun. Reward your child, student, or patient with a small prize every time they get a set number of cards in a row correct.

Why it works:

Flashcards give children a clear visual aid to use during practice. They help with active recall, self-reflection, and repetition, making them highly-effective learning tools. Crafting lessons that feel like games keep children of all ages engaged!

2. Frog Hop Game

Add physically active games to your arson of reading and speech therapy tools for a fun and stimulating lesson. To play Frog Hop, write out each vocabulary word on a separate sheet of paper, and place each in a page protector. These will be your "lily pads." Spread the lily pads around the floor and ask children hop to each new lily pad, saying the word when they land.

Why it works:

Incorporating movement, activity, and imaginative play engages both the body and mind, and active reading can help students engage even more with the speech therapy lesson.

3. Toobaloo Auditory Reading Phone

Auditory feedback increases fluency and confidence, and is a key component to helping kids learn to read. Choose a book with short, manageable sentences (rhymes are great, too!) and set your child up with a Toobaloo reading phone. With each sentence, he or she will receive instant auditory feedback so they can make immediate pronunciation adjustments.

Why it works:

For children with special needs, such as autism, auditory procession disorder, stuttering and dyslexia, the ability to hear exactly what they sound like helps them to correct their pronunciation as they go. Kids love the whisper phone Toobaloo because they are so much fun – especially when paired with a funny book, like When Mischief Came to Town or Mean Margaret.

For more speech therapy tools to help kids read, take a few minutes to explore our educational blog and our range of satisfaction-guaranteed products, including Eye Lighters, and Check-A-Roos. These tools encourage kids to develop their reading skills, and they're used by schools, speech therapists, and parents all over the world to help make learning easier and more fun.

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