Have you ever just had one of those random ideas in the middle of a session that turn out to be a great teaching moment?
This week, I was working with one of my artic students on a new sound (/ch). I introduced it in our session by talking about the placement, and what we were going to need to do with our tongues and mouths. My student gave it a few tries, but was having trouble remembering what he was supposed to do.
So I pulled out a couple of pieces of paper, and decided that we would make posters with the correct placement and cues, so we could refer back to them when we were working on the sound. I explained what I did with my mouth in order to make the /ch/ sound, and then I had him tell me in his own words. We wrote all of these things down on our new posters and drew some picture cues to help us remember.
It turned out to be a great teachable moment! The next time I saw him, I pulled our posters off my dry erase board, and he was able to tell me on his own exactly what he needed to do to make the sound.
I ended up making these with several of my students working on articulation this week. While I intend on using these in therapy for a while, I also plan on sending them home with my students to help them explain to their parents exactly what it is they need to do to make their sounds.
I think this would work well for all of my students with articulation and phonology goals. What do you think? Would you use something like this in therapy?
YES!! Love it- makes students more accountable, too! Plus, most students love any excuse to break out the markers and crayons during therapy. Thanks so much for sharing, Natalie! All of your ideas are wonderful!
This is a great idea! And I think the kids would love to make their own artic poster and teach their parents!