How to Help

A series of handouts from the American Speech-Language Hearing Association that outline typical communication development from birth to 5 years old and provide suggestions on how to support communication development at each stage.

https://identifythesigns.org/communicating-with-baby-toolkit/

This offers six practical and easy tips to help parents emphasize speech sounds in order to improve articulation skills.

Articulation-Making-Speech-Sounds-more-obvious-to-your-Child

This site provides very practical Monday-Sunday theme-based calendars with specific activities to encourage communication in preschoolers.  Many tips are also listed.

https://connectability.ca/2010/09/28/communicating-for-fun-calendars/ 

This link provides handouts which include 10 communication tips for various developmental levels (children who communicate without words, children who have just started talking, and children who talk in sentences).
http://www.hanen.org/Helpful-Info/Parent-Tips.aspx

This article provides in-depth suggestions for how to encourage language growth through reading picture books with your child. 
Dialogic Reading

This Super Duper Handy Handout explains how reading helps children develop their speech sounds.  It also provides a list of books for particular speech sounds.

https://www.superduperinc.com/handouts/pdf/74_childrensbooks.pdf

Sometimes preschoolers’ ears need a little help to identify the right sounds in words, particularly when we are trying to correct pronunciation. Gestures are an excellent supplement to help children hear the difference between words like “sit” and “sick,” “big” and “pig,” and “E” and “eat.”

Use these tips to help improve how your child produces sounds, plus a handy list of books for specific sounds.

How Parents Can Help Their Children with Articulation

When teaching a new skill we often start at the beginning. This can be challenging for children who are struggling to master a skill. One way of learning a new task while giving your child a sense of achievement is to use the backward chaining technique.

This article, published by the American Speech-Language Hearing Association, provides simple suggestions for optimizing communication with kids with developmental language disorders. 

Shareable Strategies for Working With Preschool Children With DLD

This provides a word list, daily routines, activities, games and toys, songs, books, and conversational phrases for each speech sound.​

Speech Sounds Guide-Cochlear

This handout outlines five simple strategies that can be used in the home to support language development.

Supporting Language Development at Home

Here’s a comprehensive resource to aid in providing a language-rich environment with conversations, asking questions, expanding on language, enriching vocabulary, reading, etc.

Talk, Read, & Sing Together Everyday

This article, published by the American Speech-Language Hearing Association, provides a list of some language skills that preschool-aged children should be able to demonstrate. It also provides suggestions for supporting growth in these areas. 

https://www.asha.org/public/speech/development/34/

Repeating what others say, also known as echolalia, is just one of the many ways that children acquire language. The question is what differentiates typical echolalia from echolalia that is part of a broader delay or disorder? This article defines both types of echolalia while also