Every now and then I unexpectedly stumble on a therapy goldmine and today was that day! Now a lot of us will have an army of Fronters on our caseload who find the ‘k’ and ‘g’ sound hard.
And as we all know, therapy can get pretty dry and your kids can get unmotivated FAST. It can be hard to lure them into our room with the same games and apps, so this is where PLAY comes in… with focus. Sneaky focus.
The activity: A train set is a therapy staple in most rooms. This is your golden ticket item. The more pieces that the train set has, the more opportunities you have for practice. I’m talking train tracks, people, crossings, buildings, trees, cars, and all those other little bits to help you to create a town.
WORK YOUR KIDS WHILE THEY’RE SETTING UP
Don’t just hand your kids the train track pieces and start targeting your sounds once it is complete. Build the track WHILE working on those ‘k’ and ‘g’ sounds. I like to work my kids hard, so yes, they will work for those pieces! Here is a little list of easy-medium-tricky sentence starters that you can use with your child that contain the sounds we are working on:
- I’ve got…
- You’ve got…
- You keep…
- Connect the…
- Can I have…
- Can I get…
- Can I connect the..
- Can I keep the…
All your child has to do now, is fill in the blank… “Can I have a piece?” or “Can I get a long piece?” And if you want to throw in some extra words, try adding on “big” and “track” to create a long, sound-filled sentence such as, “Can I get a big track?”. That’s FOUR “k” and “g” sounds guys. Wahoo.
PLAY TIME FOR ‘K’ AND ‘G’
I love this next part. We will be thinking about play themes and things that we can do to sabotage play and encourage those “k” and “g” sounds spontaneously. First up, all of this does not have to occur in a single play session (whether at home or in the speech home).
- Get on/get off: put animals and/or people on the train tracks so that your child has to tell them to “get off”. People and animals can also “get on” the trains when it stops.
- Good spot: If your train set includes buildings, trees, and signs, then ask your child to point out a “good spot” to put them. My kids love designing a town using long sentences such as, “Look, I’ve got a good spot”. I then give them a piece, and they find the next spot.
- Girl/goat/cow/cat/kitten/unicorn: toys with your target sound are great for play and sabotage! Encourage your child to use the animal’s name… and make the animals do really cheeky things! I will often talk about a naughty goat who likes to eat different things so my kids can say things like, “goat, stop eating the tracks.” You can also name little people “k” and “g” names such as Cody, Katie, Cameron or Chloe and have your child tell them what to do.
- Go/going/coming/call: trains can stop and go and people can ask where the train is going, or tell the train where they would like to go. Ask your child to call out when the train is coming too… “the train is coming…the train is going to stop.”
- Colors: talk about the different colors you see and ask your child to request which color object they’d like, “I want the color blue.”
- Break/broken/tracks/crossing: Does your child know the show Bob the Builder? The catchphrase is “Can you fix it? Yes, we can.” So, create a little train drama and sabotage the tracks or a crossing and ask your child if they can fix it. A train might break down, a track might be broken… get creative!
Want some more structured speech sound ideas integrating play? Go and download my free ‘r’ and ‘l’ Articulation in Play Handouts (or check out the full bundle of sounds). And while you’re at my store, see if any of my Fronting resources could help your kids.
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