The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
Ways to Facilitate Articulation Skills in the Classroom and at Home
If you are concerned about your child’s articulation skills, there are several ways to help at home!
Listening and Understanding
Talking
Reading and Writing
Developmental Milestones for Language-1st Grade
Listening and Understanding
Talking
Developmental Milestones for Language-2nd Grade
Listening and Understanding
Talking
Reading and Writing
Ways to Facilitate Articulation Skills in the Classroom and at Home
If you are concerned about your child’s articulation skills, there are several ways to help at home!
- Speak clearly, naturally, and correctly, providing your child with easy-to-understand speech models. Speaking naturally also includes using appropriate eye contact. But most importantly, speak with your child!
- Monitor your child for ear infections. Ear infections may cause a temporary, mild hearing loss, interfering with your child’s ability to hear spoken language clearly as well as his/her ability to say words clearly.
- Model the correct way to say a word. Simply asking your child to repeat a difficult word may not be the best course of action. Instead, say the word yourself, over-enunciating the sounds so that your child has a clear model of the correct pronunciation.
- If your child has difficulty with a particular sound (or sounds), provide many opportunities for him/her to hear those sounds each day. Read books (ask your local librarian for suggestions for each sound), play with toys/games, or do crafts that contain those troublesome sounds.
- Encourage your child to speak clearly. Be patient and let your child know you are proud that he/she is trying to speak clearly and practicing his/her speech sounds.
- Prepare your child for new experiences by rehearsing new words they might hear or say in that new situation. This will help alleviate anxiety or self-conscious feelings.
- Educate others! Talk to family, friends, babysitters, etc. about your child’s speech difficulties so they can help as well.
Listening and Understanding
- answer simple questions about stories
- follow 1-2 simple directions in sequence
- follow simple conversations
Talking
- use descriptive words to provide detail
- tell stories that stay on topic, retell stories/events
- communicate easily with adults and children
- identify and say rhyming words
- name some letters and numbers
- answer simple yes/no questions
- answer open-ended questions
- show interest in, begin, and participate appropriately in conversations
- use the same grammar as the rest of the family
Reading and Writing
- know how a book works (how to hold it, how to turn the pages)
- understand that letters represent sounds and that sounds make up words
- identify and write upper- and lower-case letters
- recognize some words by sight
- imitate reading by talking about pictures in a book
- print own first and last name
Developmental Milestones for Language-1st Grade
Listening and Understanding
- remember information
- respond to instructions
- follow 2-3 step directions in sequence
Talking
- answer more complex yes/no questions
- tell/retell stories and events in logical sequence
- use a variety of complete sentences
- use most parts of speech correctly
- ask and answer wh- questions
- begin conversations, maintain topics, and take turns in conversations
- give directions
- create rhyming words
- identify all sounds in short words
- blend sounds to form words
- identify letters, words, and sentences
- sound out words when reading
- match spoken words to printed words
- have a sight vocabulary of 100 common words
- read and understand grade-level material
- express ideas through writing, in a variety of ways (stories, journals, letters)
- spell frequently-used words correctly
Developmental Milestones for Language-2nd Grade
Listening and Understanding
- follow 3-4 oral directions in sequence
- understand direction words (location, space, and time)
- correctly answer questions about a grade-level story
Talking
- use more complex sentence structures
- clarify and explain words and ideas
- use language to inform, persuade, and entertain
- stay on topic, take turns and use appropriate eye contact during conversations
- begin and end conversations appropriately
Reading and Writing
- have fully mastered phonics/sound awareness
- associate speech sounds, syllables, words and phrases with their written form
- recognize many words by sight
- use meaning clues when reading
- re-read and self correct when necessary
- locate information to answer questions
- explain elements of a story (main idea, characters, plot)
- use experience to make predictions
- read and paraphrase/retell a story in sequence
- read spontaneously
- identify and use spelling patterns in words when reading
- write legibley
- use a variety of sentence types
- organize writing to include beginning, middle and end
- progress from inventive spelling (spelling by sound) to more accurate spelling