My caseload increasingly includes little ones under 5 years and they require a much different approach than my later elementary aged students. Their attention spans are shorter. They tend to be less flexible which means I need more activities ready-to-go just in case and they want to play. Now. Not “let’s work for a few minutes and then get a play break,” their work is play. And I’m there to oblige.
This means therapy looks like play, sounds like play, may even smell like play to an observer, but you and I know that with careful selection all of the activities are checking off a box for every target I planned to address that day.
I frequently work with “cycles” in therapy to address phonological processing disorders. First, I start with a listening list that I read with slight amplification, then I have 3-4 activities planned (per 30 minute session). For my kiddos with final consonant deletion of /k/, one of my activities might look like this:
Dig for Rocks!
Materials needed:
- Stick, unsharpened pencil or dowel
- Assortment of rocks
- Small sandbox
Hide the rocks under the sand and “poke” a “stick” down into each area. Do you feel anything? Is it a “rock?” Dig it up, then “poke” again!
Often they enjoy one or two of the activities so much, I don’t need to use all I have available which is a bonus since it means the next session is already planned!
This activity is in Playtime for Final Consonant Deletion. This resource contains listening lists (for home and therapy), mini readers, pacing boards, a tabletop activity, a redundant sound activity (same initial/final consonant), six playtime activities and one movement activity for each final consonant target. Per best practices, I target final /k, t, p, m, n/.
Additional titles in this series include: Playtime for Fronting (Posterior Contrasts) and Playtime for S Clusters (Blends)!
Let me know what you like to use to target final consonants!
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