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What are the Different Types of Speech Therapy Materials?

Harriette Halepis
Harriette Halepis

Speech therapy materials help adults and children with speech disorders communicate efficiently. Both children who have certain speech impediments and adults whohave suffered from a stroke or other ailment may require specialized speech assistance. By applying certain speech therapy tactics, these individuals can learn to speak effectively.

While most people who need speech assistance work with speech pathologists, certain speech therapy materials can also be helpful within a home environment. The Internet is full of different speech therapy materials that both parents and caretakers can use. In most instances, these materials come in the form of games that are easy to play, simple to understand, and entirely engaging.

Board games are one type of speech therapy material.
Board games are one type of speech therapy material.

In most cases, practicing speech therapy movements each day is the best course of action. While no patient should be forced into speech therapy exercises, these methods should be employed regularly. In addition to home exercises, a professional speech therapist should be consulted. In every instance, the combination of a speech therapist with home exercises is the best way to help a person speak properly.

Speech therapists often work with small groups so participants have peer support.
Speech therapists often work with small groups so participants have peer support.

People who visit with speech therapists will be subjected to a large variety of speech therapy materials and tactics. Therapists tend to work with small groups of patients in order to provide each group member with peer support. Some exercises that are used within these groups include audiovisual materials, tongue exercises, and speech relays.

Flash cards, board games, and facial exercises are usually the speech therapy materials of choice. Also, a therapist may decide to strengthen the mouth area by asking a patient to suck on a straw, make blowing noises with the mouth, and chew on rough rubber objects. The idea behind any speech therapy practice is to strengthen the mouth area through various exercises.

Go Fish is a popular game that may be utilized for speech therapy.
Go Fish is a popular game that may be utilized for speech therapy.

It is not uncommon for a speech therapist to provide patients with home exercises that should be done a regular basis. By using a mirror, patients can practice facial movements. Patients that practice speech therapy exercises at home often progress faster. However, the rate at which a person begins to speak normally may vary from patient to patient.

A speech pathologist may be employed to develop a treatment plan for children with semantic-pragmatic disorder.
A speech pathologist may be employed to develop a treatment plan for children with semantic-pragmatic disorder.

At the onset of any speech disorder, a professional speech therapists must be sought. Speech therapists can provide patients with a proper diagnosis, effective exercises, and the right speech therapy materials. These specialists can be found by asking your family doctor for a referral, searching through the phone book, or conducting an Internet search.

Discussion Comments

B707

My granddaughter had speech problems ever since she learned to talk. Sometimes she was impossible to understand. She had a lot of trouble with consonant sounds. My daughter talked to a lot of people, some of them speech therapists, and they said to wait until she was closer to kindergarten age to consider treatment.

By her second year in preschool, she was still having problems. So my daughter arranged for a speech therapist to come to her preschool to observe and evaluate her. Then after about a week, miraculously, she began to articulate her words and we could understand her. She's been speaking well ever since. I can't explain this one!

sunshine31

I have gotten some speech articulation and software from LinguaSystems. They have the best speech language therapy materials out there. My daughter was going to a really expensive speech therapist that charged $75 per half hour. It just got to be too much and I decided to work on the target sounds on my own with my daughter, because the speech therapist already told me what her problem sounds were and after spending two months on the letter S, I decided to do this myself with my daughter and it worked out fine.

The articulation book that I ordered had the same sheets that my daughter’s speech therapist used. After a while you really learn the exercises and it is not too difficult. My daughter had minor articulation problems which is why I say this, had the problems been more pronounced I would have definitely needed the speech therapist.

amysamp

@sinbad - I have seen lower tech devices such as picture symbol boards for free on the internet. Since these boards can be used for children with autism, I have found searching for "picture symbol boards autism" helps me find these resources, even though you can use the boards with children with other types of disorders.

Good luck on your AAC speech therapy material hunt - there is so much stuff out there it can be overwhelming!

Sinbad

@speechie - I know exactly what you are talking about! We work with such a varied population as speech pathologists sometimes we run into things we haven't seen often.

I work at a school where AAC (augmentative and alternative communication) is the norm, so there is quite the variety to discuss - but since I know your student has a device I will start there.

AAC materials in this area range from low tech to high tech. If your child has a device, he is considered to have a high tech device and low tech devices are materials such as photos or picture symbol that a child chooses from to indicate what they want.

Because your student has a high tech device they all have their own system and rationale, but the company that sells the device offers training or continuing education courses to help you learn how to help your student learn to use the device. So I would suggest contacting the company and attending a workshop or meeting with their sales rep.

I often find some speech therapy materials (such as worksheets or informational packets for parents) for free on some of the speech therapy retail sites (such as Linguisystems or Super Duper) but have not seen AAC materials for free. Has anyone found AAC speech therapy materials for free?

Speechie

@ceilingcat - As a speech pathologist I love hearing the success stories, especially since it can be awful for kids but equally awful as adults to still have a speech impediment. I actually have a friend who hasn't had his r sound corrected and people think he is from England all the time even though he is actually from Kentucky. And it drives him crazy!

Which by the way is a fun fact - one of the main ways you hear an English accent as different from ours is the r sound. So pay attention the next time you hear an English person talking!

My question is, has anyone heard much about AAC materials? I don't typically run into these disorders as much but just recently had a child with an AAC device move into my school.

Azuza

@ceilingcat - No doubt about it, speech therapy does work! I remember when I was in high school reading an article about one of the actors from a show I really liked. It turned out he had a speech impediment when he was younger and acting helped him overcome it. I thought that was so neat!

ceilingcat

When I was in elementary school there were a few students I knew of that saw the speech pathologist. I always felt really bad for them because their speech impediments were so noticeable-one of them stuttered so much he had a hard time even getting a sentence out!

However, I guess the speech therapy methods must have worked in at least one case. I ran into one of those kids as an adult and he didn't have a trace of a speech impediment. I'm glad all those hours with the speech pathologist paid off!

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    • Board games are one type of speech therapy material.
      By: darko64
      Board games are one type of speech therapy material.
    • Speech therapists often work with small groups so participants have peer support.
      By: WavebreakMediaMicro
      Speech therapists often work with small groups so participants have peer support.
    • Go Fish is a popular game that may be utilized for speech therapy.
      By: jordi2r
      Go Fish is a popular game that may be utilized for speech therapy.
    • A speech pathologist may be employed to develop a treatment plan for children with semantic-pragmatic disorder.
      By: sneksy13
      A speech pathologist may be employed to develop a treatment plan for children with semantic-pragmatic disorder.
    • A commonly used speech therapy technique requires the therapist to make a list of words with which a patient has difficulty.
      By: Monkey Business
      A commonly used speech therapy technique requires the therapist to make a list of words with which a patient has difficulty.
    • A patient who has been diagnosed with a swallowing disorder may be referred to a speech pathologist.
      By: oneblink1
      A patient who has been diagnosed with a swallowing disorder may be referred to a speech pathologist.
    • A family doctor can help refer you to a speech therapist.
      By: Gennadiy Poznyakov
      A family doctor can help refer you to a speech therapist.