Fun Ways to Help Children Communicate and Speak Effectively
Designed by a Speech Therapist - Research Based Speech Therapy Computer Software
Fun Ways to Help Children Communicate and Speak Effectively
Designed by a Speech Therapist - Research Based Speech Therapy Computer Software
I
have always searched for ways to reach children and maintain
their attention. I needed a wagonload of materials as their
attention spans were generally very short. Many of the
materials available did not satisfy the goals and objectives
for their target skills and did not engage the children to
make learning enjoyable enough to improve their communication
skills. So I started to buy games and materials and adapt them to
specific language objectives. I also started to make speech and language
games from tablecloths and other household things.
Even though these games did not look professional, the
children loved playing them. Other speech pathologists
would see our interactions and ask to borrow the games.
People were constantly saying to me “You should produce
these games and sell them, so others have the opportunity to
benefit from them.” This was always my dream and after
many years I finally decided to hire a graphic artist and
advance into the journey of producing my own games.  Naming
action verbs and then producing a short sentence with them was
always a frequent objective for the children I worked with
whom I worked. Drilling with pictures is not always motivating
for active children with short attention spans. It’s also not
a natural way to interact. So I designed the “Wheel of
Action” game. While playing this new game, children are
engaged in a social activity that they enjoy and discover how
they can use sentences at the same time. They spin the
spinner and excitedly act out the action picture. I watched a group of children play my game in a classroom and observed how animated and excited they were while playing. In addition to learning to produce sentences with a variety of action verbs, they were using lots of spontaneous speech - giving directions and comments to each other. This was a bonus side effect. To my surprise, I later learned that many of these children spoke English as a second language or were very shy and therefore rarely spoke in school. You would never have known it from the way they were playing and talking. Imagine your child or student’s improvement in producing sentences with the ease of playing a fun new board game! |
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Learn the names of action verbs 
