Church of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene: Mother Sigrid Eliora's Free Little Speech Therapy Tips

Saturday, 4 April 2015

Mother Sigrid Eliora's Free Little Speech Therapy Tips

Mother Sigrid Eliora's Free Little Speech Therapy Tips:

Tip 1

As a parent simply take all exercise with your child in a relaxed pace and as a play activity.

Life is stressful enough, so take one step at a time and play it by ear -literally- to correct your child only after he or she tried a sound or movement exercise a few times but offer praise for each time a sound was understandable.

Tip 2

When you do practice sounds bear always in mind that everybody's physiology is different, and avoid strenuous movements but increase the effort and muscle tonus gradually but never with locked joints, i.e. in the jaw.

Tip 3

Gentle chewing movements that are done without gnawing and yawning by lowering the jaw
are also good warming up exercises for the lower face muscles and increase blood circulation and strengthen the facial muscles.

Tip 4

For strengthening the tonus in the upper facial muscles (cheeks to eye area) practise gentle smiles alternating with ever increasing grins with open and closed lips. Note: Make sure that you never freeze in a position but that you relax the muscles again after each stretch. Again, make sure that none of your joints in the body get locked. Whilst focusing on the quality of the movements and sounds keep also the rest of your body in your inner eye, as any locking of joints disrupts the blood circulation and over- tenses the vocal folds, which could lead to nodules.

Tip 5

You do not need to wait for a speech therapist appointment to have some fun activities combined with learning sounds and breathing playfully. There are plenty of free occupational apps available and many professional and excellent speech and other complementary therapy sessions available for free access on youtube. Just choose, what suits your child best.

Tip 6

Never forget to pronounce your words also clearly and in a pace your child can easily understand them. When you practise sounds lead by example in a playful way, don't out your child or yourself under pressure. Rather engage and enjoy in the interaction between you and treasure it as a unique precious moment that you share! Believe me, some moments hold all of heaven's joy in them, when a child is beaming and recreates the sound that used to be so very hard!

Tip 7

We learn all the time in everything we do. Simply use your daily routine as a way to practise sounds and words or movements and involve your child as much as possible in little tasks and let the child lead you to engage in questions and answers, even, when the child cannot say them or complete them. Again, praise is good for you both!