Today was such a fun day in speech. In my sessions, I let clients choose which game they want to play and we can build their target sound into the game. We were practicing our S and Z sound in speech today at the end of words and my client wanted to play with the train set. I have a wooden train track with four magnetic train pieces that can be built into a big loop to drive the train around the track. We started getting it set up and we practiced phrases using words such as falls, rails, flies, trains, trolls, toss, loss. The train crashed, went fast, stopped and fell over many times as we practiced. Then the creative play happened and my client decided to build a ramp for the train. They got it set up using all sorts of different pieces to support the ramp and we let the train fly down the stairs. We kept practicing our phrases as we built and perfected the ramp and had so much fun as we played.
Having fun in speech therapy is one of the most important parts of a successful speech session. If we can make it fun, the child is more likely to remember what we did and be willing to participate and practice in sessions. This helps them use their skill outside of sessions and makes them want to come back to speech. Sometimes it can be hard to get clients ready to leave sessions because they are having so much fun! When people with a child, try to let go how the game is supposed to be played, and let them play how they want to play. They will often surprise you with the creative ways they can play!