Rehearsing Saying Words
Aims
This activity is designed:
- to build on your child's attempts to say complete words
- to continue to improve the accuracy of spoken word production
Studies suggest that high repetition rehearsal can improve speech clarity and consistency for children with Down syndrome. This activity aims to encourage your child to repeatedly say a single word - up to 50 times.
When to start
This activity is suitable if your child can say 10 or more of the words clearly enough to be understood by people who know them well.
You can refer to information recorded in the records booklet: if your child has achieved "said word recognisably" or better for 10 or more words, then they are ready to start this activity with these words.
Getting ready
Selecting a set of words
Select 5 words from those your child can say recognisably. Select words that your child is likely to be most interested in.
These can be cards from a printed kit or the same cards displayed on a tablet or computer screen.
Cards
Get the chosen cards and place them face down on the table.
Also select an appropriate number of counting cards (each has ten spots) to represent the target repetitions.
Apps
Select Activities > Rehearsing Saying Words. A list of words will be presented. Select the words you wish to work with during this practice session.
Initially, the apps are configured to present the selected words in a random order, target 10 repetitions, play applause at the end of the set, and not to play voice prompts. These options can be changed via the settings menu.
When voice prompts are enabled, the recorded word is played each time a picture card is clicked or tapped. Clicking or tapping the picture card also advances the progress indicator.
Instructions
| 1 | Cards: Select the first card from the set of 10 and place it face up on the table. Also place the appropriate number of counting cards on the table.
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Apps: Having selected the set of words, start the activity and place the device/screen in front of your child. The first card will be displayed, together with a progress indicator showing the target number of repetitions (this may be adjusted in the app settings).
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| 2 | Say the word and encourage repeated repetition. Say the word naturally but clearly and ask your child to repeat the word as many times as they will,starting with 10 repetitions up to 50 repetitions. Encourage their best production and count the repetitions in batches of 10 repetitions. Praise them at the end of each 10 repetitions or at longer intervals if possible. |
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| Cards: You can encourage your child to put a finger on each spot with each repetition or do it yourself. | Apps: Tapping the card will fill another circle with colour to indicate progress. | |
| 3 | Cards: Select the next card from the set and place it face down on the table. | Apps: Move to the next card by tapping/clicking the right arrow. |
| 4 | Repeat steps 2 and 3. Work through all of the cards in the selected set. This repeated practice should help your child to memorise and produce an increasingly accurate production. Please remember that progress takes time: it takes all children several years to master all of the sound patterns to a near adult level. Praise your child for practicing their best production consistently. Your child may find practising many repetitions of all 5 words in a single session difficult. To make the task easier, you can rehearse each word separately at different times of the day. |
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| 5 | Praise your child. Reward your child for working through the set. (By default, the apps will play applause at the end of each set when the check button displayed to the bottom right of the screen is tapped or clicked.) |
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Recording progress
Sessions Record
The record sheets include a Sessions Record where you may record the dates of each teaching session and target sounds/words. You can note the words you select to rehearse using the Rehearsing Word Sets record sheet and identify each set by its number on the Sessions Record.
Achievements
To monitor progress, you should use the Progress Record sheets provided to record when your child says the whole word clearly: if your child says a word clearly enough to be understood by someone meeting them for the first time, then note the date in the corresponding box in the "said whole word clearly" column.
You can also note any responses/reactions made by your child in the notes column next to each word.
Additional activities
- If your child is finding 10 repetitions difficult to achieve, try a dice game. Let your child roll the dice and say the word the number of times on the dice. This could be a fun turn taking or group activity.
- Cards: Fix paper clips to the cards you are working with and your child can catch them with a magnet. If your child can read the words you can make smaller fish shaped word cards without pictures for this game.
- If your child can read, draw a staircase and write the word on each step - then ask your child to put their finger on each step as they say the word. You can vary this with two words alternating on the steps. This may still be fun if your child is not yet reading - they can still repeat the word as they climb the steps with their finger and they may learn to read the word as they do this!
Choosing more words
You can encourage your child to continue to practice particular words until they achieve the goal of being understood by someone meeting them for the first time. However, we suggest you vary the lists of words you work with and try to prioritise words that your child is using every day but are still not clear enough to meet this criteria.
The words provided in See and Learn Saying Words 3 cover a range of sound patterns that occur in English and research suggests that improvements in spoken clarity achieved with these words will transfer to other words with similar sound patterns.
Moving on to Longer Words
Children will learn to say some sounds, sound patterns and words clearly before others. They may also be putting words together in phrases and sentences long before they can produce all the words in them clearly.
See and Learn Longer Words contains multi-syllable words starting with and containing a range of sounds and sound patterns. It also contains a range of fun phrases each made up of 2 or 3 keywords starting with same sound.
As soon as your child is able to say 5 or more words in a set starting with a particular sound clearly you can move on to See and Learn Longer Words, choosing words and phrases that start with or include sounds your child has mastered.
Your child's ability to copy phrases and sentences may be influenced by their language development and not just their speech development. Children find it harder to repeat sentences that are more advanced than those they understand or use in everyday communication. Guidance on how to take account of your both child's language level and speech level is provided in See and Learn Longer Words.
Most children's speech and language progress will be quite variable. They may be putting words together to communicate in phrases and sentences long before they have mastered all speech sounds - especially the more difficult ones. You will find that your child will be ready to benefit from the some of the activities in See and Learn Longer Words while still working on some sounds in See and Learn Saying Words 3 and possibly some sounds in See and Learn Saying Words 1 and See and Learn Saying Words 2.
