S sounds can be quite tricky for preschoolers and kindergarten students. I love creating games to help target these sounds to make it much more fun for kids.
These S Sounds Speech Therapy fox themed printable mats can be used in a classroom setting or at home. They can be played in pairs or in groups as well. A great way to practice speech sounds.
Speech-language pathologists always need more articulation games to help kids develop these sounds and practice them correctly.
S Sounds Speech Therapy Games
Kids don’t always have articulation disorders if they are just starting to learn to voice sounds and letters. Z sounds can be especially harder to pronounce.
Using the sides of the tongue to create the sound is what makes it harder to pronounce. The English language has 44 phonemes, that’s right. Those are actual sounds that we can utter from combination of letter.
It’s not always a lateral lisp too, where it can be more difficult to treat because with the lisp, the air is forced over the sides of the tongue for the /s/, /z/ and /sh/ sounds.
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Tongue Tip for S Sound
One tongue tip to help the child produce the correct target sound is to show the child how to place the tip of their tongue lightly against the ridge behind their upper teeth (but not touch the teeth).
As they push the air out of their mouth, squeeze the air between the tip of the tongue and the top of the mouth. This is why practice is definitely what makes this easier to implement.
Helping them realise the locations of their tongue like the center of the tongue and surrounding areas would also bring more attention to how they are producing the sound.
It’s also why speech pathologists need lots of materials to practice target sounds. Sound disorders aren’t always the culprit.
Using the tip of your tongue to show correct production of sound for young children is a great way to help them produce less speech errors.
S Sound Errors
Starting off with single words is perfect for preschool and under the age of five too, sound production isn’t always linear, and as children begin to produce sounds, they begin to understand how to use the sides of the mouth and their top teeth as well.
What is a frontal lisp? The tip of the tongue usually protrudes between the front teeth and it obstructs air flow and so the /s/ and /z/ sounds sound like /th/ sounds.
Sometimes having the speech language pathologist work on word position in short sentences, can help a child move from word level to sentence level more easily.
Working on Speech Sounds at a Young Age
Young children have developing vocal cords too, they are also beginning to use their front teeth for various things like eating and producing speech sounds.
Working on these sounds from a young age would help minimise language disorders as the child grows.
A speech therapist is generally needed when these sounds aren’t produced correctly in kindergarten and first grade.
How to help a child with sound errors?
There are different ways to help a child with sound errors.
One is by teaching the child how to make the sound. This can be done by using flash cards or other visual aids.
Another way is by playing games that involve making sounds together, such as this game at the end of this post. Have them ‘feed the fox’ as they produce the sound.
The third way is to teach the child that they do not need words to express themselves and they can use their voice instead.
This can be done through singing, humming, or making noises with toys such as pots and pans.
The best way to help a child with sounds is by playing with them. You can make their first sound experiences fun by playing peek-a-boo or singing a song.
How to help your child at home with articulation sound activities?
The best way to help a child with their /s/ sound is to provide them with a lot of exposure.
More S Sounds Printable Games you may like:
It is important that the child hears the sound in a variety of contexts and words.
This will help them to distinguish between the sounds, and eventually produce it themselves.
We should not be surprised if this takes time and patience, as every child develops at their own pace.
If children still can’t use the back of the mouth or the roof of the mouth, then we can’t expect them to know how to produce the sounds that quickly. Patience is key.
Don’t forget to grab this super fun and cute s words speech therapy snowman game.
Making a wrong sound is typically ok in the beginning. A difficult sound like the /s/ and /z/ sounds along with s blends, kids will typically know how to produce by end of kindergarten.
The important thing to remember is that children need plenty of practice in initial, medial and final positions (end of a word) practice.
How to play the /s/ sounds speech therapy feed the fox game:
Be sure to include some mini erasers like bananas to feed the fox with and counters. You can however use the bananas to cover the items too.
Click HERE to grab the free Feed the Fox S Sounds Game:
The child will start with the item in the first circle, say the word three times and then feed the fox. They will then move onto the next item in the next circle and so on.
[…] forget to get these free printable fox themed games for ‘s’ sounds in all […]