Super Star Speech

I am sometimes asked about tongue thrust–what it is,  how it impacts speech, and what to do about it.

All babies have a tongue thrust or reverse swallow. When the baby swallows, his tongue pushes forward toward his gums or front teeth, if he has them. Think about feeding a baby pureed food. The baby’s tongue pushes forward, pushing some of the food back out of his mouth. The adult scoops the food off his lips and face with the spoon and puts it back in his mouth and the cycle continues.  As babies mature, they learn, not only to keep their lips closed when they swallow, but to effectively move the food back toward the throat with a more mature swallow.

In the mature swallow, the tongue tip is held on the alveolar (gum) ridge behind the top front teeth and the tongue efficiently moves the food backward with a rolling motion. Children should have a normal, adult swallow by the time they are 7.

Sometimes, however, a child continues to tongue thrust or reverse swallow. When this occurs, generally his teeth are slightly separated, the tongue presses forward against or between the front teeth, and the lips are tightly closed to prevent the tongue from protruding. Many children who have a tongue thrust are mouth breathers, often due to either allergies or enlarged tonsils/ adenoids, causing the tongue to sit between or against the front teeth at rest. Then, when they swallow, the tongue pushes forward against the teeth.

How can I know if my child has a tongue thrust?

-The most obvious answer is to have him evaluated by a speech pathologist. But you may be able to diagnose this yourself.

-Is he a mouth breather? Does he keep his tongue between his front teeth when at rest? These are signs that he likely has a tongue thrust.

-Have him take a sip of water and observe his swallow. Try to pry his lips apart during the swallow. There should not be any forward movement of the tongue. Generally, children with a tongue thrust are unable to swallow with their lips parted.

What are the results of a tongue thrust?

-The tongue is a very strong muscle. If it is pressing against the front teeth during thousands of  swallows a day, it will most likely cause the teeth to protrude. If this happens, the tongue thrust must be corrected before orthodontic work is done or the the teeth will quickly move out of place again.

-The strong habit of tongue protrusion often affects the speech patterns. The most typical speech errors seen with a tongue thrust  are a “th” for “s” or “z” substitution. In more severe cases, all of the tongue tip sounds (t, d, n, ch, sh, j) can be affected. It can be difficult to correct these speech errors when there is an uncorrected tongue thrust.

What should be done?

-If your child is under seven, give the issue more time.  If your child is seven or older, find a speech pathologist who is experienced in tongue thrust therapy. Be prepared to supervise your child with tongue exercises one or more times a day. It will take a lot of practice to change this ingrained habit.

-If your child is a mouth breather, try to find the cause. If he cannot comfortably breathe through his nose due to allergies or enlarged tonsils and adenoids, this problem needs to be corrected first.

-Encourage your child to keep his lips and back teeth together and his tongue at rest on the upper gum ridge. Having him hold a Tic-Tac or orthodontic rubber band in place with his tongue for 10-20 minutes a day can encourage this habit.

As with all speech and language issues, I encourage you to be alert to your child’s development and to seek professional advice and take action when necessary.

Super Star Speech (R&L is the program we used) is excellently titled. This gem of a program not only captivated Precious Jewel and kept a smile on her face, but I could see her slowly (and happily) correcting herself in every day situations once we started this program.

My little girl can enunciate most of her words very clearly. Two years ago at the public library (she was 5), she asked one of the librarians if there was a particular DVD available to borrow. The librarian told her it was out at the moment. Precious Jewel was truly looking forward to that DVD, and out of her mouth came, “This is a calamity!”clear as day. The librarian looked surprised and asked me if Precious Jewel had indeed just said that word and used it in context. I told her yes.

So, Precious Jewel can say most things correctly, but she has always had trouble with her R’s. B used to say when she was 1 1/2 years old that she needed speech therapy, but I knew that would do more damage than good and I prolonged it as long as possible, and finally sat down with him and told him when she was 3 that if he made her go it would not be advantageous for her or for us. I gave him information I found about appropriate ages for sounds, etc. Some people just need to see a professionally paid person to tell them how to do something correctly.

Thankfully, Deborah Lott, creator of Super Star R&L, whom has a Master’s degree in education and speech pathology, understands that a parent can teach their own child from the comfort of home, assisting parents to encourage their children. She has designed the lessons and games in such an appealing, family-friendly way. She also wants to take it nice and easy with teaching a child to correctly enunciate their words.

The best thing about this program for me was that it did not make feel compelled to squish it into our weekly schedule. I want to pull it out, and each time has been a lot of fun for both Precious Jewel and I. She still needs some assistance, but this is doing a lot of good for her.

Super Star Speech: R&L costs $18.95, and is worthy every penny. If you have a child you suspect has speech delays or impediments, this is a worth-while investment!

Want to learn more about this program from other homeschooling families? Check out a plethora of reviews at The Crew’s blog!

I received this product for free in exchange for a written account of my personal opinions. No financial compensation was given, and I am allowed to keep this awesome book!

This review was written by “God’s Dancing Child” at D.A.I.L.Y.

This review was written by Bekah H. from the The Old Schoolhouse Crew:

A few years ago, when considering placement for my speech impaired son, I did a small Google search for giving your children speech therapy in the home.  I didn’t come up with anything helpful.  In retrospect, it’s a good thing I didn’t go this route with the child in question, because his speech issues turned out to be more than I could have handled myself.  Still, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I would be reviewing Super Star Speech, a set of speech therapy books created so that parents of children with minor speech articulation errors can help their children in the comfort (and low cost) of their homes.

Deborah Lott is the author of Super Star Speech.  She is also a licensed speech language pathologist and holds a Master’s degree in education/speech pathology.  Ms. Lott currently works part-time as a speech therapist and has homeschooled her 4 children for the past 16 years.

I love how Ms. Lott describes a need for speech therapy:

“Errors are a normal part of speech development and many children do not have perfect articulation until around 7 or 8 years of age.  However, there are milestones that children should be making in their progress toward “adult speech.” Children who do not meet these milestones are at high risk for not developing correct speech on their own and may also experience frustration with or embarrassment about their speech.“

- Taken from the Super Star Speech website

Our Family Experience
Before I tell you more about Super Star Speech, I want to share a bit about our own speech experience.  Our daughter began babbling and speaking at the normal estimated age for a baby/toddler, and she’s been speaking non-stop ever since.

Our next child, a boy (I’ll call him “C” here), also began speaking at a normal age.  But as he grew, C’s speech didn’t become any easier to understand.  In fact, his conversation was made more difficult to understand by the fact that his vocabulary was growing and his sentences were becoming longer.  C was analyzed by a speech pathologist at the age of 3 1/2 and therapy was recommended.  Getting him placed in the school district’s speech program took another several months, and he’s been in speech therapy since that time.  He’s nearly 6 now, and still has moderate to severe speech articulation errors.  C has seen 3 different speech pathologists (switches were made due to a move and different therapists being assigned to different aged children).  He’s made the most progress with his current pathologist, who offers private therapy out of her home.  Unfortunately, that therapist will soon be switching to a company employed job, and we’ll be looking for another therapist yet again.

Currently, C sees his speech therapist once a week for an hour-long session.  I also work at home with him for 15 to 20 minutes each day.  He’s made some great strides, but many days progress feels very slow.  C is still occasionally made fun of by other kids because of how he talks.  And I’ve found that teaching him to read holds some challenges.  He’s picked up on reading very rapidly, but because many of his sounds still sound so similar, I can’t always tell if he’s assigning the correct sound to a letter.  We trust that someday C will pronounce all his sounds correctly and continue to push ahead.  Super Star Speech was not designed for children like C, who have moderate or severe speech issues.  Ms. Lott recommends that these children be placed under the guidance of a licensed speech pathologist.

We have a third child, A, who’s 4.  A makes some common speech articulation errors, but these errors are not outside the “normal” range for his age.  Since it wouldn’t hurt to work on key sounds with him (and since he frequently asked why he can’t have a speech class like his big brother), I decided to try out Super Star Speech with A.  He was very excited to begin!

What I Got
Ms. Lott offers an array of books on her website.  These are the ones I chose to review:

• Super Star Speech: Therapy Made Simple – Ring-bound: $22.95; Spiral Bound: $18.95; e-book: $12.95

• Super Star R and L – Spiral Bound: $18.95; e-book: $12.95

• Super Star S, Z, and SH – Spiral Bound: $18.95; e-book: $12.95

• Super Star Ch, J, and Th – e-book only: $12.95

I personally feel that the e-book format is the best choice for these books.  After downloading my e-books, I printed everything and placed the pages in a large 3-ring binder with dividers separating each book.  Having the originals on the computer made it easy to reprint consumable worksheets and games.  I also printed certain word picture cards on colored card stock to use as memory game cards.

How We Used It
One of the most valuable components of this series (found in Super Star Speech: Therapy Made Simple) is the articulation test.  Giving this “test” is fun and easy.  The child is shown a series of pictures.  One at a time, the child is to name the object in the picture.  The correct label is written underneath each picture to ensure that your child says the appropriate word.  For example, when A saw a picture of a dog and said, “puppy” I asked him to say the word that we use for adult puppies.  At other times A wasn’t sure what word he was supposed to say (such as “thimble”).  If he didn’t recognize the picture, I simply told him the word and he repeated it back to me.  The left side of each picture card has a letter or letter grouping telling the teacher which sound to listen for.  The teacher has an articulation test response sheet to mark whether and how the student says each sound (Ms. Lott explains what to listen for and how to fill out the form).  Once the test is completed you’ll have a good idea of problem areas for your child.  The response sheet also states by what age a child has usually mastered each sound, so its easy to see whether your child’s articulation errors are age appropriate.  I learned that A’s trouble spots (“th” and “r” are the main ones) are still considered “normal” errors to have at age 4.  Still, A was excited to begin, and an early start sounded like a good thing for him.

After you know which articulation errors your child has, Ms. Lott suggests formulating a therapy plan.  She walks you through this process and answers common questions, such as how long a typical therapy session should last.  She also gives a sample lesson plan for a hypothetical student and provides blank lesson plan sheets that can be used for your own child.  I found it helpful to write a plan for each day, record how many times A said his sound correctly (and how many incorrectly) during lesson time, and make notes at the bottom.  These sheets have helped me to see A’s progress.  We start each lesson by A saying a list of words while I record his successes and mispronunciations.  Then we move onto a game of some sort (each Super Star book offers a variety) to help practice correct pronunciation while having fun.  Usually these lessons only take 15 or 20 minutes, and A enjoys the special 1-on-1 time with me.

My Thoughts
I think the Super Star Speech books are a great resource.  Obviously, you can’t beat the price for private speech therapy!  And it’s so nice to have an at-home option.  Ms. Lott does a great job of explaining everything and walking parents through the speech therapy process.  One of my favorite things about Super Star Speech is that it’s a family collaboration.  While Ms. Lott has written all the text, a daughter made the cute pen and ink illustrations, and another daughter designed the covers.  Ms. Lott’s younger two children sometimes help with book assembly.  I just love seeing families working together in a business!

I noticed that some of the therapy games in these books require simple reading and writing skills.  At first I found this odd, but as I thought about it, it made perfect sense.  There are plenty of fun games for the younger set, but many of the children using this program will be 7, 8, or above.  Having games that utilize their age level skills will help ensure that they don’t feel lessons are babyish.

I would strongly encourage anyone looking to help their child with a mild speech articulation issue to consider the Super Star Speech books.

Does your child have trouble producing the K and G sounds? The K and G sounds should be mastered by age 3 1/2.  Typically, a child who has trouble with /k/ and /g/ will substitute the /t/ and /d/ sounds, respectively. He is attempting to product the sounds with the tongue tip instead of the back of the tongue. These are fairly common speech sound errors, but a child who has these sound substitutions can be very difficult to understand.

Here are some suggestions to help you teach these sounds to your child.

To produce /k/ and /g/,  the back part of the tongue is raised and pressed against the roof of the mouth (soft palate), stopping all airflow. The  tongue tip is lowered. The tongue then drops, allowing the air that has been held behind the tongue to escape suddenly. The /k/ is voiceless, produced by airflow. The /g/ is produced with the voice “on.”

Tips:
1. Demonstrate the sound in front of a mirror. Use a spoon or popsicle stick to touch the back of the tongue and the soft palate or roof of the mouth to help the child feel how the sound is made. (Be cautious about triggering the gag reflex as you do this.) Have the child put his hand, paper, or a feather close to the lips to feel or see the puffs of air.
2. Help the child identify the part of the tongue to be raised by pressing downward on the back of the tongue with a spoon  while the child tries to push upward against the spoon.
3. Have the child attempt to say /t/ while you hold the tongue tip down.
4. Play listening games to help the child practice discriminating between /t/ and /k/ or between /d/ and /g/. (“Is this a dog?” “Is this a gog?”)
5. Exaggerate the target sound when modeling it.

Have your child practice making /k/ and /g/ in isolation until he can easily produce the sounds. Then practice words that begin with these sounds. When this is easy for the child, have him practice words with /k/ and /g/ in the middle and at the ends of words. Only when the child can produce the error sounds correctly in words, should you require him to correctly produce the sounds in sentences.

The /k/ and /g/ sounds can be difficult for children to master. If your child continues to have difficulty, it is advisable to consult with a speech pathologist for additional help.

Super Star Speech: Speech Therapy Made Simple includes more tips and instructions, word lists, picture cards and practice activities to help parents teach /k/ and /g/, as well as most other speech sounds to their children.

Ask any speech pathologist this question and you will probably get the same answer–/r/, /s/, and /z/!  These sounds are tough for many children and are often not mastered until 5, 6, or 7 years old. There are many other common errors as well. Children tend to make the same types of errors on each of these sounds.  Here is a list of common speech sound errors:

/k/ and /g/…………These sounds are usually mastered by age 4, but some children substitute /t/ for /k/ and /d/ for /g/.

/th/…………………./f/ and /d/ are commonly substituted for the /th/ sound.

/s/ and /z/ ………./th/  is typically substituted for these sounds. Other children distort /s/ and /z/ by allowing the airflow to come around the sides of the tongue instead of channeling it over the top of the tongue, resulting in a slushy-sounding /s/ or /z/.

/r/…………………../w/ is most commonly substituted for the /r/ sound. Sometimes /r/ is omitted, especially at the ends of words.

/ch/………………../t/ or /sh/ may be substituted for /ch/ or the /ch/ may be distorted.

/j/…………………. /d/ may be substituted for /j/ or the /j/ may be distorted.

/sh/………………../t/ or /s/ may be substituted for /sh/ or the /sh/ may be distorted.

-F and V…………../b/ is often substituted for /v/.  /p/ may be substituted for /f/.

-/l/…………………./w/ and /y/ are the sounds typically substituted for /l/.  /l/ is usually omitted at the end of the word.

The more errors a child has, the more difficult he will be to understand. Likewise, the more severe the child’s errors are, the more his intelligibility will be affected. For example, omitting consonants is a more severe problem than simply distorting the correct sound.

I have two four year olds that just happen to be in ‘Speech Therapy’ this year.  The big joke at our house is when they are able to say ‘Speech Therapy’ they will no longer need to take the class. So you can imagine how excited I was to receive these books by Deborah Lott.

I cannot tell you how helpful these books are to me and how much my two little guys have advanced.

Maybe some of you know exactly how to explain to your little people how to pronounce a letter, I didn’t. You would think by the time I was on children number 11 & 12, I might have a clue, NOT, they are my first to have difficulties with speech. These books have shown me how to evaluate them, then exactly how to teach them the correct way. It also has given me an idea of what they should be able to handle at their age and what is yet to come….

To read the rest of this review, please visit the Burkherts Brigade blog.  Thanks, Terri!

This review of Super Star R and L was written by Denise at Got Chai?.

I never even considered the idea of speech therapy until I had my son, Ethan.

Ethan (11) was a late-talker. He didn’t say any words outside of “mama” and “dada” until he was 2 years old. Instead he would make this odd “glug-glug” sound in the back of his throat. Kind of like a scene in a movie where the hero is trying to talk with a gag in his mouth. Hard to explain, sorry.

Fast forward to age 2. He’s finally stringing 2-3 word sentences together. Age 3, he’s got the sentences down but he doesn’t articulate his words well—at all. Instead of saying “Let me see!” it would come out, “Lemme heeee!” The word please would come out “pwease”, Sierra would come out “Wawa”. This continued long past the age of 6 when Ethan then developed a severe stutter. (Poor guy inherited a double-whammy. Dean had the same articulation issues as a kid, and I stuttered. In fact, at times I still do. So does my father.)

When he was about 6 years old, we enrolled him in speech therapy. Those lessons helped quite a bit with the stutter and boosted his confidence. But eventually the money ran out and the clinic itself closed. They didn’t get a chance to address his R/L issues.

Enter our latest review product, Super Star Speech: Super Star R and L, by Deborah Lott.

This was a product I had looked at once before, but dismissed it thinking that an E-book wouldn’t be all that effective. (Boy, was I wrong!)

Each of this book’s 61 pages is filled to the brim with drills, activities, games and teaching tips designed specifically to help parents correct their child’s articulation issues at home.

Although the author does stress that her program is not to be used as a substitute for proper speech therapy (especially for things like stuttering), her program does make an excellent starting point and/or therapy supplement. The E-book may also be used as a supplement to Deborah Lott’s Super Star Speech–Speech Therapy Made Simple program.

Our Impressions

Super Star R and L made it very clear to see where I had gone wrong in my attempts to help my son. Most of the time, I’d say things like, “Try it like this: Rrrr!”, which of course he would do with little to no success. I was frustrated because I couldn’t understand why he couldn’t “do as I do”, and he was frustrated trying to master something that seemed impossible.

But then in the book, Deborah explains how the sounds are actually made by curling or flattening the tongue. (Duh! I didn’t even think about that!) There are several exercises that both parent and child can do together. Later when I had Ethan perform the exercises in front of the mirror, it made such a huge difference!  Now he was seeing what I was saying, and I was finally able to help him make that brain/tongue connection. Click!

I also love how everything is written without the use of fancy make-you-wanna-scratch-your-head-and-say-huh? jargon. Everything is simple to understand, easy to use, and fun to work with. (And effective. Can’t forget effective.)

Ethan still has trouble if he’s not actively thinking about what he’s saying. But I’m confident that this product will help him overcome at least some of his speech challenges in the months to come.

Super Star R and L is available for $18.95 spiral bound or for $12.95 for the E-book through the author’s website Super Star Speech.com.

I absolutely recommend this program as a gentle, effective introduction to speech therapy. The author’s tone is one of caring and concern, and the lessons are fun for a variety of ages. Two thumbs up!

To read what my fellow Crew members had to say about this product, please click here.

*As a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I received a copy of this product for free in exchange for an honest review. No additional compensation was provided and the thoughts expressed in this post are my own.*

Although, as I have said before, children do develop at different rates and sequences, some sounds are easier to produce and are usually mastered at earlier ages. The sounds labial (lip) sounds, p, b, and m, are probably the easiest. N, t, and d are also easy sounds that most children master very early. Think of a child’s first words….mama, dada, ball (without the “l”). Other early words often have these sounds substituted for more difficult sounds: “tat” for “cat,” or “du” for “juice.”

By age 3, most children have mastered m, p, b, and n.  By 3 1/2, they are also correctly producing t, d, k, g, w, y, and ng in their speech. To see more detailed information on speech and language development at various ages, visit these links:

Articulation Sounds Chart

Speech and Language Development Chart

Many young children have trouble making the “L” sound. The most common error is substituting a “W” for “L.”  Some children may use “Y” for “L” or omit the “L” altogether. Children should be able to produce L in conversation by age 5.

The “L” sound is produced by placing the tongue tip behind the upper front teeth, against the gum ridge.  The sides of the tongue are lowered in order to allow the voice to pass around the sides of the tongue.

Tips:

1. Model the correct placement of the tongue, using a mirror. Touch the gum ridge with a spoon or popsicle stick to instruct the child where to make tongue contact.
2. Practice raising and lowering the tongue tip to strengthen the tongue and develop awareness.
3. Have the child open his mouth widely, sustain an “ah” sound while raising his tongue tip to the L position.
4. Practice L vowel babbling…. Lalala, loolooloo, leeleelee. You may find that the L is easier to produce with one vowel over another. Practice the easier syllables first.
5. Compare the tongue tip sounds. Have the child practice: “tee, dee, nee, lee,” etc.
6. If the child substitutes W for L, gently spread the child’s lips to discourage him from rounding them when producing L.

Once the child can produce an L sound consistently in isolation or in a short syllable, have him practice it at the beginning of words, such as light, lamp, let, and lip.

My book, Super Star R and L, includes more helps for teaching the L sound, including picture cards, practice activities, and games.

“TH” is a sound that many children have trouble producing, but it is a very easy sound to teach. There are actually two TH sounds. One is voiceless, as in the word, “bath.” The other is voiced, as in the word, “that.”  The voiceless TH is usually mastered by age 5 or 6, but the voiced TH may still be mispronounced by many children until age 7.

TH is produced by protruding the tongue slightly between the front teeth and blowing. The voiced TH is produced the same way, but uses the voice instead of the breath.

Tips:

Demonstrate TH using a mirror. Instruct the child to “bite your tongue and blow.”

If the child substitutes F or V for TH, draw his attention to the use of the tongue and teeth to make the sound. The teeth and lip should not make contact. Practice “f-th-f-th” to contrast the two sounds. If necessary, gently push the lower lip out of the way.

To teach the voiced TH, instruct the child to imitate the voiceless TH and to “turn his voice on.” It may be taught by having him say “zzzz,” then gradually move his tongue forward to between the teeth.

Have your child practice the TH in isolation until it is easy for him. Then have him try it at the beginning of words, such as thing, thick, thunder, this, or that.

My book, Super Star Ch, J, and Th contains many other helps, practice activities, picture cards, and games to help you teach your child the TH sound.