Verbal Apraxia Exercises Targeting the Production of Primary Level Concepts

Packet at Teachers Notebook

Packet at Teachers Pay Teachers

 

Hello Twin Sisters Speech & Language Therapy Followers! I hope that you are keeping warm during this cold winter!  Lately, I've been thinking about our Arctic friends, the penguins. They are so cute! I used some cute penguin clip art from My Cute Graphics and Scrappin Doodles and developed this last much needed document. It is mainly a unit to help out my primary grade students who are having a tough time verbally producing their own personal information and with knowing and saying things like the seasons, months, and the days of the week. Knowing and saying these type of things are often tough for primary students and especially for my speech and language delayed students. Daily review is needed to help them to remember the information. Practicing the information and giving it back in a slow and careful manner helps to improve the overall production accuracy for my students with apraxia too. That is why I have included repetition sheets that start at the 2 word level and expand to the 5 word sentence level. Repetition of words is the hallmark treatment strategy for people with verbal apraxia and this packet will now be my, "GO TO PACKET" for working with children who are demonstrating difficulty with word to sentence level repetition errors.

 

 

What is Developmental Apraxia/ Childhood Apraxia of Speech?
Apraxia is a neurological speech disorder in which a person has trouble saying what he or she wants to say correctly and consistently. It is not due to weakness or paralysis of the speech muscles (the muscles of the face, tongue, and lips), it is contributed to the brain that has problems planning to move the body parts like the lips, jaw, and tongue that are needed for speech production. It is also known as apraxia or apraxia of speech. It is important to note that the child KNOWS what he or she wants to say, but his/her brain has DIFFICULTY COORDINATING the muscle movements necessary to say words. They can have problems saying sounds, syllables, and words.

This treatment packet is targeted at helping the primary level student progress in their ability to clearly and slowly verbally produce words and sentences. We have included a variety of concepts to make the treatment program functional and age appropriate for children at the kindergarten and higher level. The students will be encouraged to read and learn the speech production cueing techniques and to use a pacing board during their repetitions. Repetition is the cornerstone of apraxia therapy. Repeating helps the brain to make new motor pathways of understanding.
Exercises in this packet range from the encouragement of the verbal production of single letters, numbers, and colors, to the encouragement of the clear and accurate production of the months, days of the week, multi-syllable words, and 3 to 6 word sentences. A variety of writing, sorting, and reading tasks are also provided to help with increasing the understanding of the concepts. We believe that understanding increases when all modalities of learning are used.
We hope you find this penguin themed unit to be both useful and fun!

Contents & Directions of this verbal expression unit:
Page 2: Directions and content information page.
Page 3: What is Developmental Apraxia/Childhood Apraxia of Speech?
Page 4: Types and causes of apraxia of speech.
Page 5: Therapy recommendations for verbal apraxia and students delayed in their ability to verbally repeat words and sentences.
Page 6: Pre- test for verbal expression of concepts, personal information, item naming, and sentence repetition for primary level students.
Page 7: Obtaining a diadochokinetic rate to assess a child’s overall oral agility and speech rate skills.
Page 8: 3 syllable word or 3 word sentence pacing board. Child touches one snowman at a time as they repeat the 3 syllable words or 3 word sentences. This encourages a slower pace of verbal production which results in a clearer and often more accurate repetition.
Page 9: 4 syllable word or 4 word sentence pacing board. Child touches one snowman at a time as they repeat the multi-syllable words or 4 word sentences.
Page 10: 4 and 5 word sentence level pacing board.
Page 11: Six Tips to Clearer and More Accurate Speech page.
Page 12: Say and write the personal information of name, and phone number.
Page 13: Name and label the eight shapes. First and second letters provided.
Page 14: Name and label the colors.
Page 15: Say the alphabet aloud and write down all lowercase letters.
Page 16: Say the days of the week aloud and answer questions about them.
Page 17: Count aloud from 50 to 100. Write in the numbers 1 to 30.
Page 18: Say the months and the seasons of the year. Answer questions about them.
Page 19: Days of the week sorting cards.
Page 20: Days of the week sorting mat.
Page 21: Seasons sorting and discussion cards.
Page 22: Seasons sorting mat.
Page 23: Months sorting cards.
Page 24: Months sorting mat.
Pages 25 -26: Color word reading cards for matching to the actual colors on the color mat.
Pages 27-28: One to twelve word number reading cards for matching to counting cards.
Pages 29-30: Upper and lower case letter matching cards.
Pages 31-33: Penguin question card activity. Answer the questions about the penguins.
Page 34: Oral Agility Exercises
Page 35: Fill in the missing information aloud.
Page 36: Name three items for every category.
Page 37: Give personal information and concept answers aloud.
Page 38: Name the category being described by three given category items.
Pages 39 - 45: Repeat the three and four syllable words as you play a fun winter themed board game. Print, cut out, and laminate the ame cards, dice, and makers for durability. (Or print on card stock)
Page 46: Repeat the two word phrases.
Page 47: Repeat the three word sentences.
Page 48: Repeat the four word sentences.
Page 49: Repeat the five word sentences.
Pages 50-52:Penguin coloring pages with sentence repetitions.
Page 53: Primary level verbal expression post test.
Page 51: Twin Sisters Speech & Language Therapy copyright and clip art credit page