Let me tell you about my favorite tool for telehealth speech. This isn’t an ad, this is just a super popular therapy material that turns out to be my favorite item in my telehealth “tool bag”. The Jumbo Mighty Mouth Hand Puppet has turned sessions around, generalized understanding, and just generally been a silly but educational activity to use via telehealth services. Would it surprise you if I told you sometimes my younger kids get tired of me saying “look at me in the camera, see what my teeth are doing”? But when I say “look at the big mouth about to eat my hand!” suddenly they are re-engaged, focused on the screen, and getting an additional visual model of what their sound LOOKS like!
Parents can use similar tools at home to show their child what the correct articulatory placement looks like for particular sounds. Visual models are key to correct placement. And sometimes it’s hard to show good placement in our own mouths. A sound that is particularly difficult to see inside the mouth (and via the computer camera) is the /r/ sound. Kids working on this sound hugely benefit from seeing the big puppets tongue hit the articulatory marker for /r/.
Doing therapy in person with masks right now? This is the BEST to use when you cannot show a visual model with your own mouth!
Are you a Speech-Language Pathologist? What tool has re-imagined the way you do therapy via teleahealth? And if you need a Speech-Language Pathologist near you check out ASHA profind! If you’re local to Chicago I’d love to help out with your Speech-Language needs!
Here I am with the Jumbo Mighty Mouth Hand Puppet! Linked here for you (not an ad!)
