Fun Therapy Ideas

Melanie is always looking for creative ways for Whitney to learn new things.  At the store last week she spotted a $.99 plastic recorder.  She figured this would be a good tool for helping Whitney work on diaphragm control and blowing.

Melanie blows into the recorder and makes it toot.  Whitney smiles and wants to try.  She's still learning.  Most of the time she tries to hum into it instead of blowing a true breath of air, but she's getting it.  She gets pretty proud of herself when she's able to produce a short toot of her own.

Another fun game is when Melanie puts her feet on top of Whitney's feet and has her stand.  She has to work with her leg muscles and keep her knees bent.  This takes a lot of muscle strength to keep balanced.  After practicing this activity for a couple of months Whit can stand for up to 15 minutes.  She's getting much, much stronger.

Playing with fun things and trying to say their names is one of Whitney's favorite speech therapy activities.  For example, we get out the bubbles and blow some.  Then we say bu bu bubbles.  Whit usually laughs and tries to say the bu sound.

Making learning fun seems to work well for Whit.  Remember that therapists don't have a monopoly on effective, fun therapy ideas.  Involve a bit of learning with your child's favorite activities and you just may be surprised at their progress!