I have a client working on producing initial s in words as well as f. To practice our target sounds we played Sink or Float? We collected items from around his house and got a big bucket for water. We practiced naming the items, using prompts as needed (choices: do you want the yellow ball or the green frog?). After choosing an item I asked him if he thought the item would sink or float? I over-emphasized the s and f and brought the items close to my mouth. If further instruction was needed for correct production, I encourage the /s/ by prompting the child to make a "snakey sound" or asked, "what does a snake say?" For the production of /f/ I have the child "cool down" his/her hot lip. I model biting my lip then blowing on my "hot lip" while waving my hand next to my lip to cool it down as if I was blowing hot food.
After the client made a guess (and we encouraged or cheered for good production of the target) we let him throw the item into the bucket. We asked "wh" question, "what happened, did it sink or float?" After a few trials with pompts, I waited him out to see if he would spontaneously tell me if the item sunk or floated. A couple skills we incorporated into this game:
Modeling different verb tenses: -ing verbs - sinking or floating
Expanding: Adding more words to his phrases ex: "Frog is floating" "Yes, the green frog is floating"
New vocabulary: Choose items that the child does not know or are not currently in his/her vocabulary and practice naming those items. Pick a items from same category groups (all food items or all animals, etc)
This is a fun warm weather activity for little ones who are increasing their vocabulary and sentence length!
