Tips for Learning and Teaching
- Reduce your rate of speech.
- Encourage the student to reduce his/her rate of speech.
- Provide clear models for sound production.
- Encourage students to participate with peers in activities.
- Encourage students to initiate conversations.
- Allow additional response time.
- Try not to ask for repetitions. Instead identify for the student the portion of what he/she has said that you understand, ask the student to clarify the parts of the sentence you did not understand and encourage the student to do so in a slow, steady voice.
- Remember that difficulties and frustrated behaviour may present if the student is asked to repeat something or is put on the spot.
- Try not to complete sentences for the student.
- Encourage the student to persevere with what he/she is trying to say.
- Use visual cues where possible.
- Use concrete materials in the implementation of the curriculum.
- Home-school journals can be helpful as a means of communicating interests and experiences, particularly with younger students or students whose speech is particularly unintelligible.
- Be consistent in the language you use (e.g. instructions, explanations etc) and ensure the student is following what you are saying. Sometimes restate the instruction in a simpler manner.
- Praise the student for effort.
- Be aware that the student may need a break from oral activities.
