Major focus area

Speech Therapy -> Articulation

Short description

Verbal cues are the various ways of telling a child how to produce a target sound or word. Verbal cues can include direct models of the word, explaining how and where to move the articulators, bringing attention to a communication breakdown (e.g., Did you mean bite or bike?), exaggerating the prosody of the word by elongating the vowels and sounding more melodic, practicing the word together, saying only the first sound of the word to get the child started, pausing and building anticipation before the last word in a verbal routine, referring to certain sounds by unique names (e.g., "coughing" sound), and many more.

Long description

Verbal cues are the various ways of telling a child how to produce a target sound or word. Verbal cues can include direct models of the word, explaining how and where to move the articulators, bringing attention to a communication breakdown (e.g., Did you mean bite or bike?), exaggerating the prosody of the word by elongating the vowels and sounding more melodic, practicing the word together, saying only the first sound of the word to get the child started, pausing and building anticipation before the last word in a verbal routine, referring to certain sounds by unique names (e.g., "coughing" sound), and many more. A child will often need more cues when initially learning a sound. The therapist will work to decrease the amount of cues provided in order to help a child get closer to independence.