Summer Tot Time

Our youngest is now 3 years old.  He's a sweetheart!  We started noticing that our older two would 'speak for him' since he was born.  With two older siblings he had a hard time getting a word in to answer for himself.  The two older ones still have to work on that and we, parents, have to do a better job of catching it.  We noticed that Lil Bear can say every phonetic sound.  But, it is hard for him to make certain initial sounds.  For instance he will say 'Gook' instead of 'Look' or 'tissy' instead of 'sissy', 'wilk' instead of 'milk'.   The good thing is that if I ask him, "is it gook or look?" he will respond with 'look' and say it the right way.  He just has to pause, think about it and make a concerted effort to do it.  I do not think it's laziness.  I do think it is harder for him to make the right sound automatic. We brought up this concern with our Pediatrician.  He recommended before we seek speech therapy to work with him on our own until his next check up.  He IS able to make all L, S, and M sounds (and all the other phonetic sounds) but some of them are hard for him in the beginning of a word.  SH, CH, TR are also a bit harder for him at the beginning of a word.  Our doctor gave us some exercises to do with him. 

Along with those exercises, I have been doing a few things to help me and him.
- I have an index card that I update when I notice a word or sound he is having trouble with.
- I made a summer Tot Time plan for him that will focus specifically on practicing the sounds he has trouble with by using rhymes and songs.
- I am praying for him and also having siblings NOT correct him.  I noticed it would hurt his little heart if too many teachers would try to correct help him.

*Please note we are not opposed in any way to get him evaluated.  However, based on the advice of our Pediatrician and others that know him well--they all seem to agree that it is more of a let's practice at home for a certain amount of time issue and then reevaluate at the next check-up.  I strongly recommend that you consult your physician if you have any speech or developmental concerns about your child.*

With that being said:  Here are some of the songs/rhymes we will be using:

- Mealtime prayer: Thank You Jesus song (The one that is used at our church.)
- The Alphabet Song
- Little Bo Peep
- Jack and Jill
- Hey Diddle Diddle
- Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
- Review

Some resources I will be using:

Tot School Planning Forms from 1+1=1
Nursery Rhyme activities from Spell Outloud
and other ideas I found on Pinterest

I am super excited to get started!

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