With the cost of living rising, and increasing weather-related events and pandemics affecting income and outgoing costs, paying for private Speech Language Therapy can be a luxury for many.
I want everyone who needs it, to have access to Speech Language Therapy, so I've put together six ways you can access support for your child for free, or very low cost.
Use resources you already have:
There's no need to go out and buy a whole lot of new and expensive games and resources. You will already have items around the home that you can use:
Use toys/games your child already owns and enjoys playing.
Make resources from low cost/no cost items, e.g. a sock puppet to feed word cards/items to, an empty icecream container as a posting box for word cards, empty yoghurt/spread/takeaway containers to put counters in as your child practices, a hacky-sack/beanbag/ball to drop on word cards you've put on the floor.
Make word cards or a speech page/title page with pictures that contain the sound you're focusing on. You can cut these out from a magazine or advertising pamphlet. Making the word card or page can be part of the activity with your child.
Download my speech games to play handout for more ideas of ways to use items from around the home to work on your child's speech.
Access free and low cost resources on the internet:
There are lots of free resources you can download from the internet. Some include:
Free and low cost resources created by Speech Language Therapists on Teachers Pay Teachers.
Low cost resources from Speech Language Illustrated.
Watch free trainings on YouTube:
There are SO MANY free trainings on YouTube. Some good channels include:
Download digital handouts:
Many Speech Language Therapy sites have free handouts you can download.
I have lots of free and low cost downloadable handouts here, that I am happy for you to give to people in your child's life: Teachers, relatives, etc.
You can use my Speech Handout Bundle containing 12 handouts (and growing!)
Access a video course to teach you exactly what to do:
Video courses can be a great option, as all the information is well organised and distilled down to the most important information. I have a range of courses, that teach you how to work on your child's speech:
You can learn essential baseline skills for working on your child's speech with The Speech Sound Essentials Video Course
If your child has difficulty with making one or two speech sounds, you can use one of my Speech Sound Specific Video Courses
Join a membership:
If you crave a community of like-minded people to support you, plus ongoing support, new resources and trainings, then a membership could be a great option for you.
The Speech Teacher Membership gives you access to my handout bundles, exclusive content, first access to all my new content, ability to ask questions and have them answered by me, a qualified and experienced Speech Language Therapist, ability to suggest topics for me to cover, plus a community of other like-minded parents, Teachers and Teacher Aides who all have children with speech sound challenges in their lives.
The Speech Support Annual Membership includes weekly live trainings in bite-sized amounts, containing practical and effective strategies that you can implement straight away, fortnightly group calls, where you can ask questions about your child, a 1:1 one hour video call with me that you can use at any time, access to one speech sound video course of your choice, plus all my handouts.
I hope you find these suggestions useful in helping the child/ren in your life progress their speech skills.
Polly x