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Five Familiar Games for Sneaky Speech Therapy

#5: Silly Songs

By Terri Mauro, About.com

You know, it's the one where you:

Sing the same lyrics over and over and over, with minor variations and changes in volume.

Like this:

"B-I-N-G-O! B-I-N-G-O! B-I-N-G-O! And Bingo was its name-O!"

Sneakily strengthens:

  • Memory
  • Volume
  • Phonics

Five ways to tweak it:

  1. To focus on alphabet awarness, set other five-letter words to the tune of the "BINGO" song.

  2. To focus on speech volume, use songs like the camp classic "I'm a Little Striped Skunk" that get louder with every verse, or lead your kids in singing their own silly favorite with loud and quiet verses.

  3. To focus on memorization, try songs like "Do Your Ears Hang Low?" that have long strings of words and actions.

  4. To focus on categorization, sing songs like "Old MacDonald" or "The Wheels on the Bus" that focus on many things that happen in one place, then adapt those melodies and word-patterns to other places and groups of things.

  5. To focus on number concepts, subject yourself to "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall" -- or "22 Bottles of Juice in the Fridge," or "10 Bottles of Paint on the Shelf," or whatever other silly combination your kids can think up and count to.

#1: "I Went to ..."
#2: I Spy
#3: Twenty Questions
#4: Tongue Twisters

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