Songs for Speech and Language Therapy
Speech and Language Therapists from the Spires Cleft Team have developed two songs for pre-school children which are particularly useful for children with a cleft palate who may be undergoing early intervention therapy for their speech. These songs were developed to encourage gentle blowing activities for children with a cleft palate who may benefit from experiencing air flowing through their mouths. These songs are ideal for families to sing at home, or can be shared with a child’s preschool setting as a small group activitiy to be enjoyed by everyone.
The idea of these songs is to keep the blowing very soft and gentle and to talk to children about how we use stretched lips and how the air comes out of our mouths. When singing this with children who have unwanted air escaping through their nose, it is suggested that adults model gentle nose-holding while they are blowing and invite children to copy the action.
If you are doing this activity with pre-school children you may want to include a short activity around making leaves out of paper.
These songs will also be available on a CD accompanying a book which will be published January 2014, written by SLTs from the Spires Cleft Centre for community-based therapists working with children with a cleft palate. The CD will include resources which therapists can share with pre-schools, schools and families.
