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Speech Blubs

by Blub Blub

The #1 Speech Therapy App for Kids

Activate your child’s language with fun speech therapist-approved activities and learn new words every day.

What is Speech Blubs?

A speech learning app that will help your kid speak better, sooner, and more confidently!

Who is Speech Blubs for? For children from 1 to 6 years old.

Who is it for?

It helps kids over 12 months, including those with Down syndrome, articulation issues, or kids with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Finny showing how Speech Blubs app works?

How does it work?

Kid "experts" teach first sounds, words, and sentences so your child speaks with ease.

Check the mind-blowing progress of Harper, one of our awesome kids!

“ Within the first 7 days, we noticed a huge improvement ! Things she was trying to tell us in the weeks before, that we couldn’t understand, were now being pronounced so clearly!”

“I never thought she’d learn this much, this quickly! After a month, she was counting to 10 and knew all her shapes and colors! Her vocabulary is growing every week, and it feels just like fun play to her.”

“The beauty of Speech Blubs is in the many different topics. She would never hear the word ‘Velociraptor’ in our daily conversations, but ‘Dinorawrs’ is one of her favorite topics in the app!! It also shows her how to sound words out.”

How your child masters speech:

1. Watch and repeat

Kids first watch other kids act as teachers and role models, and are motivated to copy and repeat after them.

2. Role-play

Take pictures with fun face filters that are designed so kids can become the word they practice. Build a fun photo book along the way. Save and share the memories!

3. Listen to their progress

Each word your kid practices is followed by a clever video that gives context for that word, and makes it easier to remember. Be amazed by how fast they learn!

Approved by children and speech therapists

Speech Blubs was made with the help of our network of 1000+ speech therapists (SLPs) who make sure the app is equipped with the necessary tools to improve your little one’s speech. Kids test it to make sure it’s fun, too!

"It's fun, creative, multi-sensory, bilingual and a great use of technology. I highly recommend this app for professionals and parents to use with kids!"

Stacie Bennet,

Speech-Language Pathologist

"The progress that Harper has made with her speech with Speech Blubs over the last 5 months is mindblowing!"

Shannon and Harper Grace,

Ambassadors

"Speech Blubs provides a fun, interactive digital addition to the support you can give your child’s communication at home!"

El Robertson,

Paediatric Speech and Language therapist BSc

"The beauty of Speech Blubs is the access to creatively and tangibly build upon those speech goals and needs, through an innovative and accessible app!"

Meg and Leif,

"There’s something for everyone in Speech Blubs. It’s not just an articulation app or a language app, for example. It’s a multi-dimensional app that has lots of different elements."

Natalie Barnes,

Speech Therapist and Audiologist

"Learn new vocabulary and snap playful picture filters while practicing developing speech!"

Sharice Lane,

Speech Language Pathologist

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Extra app: Reading Blubs

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There are different types of screen time.

So, experts talk about PASSIVE (screen time that is physically and cognitively sedentary, like watching cartoons or music videos) vs. ACTIVE (cognitively, educationally, or physically engaging activities). Most agree that passive screen time doesn’t usually help with physical or emotional development, but that active smart screen time can.

Smart screen time can work for your child!

Instead of passively watching cartoons, with Speech Blubs your kid will be engaged in active smart screen time that can teach new things, get kids moving, and can help kids’ future success.

Over 1,500 fun activities that will help get your child ready for school & life.

Your one-stop website for helpful parent- and speech-related topics, when do kids start counting to 10.

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Speech Blubs Review: “Engaging & Effective Practice”

Lindsay works in the child development field, so her enthusiasm about the Speech Blubs app is the biggest award ever! Need more proof? Check out...

Join our community of over 100,000 sharing parents!

Frequently asked questions

Speech Blubs is a speech learning app that offers a variety of fun, engaging, and educational activities that will boost your child’s speech while providing great fun for the whole family.

Can I try it for free?

Yes, you can! Speech Blubs has a 7-day FREE trial , giving you the option to explore the activities and see for yourself if it is something that might benefit your child!

How much does it cost?

As mentioned, the first seven days are on us! After that, there is a small fee (a fraction of one speech therapy session). We have monthly, annual, and even a lifetime plan with prices starting as low as US $4.99/month .

What languages are supported?

Currently, we offer Speech Blubs in English and Spanish, French, and Portuguese!

Can I use it on multiple devices?

Can i use it with more than one kid.

Of course you can! Speech Blubs has the option to create multiple profiles for each and every little superhero of yours!

How do I cancel my subscription?

Canceling is easy! Depending on your device (iOS or Android), go to the respective app store, find your Speech Blubs subscription and cancel it. If you have any problems, feel free to contact us on [email protected] ANYTIME!

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Second Opinion

Age-Appropriate Speech and Language Milestones

The ability to hear is essential for proper speech and language development. Hearing problems may be suspected in children who are not responding to sounds or who are not developing their language skills appropriately. The following are some age-related guidelines that may help to decide if your child is experiencing hearing problems.

It's important to remember that not every child is the same. Children reach milestones at different ages. Talk your child's healthcare provider if you are suspicious that your child is not developing speech and language skills correctly. The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders and other experts list the following age-appropriate speech and language milestones for babies and young children.

Milestones related to speech and language






	These sounds may not be fully mastered until age 7 or 8.

Speech Therapy for Toddlers

What is speech therapy.

Language Development
Signs of Delay
Speech Therapy Activities
A Parent's Role

Frequently Asked Questions

Speech therapy is a treatment led by a speech and language pathologist (SLP) or speech therapist. It helps a person communicate and speak more clearly. Toddlers may develop language or speech impairments due to illness, hearing problems, or brain disorders.

This article covers speech and language milestones, causes of speech disorders, diagnosis, what happens in speech therapy, and how parents can help their toddlers.

Dragana991 / Getty Images

Speech therapy is a treatment that helps a person speak or communicate more effectively. It is performed by specially trained speech and language pathologists (SLPs) or speech therapists. They help their patients better understand others, pronounce words clearly, or put words together.

There are different types of speech therapy and their use will depend on the age of the child and what they are experiencing. For example, therapy practices vary for children with apraxia (difficulty pronouncing different syllables), stuttering, aphasia (difficulty speaking due to damage to the brain), and difficulty swallowing, and for late talkers.

Language Development (Newborn to Toddler)

While delay does not always mean there’s a problem, it’s important to recognize when a toddler misses a developmental milestone. The following are general guidelines of speech and language development for babies and toddlers:

Newborns communicate through crying. Their cries may sound the same at first but start to vary as they grow. They also cry to express emotions, and parents begin to understand what different cries mean.

High-Pitched Crying

A high-pitched cry not resolved by comforting or eating may mean that an infant is experiencing discomfort or pain.

Newborns pick up on rhythms of speech and their parents' voices within the first few weeks of life. Between 1 and 4 months old, they become more alert to sounds and may startle more easily or turn to look for the source of the noise.

Around 2 to 3 months old, infants start smiling and cooing, which often sounds like "ah" or "eh." Babies begin laughing by 3 to 4 months old.

By 5 or 6 months old, infants imitate adult sounds produced by babbling or shrieking. Babbling involves repeating sounds such as "ba," "ma," or "ga."

7–12 Months

Seven-month-old infants hear words as distinct sounds and try to repeat them. By 9 months old, they start to understand expressions and simple commands like "no," recognize words for objects, and respond to their names.

Ten- to 12-month-olds follow simple commands such as "give mommy your cup." They also begin to say simple words such as "dada" or "bye-bye."

A Toddler's First Words

Most 1-year-olds can say a few words such as “up” or “dog” but do not put words together in a sentence.

13–18 Months

By 18 months, a toddler puts two words together and says phrases such as "push it." They often communicate in gestures that get more complex over time.

Toddlers this age start recognizing objects, body parts, pictures, or people. For example, if you ask, "Where is your nose?," they will be able to point to it.

19–24 Months

By 24 months old, toddlers know and say 50 or more words. They start to form two- to three-word sentences. Two-year-olds can usually communicate their needs, such as “I want more milk,” and follow two-step commands.

Speech and Language Developmental Timeline

Children develop at different speeds and may not follow the typical timeline. If you are concerned about the delay, contact your pediatrician or healthcare provider as soon as possible. Early treatment can make a difference.

Signs of Speech or Language Delay in Toddlers

The following are general guidelines to help parents know if they should have their young child evaluated for speech or language problems:

A baby who does not vocalize or respond to sound
A 1-year-old who does not use gestures, such as pointing
An 18-month-old who would rather use gestures than sounds
An 18-month-old who has difficulty imitating sounds or understanding simple requests
A 2-year-old who imitates speech but doesn’t talk spontaneously
A 2-year-old who can say words but not communicate more than their immediate needs or follow simple directions
A 2-year-old who has a raspy or nasal-sounding voice

Understanding the Words of a Toddler

Parents and regular caregivers usually understand about 50% of a toddler’s speech by 2 years old and 75% by 3 years old.

Speech or language delays can occur due to problems with the structures of the mouth, head injuries, chronic illnesses, or brain disorders.

If the cause is a brain disorder, it can be difficult to coordinate their tongue, lips, and mouth to make sounds or words.

Hearing problems can make it difficult to imitate or understand language. This is not always a problem that is apparent at birth. Chronic ear infections can cause hearing damage in one or both ears.

A speech therapist will perform tests with your toddler to check the following:

What your child understands
What your child can say
Clarity of speech
How the structures in their mouth work together to form words and eat

The following are diagnostic tests or scales a speech therapist may perform with your toddler:

Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (Bayley-III) : Bayley-III is used worldwide to measure all aspects of development from birth to 42 months. A speech therapist administers the language portion by watching the child follow instructions and identify people and objects. It helps them know if the child is on track or needs further evaluation.
Preschool Language Scales–Fifth Edition (PLS)-5 English : The PLS-5 is an interactive screening tool designed for infants and young children. Speech therapists measure all areas of language through a play-based approach.
Differential Ability Scales Assessment–Second Edition (DAS-II) : The DAS-II provides a scale to help speech therapists better understand how a child processes information. This allows them to develop appropriate activities for therapy.
Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation 3 (GFTA-3) : The GFTA-3 involves asking a child to identify colorful drawings and measures their ability to pronounce consonants.
The Rossetti Infant-Toddler Language Scales: This test is specifically designed for children from birth to 36 months old. It involves a parent interview, as well as observation of the child performing tasks.

What Happens During Speech Therapy?

The speech therapist will plan and perform activities to help your toddler with skills based on their specific needs. Therapy may occur in small groups or individually.

Language building activities include using picture books, repetition, talking, and playing. If a toddler has difficulty pronouncing certain words, the therapist will teach them how to make the sound or say specific words.

Sometimes speech therapists help toddlers with speech mechanics. This involves teaching them how to move their mouth or tongue to pronounce a word. They may also prescribe lip, tongue, or jaw exercises to continue at home.

What Concerns are Addressed During Speech Therapy?

Some of the concerns that SLPs may address during speech therapy include:

Speech mechanics
Word pronunciation
Volume or quality of speech
Social communication skills
Trouble swallowing

How Can Parents Help?

It helps to talk and read to your child frequently. Use correct names and speak in a slow and clear voice. When giving direction, keep things simple. Kneeling to their level can them focus on what you are saying.

If your child points at a glass of water, help them connect the gesture and language by asking, “Do you want water?” When they don’t pronounce words accurately, emphasize the correct pronunciation when responding.

Waiting for a Response

When asking a question such as “Do you want a drink?,” try waiting for a response. This helps your toddler learn to communicate back to you.

Chronic illnesses, brain disorders, and hearing problems can cause a toddler to have delayed speech or language development. Speech therapy can help them learn to communicate more effectively.

Parents can help by talking to their children often, speaking clearly, and emphasizing correct pronunciation. If your child is in speech therapy, it’s helpful to perform exercises prescribed by your speech therapist at home.

A Word From Verywell

Not all children follow a typical timeline for speech and language development. Sometimes they are focused on learning a new task, such as walking, and put language development on the back burner. They often catch up later.

If your toddler is experiencing a language or speech delay, talk with your child’s healthcare provider. If there is a problem, getting help early can make a difference.

A toddler should start speech therapy any time after 3 months old if they experience developmental delays in speech or language. This may seem young, but a speech therapist can monitor the signs if there is a delay. Early intervention can make an impact.

The estimated national average cost for the United States is $218 per session. However, many insurances and most state Medicaid programs cover speech therapy. It can be helpful to find an in-network clinic to decrease your out-of-pocket expenses.

Nemours Kids Health. Delayed speech or language development . KidsHealth.org.

Durkin MJ. From Infancy to the Elderly: Communication throughout the Ages. Nova Science Publishers; 2011.

Meadows-Oliver M. Pediatric Nursing Made Incredibly Easy. 3rd Edition. Wolters Kluwer; 2019.

University of Michigan Health. Speech and language milestones, birth to 1 year .

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Important milestones: Your baby by nine months .

American Academy of Pediatrics. Language delays in toddlers: Information for parents . Healthychildren.org.

Nemours Kids Health. Communication and your 1-to-2 year old . KidsHealth.org.

NAPA Center. Speech therapy for children: What are the benefits? .

Garro, A. Early Childhood Assessment in School and Clinical Child Psychology . Springer; 2016.

Ross, K. Speech-Language Pathologists in Early Childhood . Plural Publishing; 2015.

DeVeney SL. Clinical challenges: Assessing toddler speech sound productions . Semin Speech Lang. 2019 Mar;40(2):81-93. doi: 10.1055/s-0039-1677759.

NAPA Center. 5 tips to help your toddler’s speech development by a speech therapist .

Wooster Community Hospital. At what age should speech therapy begin? .

MDsave. Speech therapy visit .

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Introduction to Medicaid .

By Brandi Jones, MSN-ED RN-BC Jones is a registered nurse and freelance health writer with more than two decades of healthcare experience.

About Apraxia Kids
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27 Nov Speech Therapy for Younger Children

Speech therapy for younger children, apraxia: speech therapy and treatment for toddlers and young children.

Original article written by Sharon Gretz, M.Ed.

Revised and updated by Megan Overby, PhD, CCC-SLP (Note: Members of the Apraxia Kids Professional Advisory Council have reviewed this article.)

Introduction

There are questions whether children under age 3 should be given the diagnosis of apraxia of speech. If a diagnosis is made (or suspected), the issue of how to treat such a young child arises, especially because many children who later receive a confirmatory diagnosis of CAS will have additional speech and language therapy goals in addition to those targeting speech production. The purpose of this article is twofold: to review current recommendations for initial diagnostic procedures when identifying young children who may have CAS and to briefly discuss some speech therapy techniques that may benefit the speech production and expressive language skills of young children suspected to have CAS.

Diagnostic Indicators

Much work needs to be done in characterizing the early speech sound development of infants and toddlers later diagnosed with CAS, but studies (Highman, Hennessey, Leitao, & Piek; 2013; Highman, Hennessey, Sherwood, & Leitao, 2008; Overby & Caspari, 2015; Overby, Caspari, Schrieber, in review) offer some preliminary diagnostic indicators for children aged two and younger.

Not all infants and toddlers later diagnosed with CAS will present with these possible indicators, nor is it known how many of these possible indicators, or which ones, are most concerning. Nevertheless, at age 2 and younger, a risk of CAS may be associated with:

Few consonant and vowel sounds so that the child seems less vocal and more quiet than typically developing infants and toddlers
No recognizable consonant by 12 months of age
Lack of canonical babbling onset between 7 – 12 months of age
Three or fewer recognizable consonants by 16 months of age
Five or fewer recognizable consonants by 24 months of age
Lack of “back” sounds (such /k/ and /g/) and favoritism of sounds that are anterior (bilabials and alveolars, such as /m/ and /d/) by 24 months of age
Favoritism of stops and nasals over a diverse manner, with possible absence of fricatives or glides by 24 months of age
Dependency on vowels at 13 – 18 months with little use of consonant-vowel syllable shapes

All young children are highly variable in their speech sound development. Therefore, the diagnosis of CAS in a child who is younger than three, or who has little expressive ability, should be made only by a speech-language pathologist with specific experience in assessing the speech sound skills of young children.

Other descriptive speech sound characteristics of CAS in infants and toddlers later diagnosed with the disorder have been suggested (Davis & Velleman, 2000, p. 182; Fish, 2016), including:

The child may have acquired some later developing sounds while be missing earlier developing sounds.
Limited variation of vowels and the use of a centralized vowel in a multipurpose way.
Vocalizations may have speech-like melody but syllables or discernable words may not be present.
Words may seem to disappear from use more than would be expected for a typically developing child of the same age.
Predictable utterances may be easier than novel utterances

Nonspeech characteristics that could also indicate apraxia of speech in the young child include: homemade gestures or signs, some feeding difficulties such as eating mixed textures, drooling, late development of motor skills overall, and oral motor incoordination.

If there is uncertainty about a diagnosis of CAS in a very young child, active monitoring of the child’s speech sound development over the course of a few months may yield additional information. However, because the trajectory of speech sound development in children with CAS appears to be much slower than that of children with typical development or with other types of speech sound disorders (Overby & Caspari, 2015; Overby, Caspari, & Schrieber, in review), early intervention for children with suspected CAS is important.

As children mature, they are better able to participate in assessment of their speech sound skill. More information about the child’s speech sound capabilities can be obtained when the child can attempt to imitate utterances varying in length and/or phonetic complexity (such as imitating /i/, then /mi/, then /mit/ or /o/, then /no/ then /nop/) (Strand, 2003). Strand (p. 77) offers five potential diagnostic characteristics of apraxia in young children who are able to make such imitative attempts:

Difficulty in achieving and maintaining articulatory configurations
Presence of vowel distortions
Limited consonant and vowel repertoire
Use of simple syllable shapes
Difficulty completing a movement gesture for a phoneme easily produced in a simple context but not in a longer one

Speech Therapy and the Two-Year Old with Possible Apraxia

There is little literature about treatment in very young children with apraxia of speech and no studies have compared the effectiveness of treatment approaches in this population. Nevertheless, for children who are two years old and under, but are considered high-risk for CAS because, for example, they have no consonants and are not babbling, treatment should not be delayed. Although therapy should always be individualized to each child, some experts (Fish, 2016; Velleman, 2003) suggest intervention for very young children could include:

Large motor movements (such as clapping)
Actions with objects (banging two blocks together)
Imitating vocal play (e.g., raspberries, squeals)
Imitating oral-facial movements (e.g., licking lips, blowing kisses)
Vocalizing visible early sounds such as /m/, /b/, or /d/ (e.g., /mmmm/, “muh” or “buh”)
Vocalizing to get attention (e.g., “uh” and pointing to a cookie)
Sound effects: animal noises (e.g., “grr”, vehicle sounds)

As children gain the ability to say a sound or sounds, therapy can focus on simple words such as:

Words with distinctive pitch patterns (e.g., “uh-oh,” “wow,” “whee,” “yay”)
Words with strong emotional meaning
Words or vocalizations that can be paired with actions (e.g., “whee”, “hi,” “oops”)
Sound effect words (e.g., “woof’, “beep,” etc.)
Verbal routines (e.g., songs, rhymes, favorite predictable books)
Speech or singing in unison with others
Words with very early consonants (e.g., [h], glides) and simple syllable shapes (e.g., “hi,” “uh-oh,” “wow,” “whee,” “yay,” “me”)

Regardless of how many sounds the infant/toddler has, speech therapy should include:

Support to the family
Use of props such as puppets, stuffed animals, etc.
Use sounds already in child’s repertoire to build simple productions (e.g., if a child has /m/, can he learn to say “ma,” “me,” or even “muh” as an approximation of “more”)
Maximizing the child’s gaze to the speaker’s mouth by putting toys or objects of interest near the speaker’s mouth during imitation tasks

In summary, two primary treatment goals for young infants and toddlers with suspected apraxia of speech are, according to Davis and Velleman (2000, p. 184):

It is important that the child and his communication partner(s) agree what a gesture, sound, picture, or word approximation represents or means.
The child needs to develop and consistently use oral communication. Using alternative communication such as sign language, gestures, or computer-based icon programs can be very helpful in moving a young child toward oral communication by relieving frustration and establishing a consistent, reliable means of communication (Fish, 2016). Efforts should be made to develop the child’s ability to use oral sounds to communicate, using the goals suggested above, as soon as the child is capable of doing so.

Speech Therapy and the Older Toddler with Possible Apraxia

Once a child has consistently begun to use vocalization to communicate, it is more important for a child to use sounds and to work towards expanding his sound and syllable repertoire than to be accurate in producing them. Experts (Davis & Velleman, 2000; Fish, 2016; Overby, Caspari, & Schreiber, in review) suggest therapy goals for a child with the ability to vocalize should focus on:

Expansion of sounds
Expansion of syllable structures

Suggestions for expansion of sounds are:

To acquire a diverse set of consonant and vowel sounds. This means the child should be able to say sounds produced in different parts of the mouth. Acquiring sounds in the posterior part of the mouth can be difficult and may require a lot of effort by the child and the clinician.
Producing sounds with varied pitch and loudness levels

Suggestions for expanding structures:

Focusing on syllables rather than individual phonemes
Reduplicated CV.CV (“bye-bye” or “no-no”)
Vowel harmonized CV.CV (“TV”) or consonant harmonized (“mommy”)
Variegated CV.CV (“bunny”)
Harmonized CVC (“pop”)
Variegated CVC (“top”)
Harmonized CVCVC (“pop up”)
Non-harmonized CVCVC (“peanut”)
Words containing clusters
Goals should target EITHER new structure or a new sound, not both at the same time
Syllables should represent, when possible, a variety of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and other meaningful productions

Working at any one level of syllable shape does not mean drilling the same word over and over. The idea is to help the child learn new motor movements by building on current skills. So, for example, one could first work on the same syllable repeated, (e.g., “ma ma ma ma”). Next, introduce one change at the end of the repeated syllables, e.g., “ma ma ma moo” or “moo moo moo do”. Alternating the syllables takes the activity one step further, i.e., “ma, moo, ma, moo” or “moo, do, moo, do, moo.” As competence is built with these activities, practice with syllables moves further so that the child produces varied syllables/sounds: “ma, moo, may, my, mow”. In young children, the approach will need to be fun, silly, and engaging in order to elicit the child’s attention, involvement, and effort.

Speech Movement Goals and Training

Goals, such as those described above, are only one component of the speech therapy program for CAS. A speech therapy program must address the underlying nature of the problem of apraxia – which is the ability to plan accurate, well timed speech movements from sound to sound, and syllable to syllable, in order to produce old and new words. Clinicians need to provide therapy opportunities that allow young children to build flexibility into their motor systems.

In clinical practice, it is suggested that speech-language pathologists incorporate principles of motor learning: the need for many repetitions and practice, distributed vs. massed practice opportunities, appropriate use of feedback to the child to enhance motor learning, etc. (Maas, Robin, Hula, Freedman, Wulf, Ballard, & Schmidt, 2008). Even toddlers can be involved in therapy opportunities maximizing conditions for motor learning but adapted to their needs as very young children (Davis & Velleman, 2000; Strand & Skinder, 1999;).

Davis and Velleman (2000, p. 187) offer ideas for gaining multiple repetitions from toddlers:

Use of counting books but instead of counting the objects on a page, simply point to the object and repeat its “name” each time it appears on the page. For example, a counting book of animals has 4 dogs on the page for the number 4. Instead of counting “1, 2, 3, 4”, you can guide the child to point to each dog and say “pup, pup, pup, pup” or if the child is more skilled, “doggie, doggie, doggie, doggie”.
While playing “house” and setting the table, each time a cup is put down saying “cup, cup, cup”.
Pretending to eat: “yum, yum, yum”

Functional vocabulary books are another way to elicit practice from the child and can also incorporate parents or other communication partners. According to Hammer (Apraxia Kids website), the vocabulary book should consist of photos or pictures of meaningful people, toys, and objects in the child’s life as well as words that contain initially targeted sound sequences. This book often serves as a child’s first success at expansion of functional communication interactions with significant others.

Fish (2016) also provides a list of activities to elicit repetitive practice that can be motivating and fun. A few activities include:

“ Hop to it” where the child hops to the target, saying the target with each hop
“Paper chain” in which the child repeats the target word or phrase written on strip of paper, and then glues or staples the paper together to form a link in a paper chain
“Feely box” where there are small objects (with the target sound in the name) inside a closed box with hole large enough for the child’s hand, and the child tries to find the object

Providing Motivation/Keeping the Child’s Attention

Play presents many opportunities for these repetitive sequences and parents and therapists can be creative in this way. The idea is to help the child into practice by making their therapy experience not just fun but also successful for them. Even very young children with apraxia have gained the understanding that speech is difficult for them and so may avoid or resist expressing themselves with oral communication. An astute, engaging clinician can use low-pressure opportunities and engaging play to help children with apraxia take risks with their speech attempts (Hammer, 2003).

Experts (Fish, 2016; Strand & Skinder, 1999) offer the following ideas for providing motivation and keeping attention of young children with apraxia:

Ideally, incorporate movement into treatment, or at least after 10-20 practice trials (rocking, bouncing, marching, swinging arms, etc.)
Change inflection (stress on different words, low pitch, high pitch, exaggerate the target word or phrase)
Use various dolls, puppets, animals that the child can speak for; change the selection after a number of practice trials
Incorporate music into treatment (make up tunes or use familiar ones to practice a word)

Remember that while clinicians must make therapy fun and engaging, it is not sufficient to be able to say the child enjoyed the therapy session or that the session went well because the child cooperated. That alone will not effectively provide what the child needs, which is the opportunity for a high number of repetitions of speech targets and the clinician’s thoughtful feedback about performance and results. If the child isn’t saying much in the therapy session, the clinician is not going to be able to achieve this goal (Strand & Skinder, 1999).

Other “take home” points about speech therapy for toddlers with suspected apraxia of speech include:

Children with apraxia may not follow the typical “developmental” sequence for acquiring new sounds (Davis & Velleman, 2000; Hammer, 2003; Overby et al., in review)
Children with apraxia of speech need some early success with speech. They need to know it is worth it to trust and cooperate with the clinician (Hammer, 2003).
Children with apraxia seem to have periods where sometimes they seem to ‘plateau’ and show little growth (Davis & Velleman, 2000; Overby et al., in review)
Play is the medium for these young children to learn speech movement training (Hammer, 2003).
Parents need help and direct mentoring to understand their role and how they can effectively practice with the young child at home (Hammer & Stoeckel, 2001).
Break up sessions into several activities that have repetitive practice vs. one long activity (Davis & Velleman, 2000; Strand & Skinder 1999).
Just as with older children with apraxia, younger children need feedback about their performance such as knowledge of results (did they get the word right?) and more specific knowledge about performance (for example, “you need your lips out for that”) (Davis & Velleman, 2000; Hammer, 2003; Strand & Skinder 1999).

Parents as Collaborators

At the outset, clinicians need to involve parents in therapy opportunities for children with apraxia, to the greatest extent they are able and willing. Parents can share essential information from the home and community environments and are important informants on the likes, dislikes, and personality characteristics of their children. Additionally, because many repetitions of speech movement patterns are necessary for motor learning to occur, parents are valuable speech practice partners for their children in their everyday life experiences together (Stoeckel, 2001).

Hammer and Stoeckel (2001) listed the following responsibilities for the speech-language pathologist in working with parents of children with apraxia of speech:

Educate parents re: CAS and intervention
Educate parents re: networking/support availability
Teach child needed skills in a flexible, productive manner
Assure high expectations from the child
Be able to explain goals and changes in therapy strategies
Assure periodic observations either on-line or via videotape
Work with parents to motivate and reinforce child’s learning

Setting Expectations: Children as Risk-takers

In typically developing children, early sound play and communication attempts bring a great deal of fun and excitement, but by the time a young child with suspected apraxia of speech arrives in speech therapy treatment, he or she may already have experienced a great deal of failure in efforts to communicate orally. Additionally, families may also feel somewhat like failures in helping their child to communicate (Hammer, 2003). Clinicians can help by creating carefully planned small steps toward success in the earliest phase of therapy. Additionally, it is important for clinicians to set early expectations around communication exchanges. Sometimes children with CAS must be encouraged to take “risks” in talking.

Children with apraxia of speech need to feel as if they can trust in the therapeutic process and have success. Reasonable expectations for oral communication, based on the capability of the child’s speech motor system, need to be implemented and reinforced so that the child uses and practices what he/she can produce (Hayden, 2002).

Apraxia or Something Else?

Once a period of therapy has commenced and the speech-language pathologist has experience working with a child, she can better determine if the primary difficulty lies in speech motor planning and programming. According to McCauley (2002), if a child does not respond well to treatments in which the goal is to teach phonologic patterns (e.g., the Cycles Approach or minimal pairs) or to traditional articulation training, the clinician should consider whether there are possible motor factors in speech learning.

Even if a child does not receive an apraxia diagnosis, the therapy recommendations outlined above may be useful in the child’s treatment plan. A speech-language pathologist experienced in the differential diagnosis of CAS from other disorders can be of assistance to families seeking diagnostic information about their child.

In summary, while it is difficult to diagnose children with apraxia of speech at very young ages, there are some emerging possible diagnostic indicators that, with additional research, may facilitate the diagnostic process. Furthermore, even without a clear diagnosis, it is still possible to provide speech therapy to young children who are at-risk for a motor-planning component to their speech production difficulties. Attention to increasing overall communication and oral communication, expanding sounds and syllable shapes, gaining multiple repetitions of syllables and words for speech movement practice, focusing on functional communication, and encouraging parent involvement are key treatment considerations for young children suspected to have apraxia of speech.

Davis, B., & Velleman, SL. (2000). Differential diagnosis and treatment of developmental apraxia of speech in infants and toddlers. The Transdisciplinary Journal , 10(3), 177 – 192.

Fish, M. (2016). Here’s how to treat childhood apraxia of speech (2 nd ed). San Diego, CA: Plural Publishing.

Hammer, D. (2003). Apraxia of speech in young children. Presented at the Childhood Apraxia of Speech Association/Hendrix Foundation workshop. Houston, Texas.

Hammer, D. Brief thoughts about therapy. Apraxia-Kids website. https://www.apraxia-kids.org/slps/hammer.html

Hayden, D. (2002). How do we help children with apraxia become ‘risk-takers’ with their speech and communication? The Apraxia-Kids Monthly , 3(10) .

Hammer, D., & Stoeckel, R. (2001). Teaching and talking together: Building a treatment team. Presentation at the annual convention of the American Speech Language Hearing Association, New Orleans, Louisiana.

Highman, C., Hennessey, N., Leitao, S., & Piek, J. (2013). Early development in infants at risk of childhood apraxia of speech: A longitudinal investigation. Developmental Neuropsychology , 38(3) , 197–210.

Highman, C., Hennessey, N., Sherwood, M., & Leitao, S. (2008). Retrospective parent report of early vocal behaviors in children with suspected Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS). Child Language Teaching and Therapy , 24(3) , 285–306.

Maas, E., Robin, D., Hula, S., Freedman, S., Wulf, G., Ballard, K., & Schmidt, R. (2008). Principles of motor learning in treatment of motor speech disorders, American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology , 17 , 277-198.

McCauley, R. (2002). What if a child isn’t formally diagnosed with Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS), but appears to be having motor planning difficulties similar to children who are? The Apraxia-Kids Monthly , 3(7) .

Overby, M. & Caspari, S. (2015). Volubility, consonant, and syllable characteristics in infants and toddlers later diagnosed with childhood apraxia of speech: A pilot study. Journal of Communication Disorders , 55 , 1654-1669.

Overby, M., Caspari, S., & Schreiber, J. (in review). Volubility, consonant emergence, and syllabic structure in infants and toddlers later diagnosed with CAS, SSD, and typical development: A retrospective video analysis. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research.

Stoeckel, R. (2001). Why is it important for parents of children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) to be involved in their child’s speech therapy? Apraxia-Kids Monthly , 2(9) .

Strand, EA. (2003). Childhood apraxia of speech: suggested diagnostic markers for the young child. In Shriberg, LD and Campbell, TF (Eds), Proceedings of the 2002 childhood apraxia of speech research symposium . Carlsbad, CA: Hendrix Foundation.

Strand, EA, and Skinder, A. (1999). Treatment of developmental apraxia of speech: integral stimulation methods. In Caruso, AJ and Strand, EA (Eds.), Clinical management of motor speech disorders in children . New York: Thieme.

Velleman, SL. (2003). Childhood apraxia of speech resource guide . Clifton Park, New York: Delmar Learning.

Reviewed 11-5-19

Practicing Speech Sounds, Syllables, or Words Multiple Times with Preschoolers

We believe in making speech practice fun and play-like whenever possible. One way to do this is to think about what types of activities your child enjoys and how to incorporate speech practice into those activities. This encourages your child to be emotionally invested in the practice and more “in control”. You’ll get better cooperation this way and find practicing a lot less stressful. Below are some examples of different activities for speech practice. Keep practice sessions short and fun when possible. As much as possible, do what fits into your lifestyle and daily schedule. Let siblings and friends participate in the activities with everyone practicing the speech targets. You don’t have to use the practice sheet the therapist gave you. Write the words on 3 x 5 cards and have your child draw a picture on each (they don’t have to be great), or you do this. Then use these in fun activities or games during the day.

Get on the Move: Use Movement Activities to Encourage Speech Practice.

For example, write or draw pictures of the speech sounds, syllables or words on 3 x 5 cards. Scatter these around a room or outside. Have your child run or hop or skip to a card (let your child pick what type of physical movement he/she wants to do to go get the cards). The child says the word on the card three times, then runs, hops or skips back to you. He/she says the word three more times, then can put the card into a basket or small paper bag. Do this for all the cards.
Do the same in a hide-and-seek activity. “Hide” the cards and let your child search for one at a time. When he finds one, he says the word three times, then brings it back to home base (you). He tells you the word three times, then goes to find another card. Play again, but this time let him hide the cards and you search for them. When you bring a card back to him you both must say the word three times.
Throw or bounce a ball back and forth, practicing a word each time before the ball is thrown. Do the same for throwing a basketball through the hoop.
Go to the playground or park. Push your child several times on a swing, catch the swing, have your child say a word three times, then resume pushing. Play on the slide. When your child is sitting at the top of the slide put your arm across the top of the slide in front of him to make a barrier and say “stop”. Have him say a practice word after you three times. Lift your arm and cheerfully say “go” and let him slide down.
Play “Red Light-Green Light”. This is a fun game to play with several children. The children line up across the lawn from you. The object is to be the first one to arrive at the base (you) without getting caught. You turn your back and say “green light,” at which time the children can take big steps toward you. When you say “red light” they must stop moving completely before you turn around. Anyone caught moving has to go back to the starting line. Each person must say a speech practice word before you can turn around to say “green light” to resume the game.
Make an obstacle course with a word card in front of each obstacle. For example: have a large cardboard box laying on its side that is open on both ends that the child can climb through, a pillow she can roll over, a chair she can crawl under, a wrapping paper roll she can jump over, etc. She has to say the word on the card before attempting each obstacle. This is great for motor planning also.
Write a movement activity on each card below the practice word. Put all the cards in a paper bag. The child reaches in and pulls one out, says the word several times, then performs the activity (e.g., “say your practice word 2 times, then turn in a circle 2 times). You take a turn too.

Use Pretend Play Activities to Encourage Speech Practice.

Do you have left over party bags or boxes? Hide a practice card in each one and play birthday party. Use a dialogue thats appropriate for a pretend party. Make a cake out of playdoh, letting your child practice a word in order to put a candle on the cake. Then let him/her open one present at a time. He says the practice word 3 times to put it in his present pile.
Set up a play scenarios such as, Lets pretend Barbie is going to the beach. Lets pack a suitcase for her. (This can be a small suitcase or a shoe box). Get out a bunch of Barbie clothes and equipment. The game goes this way. Each person gets a turn – on your turn you pick a speech word, say it 3 times, then you get to put something in the suitcase. Each player does this multiple times. You can use 2 suitcases and see what the other one packs. You can make this funny, I think Barbie would want to swim in this long ball gown, so Im going to pack that.

Use Board Games or Building with Blocks to Encourage Speech Practice.

Play Hi-Ho Cherry-O, Shoots and Ladders, Bingo, any child board game. Each player picks a speech card or points to a speech word on the practice sheet, says the word, then gets to roll the dice, pick a game card, do the spinner, etc.
Blocks, Legos and Duplos are great for this – you take turns saying words to get to add another piece onto the structure. You can also do this with puzzles.

Preacademics

Buy a book with simple coloring and preschool activities. These are available at Wal-Mart, K-Mart, or the grocery store. Let your child pick a picture in the book. When she says a word 3 times she can color one part of the picture. Then you take a turn to say a speech word and color a section of the picture. Take turns until the picture is completed. Hang proudly on the refrigerator. This is fun to do with dot-to-dot pages also.
Make an alphabet book. Write an alphabet letter at the top of each page of a spiral notebook. Add pictures (clip art, cut from magazines, hand drawn) with a written word under each for each speech practice word. This is cumulative – you keep adding new words to the book each week. This is a great way to review speech words and build literacy early skills.

Use the Computer

Help your child type a speech practice sound, syllable, or word on the computer using a fun, large font. Have her say the word 3 times, then copy and paste it on the computer. She can do this multiple times, saying the word each time its pasted. Print this out and mail it to Grandma. You can use different fonts, different colors, or print it on colored paper to add interest.
Use a clip art program to print multiple copies of a picture of a target word on a page. Each time he pastes a picture on the page he has to say the word 3 times.

Make a Photo Album

Use a small photo album that holds single pictures on each page. Take pictures that represent speech targets, using the child in as many of the pictures as possible. Write the target sound, syllable, word, or phrase on a file folder label and put it on the bottom of each picture. That way everyone who looks at the book with the child will know what word to practice. This also encourages early literacy skills. For syllables you could have pictures to represent mo for more, wa for want, ba for ball. For reduplicated syllables have a picture of 2 balls for ba-ba, people (mama, dada, nana), or animals (moo-moo, woof-woof, neigh-neigh). If child is practicing initial /b/ words for example, take a picture of a big ball with a friend whos a boythere you have words such as big, ball, boy, and bye. Our children love looking through their picture books and showing them to friends and family. This is a great way to build a core vocabulary and to practice repeatedly on words that are important to your child such as his name, his friends names, or his favorite activities, toys and foods.

Make it Predictable: some children like to know their practice schedule and how long they will spend practicing.

Set up a routine practice time each day. Draw boxes on a piece of paper, one for each word the child will practice. Tell him the rules”I’ll put a star in a box each time you practice one of your words. When you have 3 stars in a box, well color that box. When all the boxes are colored, we’re finished!”

Reward System: Set up a reward system. All of us enjoy a reward for a job well done.

Use the box system above, but now draw a happy face when your child has finished practicing his words for the day. When he has 5 to 7 happy faces he can pick a prize from a special toy box. Have a variety of small prizestoys from McDonalds, a matchbox car, a coupon for lunch out, a piece of Barbie clothes, a coupon for a trip to the park or library, sunglasses, toy jewelry, crafts activities, stickers, markers, etc., etc. One child I worked with loved tools so I bought a set of toy tools and tool belt for the toy box. Every time he earned a trip to the toy box he could pick any one of the tools he wanted. He became excited about practicing his “speech homework” because he was working toward something meaningful and fun for him.
This system works well when your time for practicing is limited or your child is reluctant to practice.

Practice in New Places: you can practice anywhere.

The car is a great place to practice. Put the speech words on 3 x 5 cards, punch a hole in one corner of each card and put them a special key ring for your child. Every time you stop at a red light see if you and your child can say one of the words 3 times before the light changes. Make it into a game called “Beat the Light.”
Mealtime is a great way to incorporate the whole family into practice. Have your child “hide” a card under napkins as you set the table. She has to say the word 3 times to hide the card. When everyone sits down to eat, each person lifts their napkin to find a card. Your child tells them what the word is and they must repeat it after her one to 3 times before they can eat dinner.
Put practice cards on doorways around the house. To go through the doorway each person must say the “magic” word 3 times.

Truly respect that speech is difficult for him, but that you have faith in his abilities. Let him know you will help him through any difficulties. For example, tell him you will write down any “hard” words to give to the therapist to come up with special tricks to make them easier. Always praise your child for attempting speech targets, even when he wasn’t fully correct. You can tell him “good try,” “I like the way you were watching me,” or “Wow, you got really close that time.” Then model (say) the word again using helpers such as touch cues and have him try again.

Just remember that if we make practicing fun, playful and rewarding both you and your child will enjoy it.

(Robin Strode, M.A., CCC-SLP, has been a practicing speech-language pathologist for 28 years, currently specializing in serving preschool children with a large variety of special needs. She and her partner, Catherine Chamberlain, have presented numerous workshops throughout the United States on the topics of Developmental Verbal Apraxia and Oral-Motor Facilitation of Speech Skills. They also serve as consultants to speech-language pathologists, teachers, schools, and families. She and Ms. Chamberlain have written seven joint publications for LinguiSystems, including three best sellers: Easy Does It for Apraxia and Motor Planning, Easy Does It for Apraxia: Preschool, and Easy Does It for Articulation: An Oral-Motor Approach. Additionally, Ms. Strode is a member of the Childhood Apraxia of Speech Association’s Professional Advisory Board.)

A Dozen Tips for Supporting Early Speech Development in Children with Severe CAS

(Note: Apraxia-KIDS thanks the author and Pediastaff , where this article originally appeared, for permission to reprint.)

Young children with suspected childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) and children with very severe CAS present unique challenges to speech-language pathologists. When children begin to develop some volitional control over the production of syllables, the speech-language pathologist can help to shape increasingly complex speech movement sequences and support the child’s acquisition of a complete phonemic repertoire. For children who do not imitate speech reliably, however, other treatment strategies need to be utilized. Following are several strategies to support the development of more reliable volitional imitation and early speech in children who are nonverbal or minimally verbal.

Support Attainment of the Precursors of Motor Learning

The lack of speech imitation in children past the age of two years creates a great deal of anxiety for parents and caregivers. We as SLPs want to see those first words emerge, too; however, when children have not developed precursors to motor learning (Strand & Skinder, 1999), including (a) trust and motivation; (b) focused attention and effort; (c) an understanding that the goal of treatment is the practice of movement, and (d) an understanding of the tasks at hand, our efforts to elicit speech imitation may be futile. This does not mean that children need to be able to sit quietly and attentively in a chair for a period of several minutes before attempts to elicit speech are introduced. It does mean that the SLP needs to be sensitive to where the child is developmentally, and work to support the child’s focus, attention, direction following, simple imitation, and motivation to try challenging things. Speech therapy becomes much more productive if time is taken earlier on and throughout the treatment process to facilitate these precursors to motor learning.

Reinforce Vocalizations and Oral Movements

Before children begin to imitate vocalizations, they vocalize by cooing and babbling. It is important to provide positive reinforcement for children’s vocal productions, even when these productions are not volitional or imitative. Telling a child, “I love all those lip sounds you’re making!” may lead to an increase in babbling, and these sounds gradually can be shaped into volitionally produced, meaningful words.

Attach Meaning to Vocalizations

When we attach a meaning to a child’s sound productions, we help the child learn that their verbal behavior elicits certain responses. The child who says, “ma,” in the context of playing with a ball may be babbling, or may be trying to say, “ball” or “more.” By treating the vocalization as a meaningful word, the therapist links the child’s speech with a favorable response of receiving a desired toy. We can respond to the child’s production by enthusiastically saying, “Oh, you want the ball . Here you go!” thereby increasing the likelihood that the child will produce the same utterance again in hope of a similar response. Teaching parents and caregivers to begin to recognize their child’s sounds as meaningful is equally important to the therapy process.

Talk About Speech Movements

Children need to understand that the purpose of their therapy visits is to work on movement and sounds. When children stick out their tongues, talk about it; bring it to their attention and make movement and sound become the forefront of the sessions. Comments by the parents and clinician, such as, “Wow, I see your tongue,” “I love to hear all your noisy sounds,” or “I see you smacking your lips. You’re a great lip smacker,” help the child to recognize the importance of sounds and oral movement. Bringing movement to the forefront helps set the stage for what the speech therapy is all about, thus supporting attempts at further speech movements.

Facilitate Imitation

Prior to speech imitation readiness, children need to develop other types of motor imitation skills. When children engage in back and forth imitation, they are learning the important skill of “you do what I do,” an essential skill in the process of speech praxis treatment. Rather than pushing imitation of sounds and words, determine what types of movements the child is able to imitate and work from there. Refinement of imitation is a gradual process, and can be facilitated by beginning with whole body movement (rocking back and forth), imitation of actions during play (banging a drum, stacking blocks), smaller movement imitation (clapping, wiggling fingers, shaking head), imitation of oral/facial movements (sticking out tongue, smacking lips), vocal imitation (basic sound and syllable play), and, finally, imitation of true words. Although parents may be eager for their children to begin saying real words, it is important to help them understand the importance of developing a strong base of imitation prior to asking the child to say words, and to have them engage in these types of imitation routines at home.

If the child does not readily imitate body or vocal movements, one way to get the imitation turn-taking routine going is to imitate what the child is doing. When the child bangs on a table, makes tongue-clicking sounds, or vocalizes a neutral vowel, the therapist and parent can match the movement or sound, usually to the delight of the child. After the turn-taking routine is established with the child in the lead, the therapist or parent can change it by doing something a little different. If the child is banging on the floor, the therapist may bang on a chair instead. If the child is making tongue clicks, the therapist may, instead, make lip-smacking sounds. Praising the child for these imitative attempts is equally important to support the establishment of purposeful, volitional imitation skills upon which speech praxis treatment is based.

Use Toys That Reinforce Early Sound Effects and Simple Exclamations

Prior to the development of “true words,” children typically produce silly sounds and sounds effects, such as coughing, grunting, chewing noises, raspberries, and snoring. Animal and vehicle noises also are among the sounds children master in the context of play and book reading. Encourage production of these sounds by incorporating toys and activities that elicit these sounds. Toy animals, animal puzzles, vehicles, foods, cooking gadgets, and building tools, all serve to elicit repetitive modeling of playful sounds that the child can be encouraged to imitate. Linking a movement to a sound offers an additional cueing mechanism for the child. For example, each time the buttons on the microwave are pushed when “making” playdough cookies, the therapist or parent can say, “beep, beep, beep.”

Pause with Expectation

For children who are quite delayed in babbling and sound imitation, lack of vocal responsiveness becomes an expectation. After children have begun to develop some ability to imitate some vocalizations, a shift should occur on the part of the therapist and family that helps the child recognize that being passive during turn-taking routines is no longer the expected response. Pausing and looking at a child expectantly lets the child know that some response is expected. Offering positive reinforcement when the child takes the risk of making a vocal response further solidifies shared enjoyment in the turn-taking process, paving the road to continued effort and continued success.

It is beneficial to model the target sound effects and target words during therapy using a focused stimulation approach (Ellis Weismer & Robertson, 2006). During focused stimulation, the therapist or parent produces the target sound or word frequently and in a way that brings a heightened awareness of specific phonemes or sounds. Treatment targets can be emphasized by (a) pausing just before the target word is produced (e.g., “Here’s a … ball, and here’s another … ball … and here’s another …ball”); (b) increasing the duration of the vowel of the target word or prolonging a consonant (e.g., “Yummy banana. Mmmmmmm” or “The airplane is going higher. It goes uuuuup, uuuuup, uuuuup.”); and (c) securing the child’s visual attention prior to modeling the target word or sound. Using amplification tools, such as an echo microphone, Toobaloo®, or even a paper towel or wrapping paper roll, may help to focus the child’s attention and generate interest in repetition of sounds and words.

Reduce the Number of Target Utterances Per Session

Strand and Skinder (1999) recommend limiting the number of target utterances in the stimulus set introduced during a therapy session to no more than five or six utterances. In this way, blocked practice of a small number of treatment targets could be accomplished. This repetitive practice of a small number of targets supports the child’s ability to master new movement plans in the earlier stages of learning.

Use Tactile and Proprioceptive Input

Ayres (2005) suggests that many children with apraxia demonstrate reduced tactile and proprioceptive processing. By providing additional tactile and proprioceptive cues, the child’s ability to make sense of the somatosensory input is enhanced. PROMPT® treatment, described by Hayden (2008), incorporates specific tactile cues that offer the child a more salient way of sensing what a movement sequence should feel like, thus helping the child to connect the feeling of the movement gesture with the accompanying acoustic information. Strand and Skinder (1999) also recommend incorporating tactile cues as needed to support imitation when visual and verbal cues alone are not enough to help the child perform the targeted speech movements. In addition, body movements, gestures, and manual signs can be associated with speech movement gestures to create associations between speech movements and other movement cues.

Practice Skill Refinement

It is important to help children move from broad to more narrow distinctions between sounds. For children who do not reliably turn on their voice to produce sounds, praise will be provided when a child produces an undifferentiated vowel sound volitionally. As treatment progresses, purposeful movement of the lips or tongue will be facilitated, and then gradually building up to making distinctions between lip versus tongue sounds, nasals versus non-nasals, stops versus continuents, one versus two syllables, and voiced versus voiceless phonemes. Grading and differentiating of vowels based on tongue position (high/low/mid; front/central/back) and lip shape (open/round/retracted) also should be facilitated. These distinctions are gradual and take time, and children’s achievement of these motor speech skill refinements should be praised each step of the way.

Incorporate Music, and Books into Treatment

Music and carefully chosen books support attainment of speech in children with severe CAS, because they offer opportunities for repetitive practice of target utterances. Music also provides opportunities to practice varied and exaggerated intonation patterns, simple sound effects, and early developing sounds and words. Reduction of rate during songs offers the child the time to achieve initial articulatory configurations of target sounds and words. Making up little tunes with repetition of simple treatment target sounds and words to accompany the activities in the speech session can help to engage the child in the repetitive practice necessary for initial learning of treatment targets. Creation of simple, personalized books can support opportunities for repetitive practice of a simple sound effect or a small number of target utterances. For example, a book with pictures of people or things dropping, falling, and crashing, could be the perfect tool for practice of the exclamation, “uh oh.” Fish (2010) provides several book and song lists, including lists of books to target sound effects and early word production.

Provide Access to AAC

Children need a means of communication. When speech is slow in coming, the use of manual signs and gestures, low tech picture boards, and/or voice output communication devices will help support a child’s ability to express a wider range of ideas, and to establish greater social communication skills. Parents may need to be reassured that the verbal mode of communication will continue to be addressed, but that helping children find a way to establish positive communication patterns is very important for overall development.

References:

Ayres, A. J. (2005). Sensory integration and the child: Understanding hidden sensory challenges. Los Angeles, CA: Western Psychological Services.

Ellis Weismer, S., & Robertson, S. (2006). Focused stimulation approach to language intervention. In R. McCauley and M. Fey (Eds.), Treatment of language disorders in children (pp. 175-201). Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes.

Fish, M. (2010). Here’s how to treat childhood apraxia of speech. San Diego, CA: Plural Publishing.

Hayden, D. A. (2008). P.R.O.M.P.T. prompts for restructuring oral muscular phonetic targets, introduction to technique: A manual (2nd ed.). Santa Fe, NM: The PROMPT Institute.

Strand, E. A., & Skinder, A. (1999). Treatment of development apraxia of speech: Integral stimulation methods, In A. Caruso & E. Strand (Eds.), Clinical management of motor speech disorders in children (pp. 109-148). New York, NY: Thieme.

Featured Author: Margaret A. Fish, M.S., CCC-SLP

Margaret Fish is a speech-language pathologist working in private practice in Highland Park, Illinois. She has 30 years of clinical experience working with children with severe speech-sound disorders, language impairments, and social language challenges. Her primary professional interest is in the evaluation and treatment of children with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). Margaret is the author of the recently released book, Here’s How to Treat Childhood Apraxia of Speech by Plural Publishing. Her workshops and writing focus on providing practical, evidence-based evaluation and treatment ideas to support children with CAS.

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Infant and toddler health

Language development: Speech milestones for babies

Babies' first words are music to parents' ears. But how can you tell if a child's speech and language skills are on track?

Children learn to speak at their own pace. But markers, known as milestones, can be a guide to a child's ability to talk. These milestones help health care providers know when a child might need extra help.

By the end of 3 months

By the end of three months, your child might:

Smile when you appear.
Make cooing sounds.
Quiet or smile when spoken to.
Seem to know your voice.
Have different cries for different needs.

By the end of 6 months

By the end of six months, your child might:

Make gurgling sounds when playing.
Babble and make a range of sounds.
Use the voice to show likes and dislikes.
Move eyes toward sounds.
Respond to changes in the tone of your voice.
Notice that some toys make sounds.
Notice music.

By the end of 12 months

By the end of 12 months, your child might:

Try copying speech sounds.
Say a few words, such as "dada," "mama" and "uh-oh."
Understand simple commands, such as "Come here."
Know words for common items, such as "shoe."
Turn and look towards sounds.

By the end of 18 months

By the end of 18 months, your child might:

Know names of people, objects and body parts.
Follow simple commands that are given with gestures.
Say as many as 10 words.

By the end of 24 months

By the end of 24 months, your child might:

Use simple phrases, such as "more milk."
Ask one- to two-word questions, such as "Go bye-bye?"
Follow simple commands and understand simple questions.
Speak about 50 or more words.
Speak well enough so that you or another caregiver can understand at least half the time.

When to check with your child's health care provider

Talk to your child's care provider if you're worried that your child has a speech delay. Speech delays occur for many reasons. These include hearing loss and other developmental issues. Your child's care provider might refer your child to a hearing specialist, known as an audiologist, or a specialist in speech and language, known as a speech-language pathologist.

If your child hears or speaks two languages, a bilingual speech-language pathologist can test your child in both languages.

To help your child talk, talk to your child. Talk about what you're doing and where you're going. Sing songs, read stories and count together. Teach your child to copy actions, such as clapping, and to make animal sounds.

Show that you're pleased when your child speaks. Repeat the sounds your child makes. A little "baby talk" is OK. But keep in mind that your child learns to speak by copying you.

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Kliegman RM, et al. Language development and communication disorders. In: Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics. 21st ed. Elsevier; 2020. https://www.clinicalkey.com. Accessed Feb. 9, 2023.
Birth to one year: What should my child be able to do? American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. https://www.asha.org/public/speech/development/01/. Accessed Feb. 9, 2023.
Kliegman RM, et al. The second year. In: Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics. 21st ed. Elsevier; 2020. https://www.clinicalkey.com. Accessed Feb. 9, 2023.
One to two years: What should my child be able to do? American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. https://www.asha.org/public/speech/development/12/. Accessed Feb. 9, 2023.
Speech and language developmental milestones. National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/speech-and-language. Accessed Feb. 9, 2023.
Hoecker JL (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. Feb. 22, 2019.

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Title: deep speech 2: end-to-end speech recognition in english and mandarin.

Abstract: We show that an end-to-end deep learning approach can be used to recognize either English or Mandarin Chinese speech--two vastly different languages. Because it replaces entire pipelines of hand-engineered components with neural networks, end-to-end learning allows us to handle a diverse variety of speech including noisy environments, accents and different languages. Key to our approach is our application of HPC techniques, resulting in a 7x speedup over our previous system. Because of this efficiency, experiments that previously took weeks now run in days. This enables us to iterate more quickly to identify superior architectures and algorithms. As a result, in several cases, our system is competitive with the transcription of human workers when benchmarked on standard datasets. Finally, using a technique called Batch Dispatch with GPUs in the data center, we show that our system can be inexpensively deployed in an online setting, delivering low latency when serving users at scale.

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Microsoft Research Lab – Asia

Fastspeech 2: fast and high-quality end-to-end text to speech, share this page.

By Xu Tan , Senior Researcher

Neural network based text to speech (TTS) has made rapid progress in recent years. Previous neural TTS models (e.g., Tacotron 2) first generate mel-spectrograms autoregressively from text and then synthesize speech from the generated mel-spectrograms using a separately trained vocoder. They usually suffer from slow inference speed, robustness (word skipping and repeating) and controllability issues. In recent years, non-autoregressive TTS models have been designed to address these issues, and FastSpeech is one of the most successful models.

The training of FastSpeech relies on an autoregressive teacher model to provide the duration of each phoneme to train a duration predictor, and also provide the generated mel-spectrograms for knowledge distillation. Although FastSpeech can generate mel-spectrograms with extremely fast speed and improved robustness and controllability, and can achieve comparable voice quality with previous autoregressive models, there are still some disadvantages to it:

1) The two-stage teacher-student distillation pipeline is complicated;

2) The duration extracted from the attention map of the teacher model is not accurate enough, and the target mel-spectrograms distilled from the teacher model suffer from information loss due to data simplification, both of which limit the voice quality and prosody.

To address the issues in FastSpeech, researchers from Microsoft and Zhejiang University proposed FastSpeech 2 (accepted by ICLR 2021):

1) To simplify the two-stage teacher-student training pipeline and avoid information loss due to data simplification, we directly trained the FastSpeech 2 model with a ground-truth target instead of the simplified output from a teacher.

2) To reduce the information gap between the input (text sequence) and target output (mel-spectrograms), we introduced certain variation information of speech including pitch, energy, and more accurate duration to FastSpeech: in training, we extracted the duration, pitch, and energy from the target speech waveform and directly took them as conditional inputs; during inference, we used values predicted by the predictors that were jointly trained with the FastSpeech 2 model.

3) To further simplify the speech synthesis pipeline, we introduced FastSpeech 2s, which abandons mel-spectrograms as an intermediate output completely and directly generates speech waveform from text during inference, enjoying the benefit of full end-to-end joint optimization in training and low latency in inference.

Experiments on the LJSpeech dataset show that 1) FastSpeech 2 outperforms FastSpeech in voice quality and enjoys a much simpler training pipeline (3x training time reduction) while inheriting its advantages of being fast, robust and controllable (even more controllable in pitch and energy) speech synthesis; and 2) both FastSpeech 2 and 2s match the voice quality of autoregressive models and enjoy much faster inference speed.

Further details for FastSpeech 2 can be found in our paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2006.04558.pdf and the demo: https://speechresearch.github.io/fastspeech2/ .

Model Overview

Figure 1: The overall architecture for FastSpeech 2 and 2s. LR in subﬁgure (b) denotes the length regulator operation proposed in FastSpeech. LN in subﬁgure (c) denotes layer normalization. Variance predictor represents duration/pitch/energy predictor.

Architecture

The overall model architecture of FastSpeech 2 is shown in Figure 1(a). It follows the Feed-Forward Transformer (FFT) architecture proposed in FastSpeech and introduces a variance adaptor between the phoneme encoder and the mel-spectrogram decoder, which adds different variance information such as duration, pitch, and energy into the hidden sequence to ease the one-to-many mapping problem (FastSpeech alleviates the one-to-many mapping problem by knowledge distillation which leads to information loss. FastSpeech 2 improves the duration accuracy and introduces more variance information to reduce the information gap between input and output to ease the one-to-many mapping problem.)

Variance Adaptor

As shown in Figure 1(b), the variance adaptor consists of 1) duration predictor, 2) pitch predictor, and 3) energy predictor. During training, we took the ground-truth value of the duration, pitch, and energy extracted from the recordings as input into the hidden sequence to predict the target speech. At the same time, we used separate variance predictors for duration, pitch, and energy predictions, which were used during inference to synthesize target speech. Instead of extracting the phoneme duration using a pre-trained autoregressive TTS model in FastSpeech, we extracted the phoneme duration with MFA (an open source text-to-audio alignment toolkit).

As shown in Figure 1(c), the duration/pitch/energy predictor consists of a 2-layer 1D-convolutional network with ReLU activation, each followed by layer normalization and dropout, and an extra linear layer to project the hidden states into the output sequence. For the duration predictor, the output is the length of each phoneme in the logarithmic domain. For the pitch predictor, the output sequence is the frame-level fundamental frequency sequence ($F_0$). For the energy predictor, the output is a sequence of the energy of each mel-spectrogram frame.

FastSpeech 2s

Based on FastSpeech 2, we proposed FastSpeech 2s to fully enable end-to-end training and inference in text-to-waveform generation. As shown in Figure 1(d), FastSpeech 2s introduces a waveform decoder, which takes the hidden sequence of the variance adaptor as input and directly generates waveform. During training, we kept the mel-spectrogram decoder to help with the text feature extraction. In inference, we discarded the mel-spectrogram decoder and only used the waveform decoder to synthesize speech audio.

Experiment Results

We first evaluated the audio quality, training, and inference speedup of FastSpeech 2 and 2s, and then we conducted analyses and ablation studies of our method.

Audio Quality

We evaluated FastSpeech 2 on the LJSpeech dataset, which contains 13,100 English audio clips (about 24 hours) and corresponding text transcripts. We performed a mean opinion score (MOS) evaluation on the test set. We compared the MOS of the audio samples generated by FastSpeech 2 and FastSpeech 2s with other systems, including 1) GT, the ground-truth recordings; 2) GT (Mel + PWG), where we first converted the ground-truth audio into mel-spectrograms, and then converted the mel-spectrograms back to audio using Parallel WaveGAN (PWG); 3) Tacotron 2 (Mel + PWG); 4) Transformer TTS (Mel + PWG). 5) FastSpeech (Mel + PWG). All systems in 3), 4) and 5) used Parallel WaveGAN as the vocoder for fair comparison. The results are shown in Table 1. It can be seen that FastSpeech 2 and 2s can match the voice quality of autoregressive models (Transformer TTS and Tacotron 2). Importantly, FastSpeech 2 and 2s outperform FastSpeech, which demonstrates the effectiveness of providing variance information such as pitch, energy, and more accurate duration and directly taking ground-truth speech as a training target without using a teacher-student distillation pipeline.

Table 1: The MOS evaluation.

Training and Inference Speedup

We compared the training and inference time between FastSpeech 2/2s and FastSpeech in Table 2. It can be seen that FastSpeech 2 reduces the total training time by 3.12x compared with FastSpeech, and FastSpeech 2 and 2s speeds up the audio generation by 47x and 51x respectively in waveform synthesis compared with Transformer TTS.

Table 2: The comparison of training time and inference latency in waveform synthesis. RTF denotes the real-time factor, that is the time (in seconds) required for the system to synthesize a one second waveform. The training and inference latency test is conducted on a server with 36 Intel Xeon CPU, 256GB memory, 1 NVIDIA V100 GPU and a batch size of 48 for training and 1 for inference.

Variance Control

FastSpeech 2 and 2s introduce several pieces of variance information to ease the one-to-many mapping problem in TTS. As a byproduct, they also make the synthesized speech more controllable. As a demonstration, we manipulated pitch input to control the pitch in synthesized speech in this subsubsection. We show the mel-spectrograms from before and after the pitch manipulation in Figure 2. From the samples, we can see that FastSpeech 2 generates high-quality mel-spectrograms after adjusting F0.

Figure 2: The mel-spectrograms of the voice with different F0. The red curves denote F0 contours. The input text is “they discarded this for a more completely Roman and far less beautiful letter.”

Ablation Study

We conducted ablation studies to demonstrate the effectiveness of several pieces of variance information from FastSpeech 2 and 2s, including pitch, energy, and more accurate duration. We conducted a CMOS evaluation for these ablation studies. The results are shown in Table 4 and 5. We can see that our proposed variance information can help improve the performance of FastSpeech 2 and 2s.

Table 3: Comparison of duration from the teacher model and MFA.

Table 4: CMOS comparison from the ablation studies

Future Work

In the future, we will consider more variance information to further improve voice quality and will further speed up the inference with a more light-weight model (e.g., LightSpeech ).

Researchers from Machine Learning Group at Microsoft Research Asia are focusing on speech related research, including text to speech, automatic speech recognition, speech translation, singing voice synthesis, and music understanding and generation. Thank you for your attention on the research work: https://speechresearch.github.io/ .

Paper link:

[1] FastSpeech: Fast, Robust and Controllable Text to Speech, NeurIPS 2019

Paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1905.09263.pdf

Demo: https://speechresearch.github.io/fastspeech/

Article: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/fastspeech-new-text-to-speech-model-improves-on-speed-accuracy-and-controllability/

[2] FastSpeech 2: Fast and High-Quality End-to-End Text to Speech, ICLR 2021

Paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2006.04558.pdf

Demo: https://speechresearch.github.io/fastspeech2/

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speech2speech 0.4.0

pip install speech2speech Copy PIP instructions

Released: Apr 19, 2023

Source lang speech to machine translation to target lang speech

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License: MIT License
Author: rcdalj
Tags speech_recognition, machine_translation, text_to_speech, python-3, chat-gpt, whisper-ai, pyaudio, gtts
Requires: Python >=3, <4

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Project description

Speech2speech.

The Speech2Speech Python package is a Streamlit Web application that models all phases of speech-to-speech translation , including:

recording speech in the source language,
converting the source language speech to source language text,
translating the source language text to target language text, and
converting the translated text to speech in the target language.

As a web application, it can be accessed through any web browser and is compatible with Linux, Mac, and Windows operating systems .

Speech2Speech is currently configured to translate to and from 13 different languages . Although the quality of translation may vary depending on the target language, it is pretty good for popular languages such as English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, German, Dutch and Italian. Speech2Speech can be configured for many more than just these languages (specified in the config. ini file), as long as they are supported by Whisper AI, Chat-GPT and gtts, the packages on which it depends.

Speech2Speech is designed to be accessible to a broad audience . One of the key advantages of Speech2Speech is that it's incredibly easy to use:

The package automatically detects the source language used in speech . The user therefore is not asked to specify it.
There is no need to train the software or the user before actually using the product . It works well straight out of the box with no further tuning or configuration required. This makes it a highly accessible tool that anyone can use, regardless of their technical expertise or experience with speech recognition and machine translation technology.

It is also hoped that this technology could be leveraged to develop products specifically designed for persons with visual impairments . It can empower them to have texts read aloud or dictate their texts and listen to them being read out loud before forwarding them to their intended recipients.

Each phase of the workflow creates a file, whose name is defined in the config.ini file. Advanced users can start and/or interrupt the workflow wherever they need by inserting their own files in the speech2speech/data subdirectory and adapting the config.ini file to refer to them.

Prerequisites

You need to get an OpenAI API key in order to use this app.

Speech2Speech local installation

Run the following command:

In order to launch it locally follow these steps:

Make sure the microphone and speakers of your device are on.

Enter the following URL in your browser to download the project as a zip file:

https://github.com/rcdalj/speech2speech/archive/refs/heads/master.zip
Extract the contents of the zip file, thereby creating a local copy of the project directory
In the terminal or command prompt, place yourself in the root of the local copy of the project directory (where you find, namely, the requirements.txt file)
cd <full name of root of local project directory>
Create a virtual environment:

3.1. On Mac and Linux:

python3 -m pip install --user virtualenv
python3 -m venv venv

3.2. On Windows:

py -m pip install --user virtualenv
py -m venv env
Activate the virtual environment:

4.1. On Mac and Linux

source venv/bin/activate

4.2. On Windows:

.\env\Scripts\activate
Install project dependencies:
pip install -r requirements.txt
Type the following commands in the terminal to launch Speech2Speech:
cd speech2speech
streamlit run speech2speech.py

Here's a step-by-step guide on how to use the full workflow of Speech2Speech:

Copy your OpenAI API key and paste it into the text box below the label "OpenAI API Key". The API key you enter will not be visible on the screen by default.
Click the "Record Audio" button to start recording.
Begin speaking or reading aloud. When your dictation is finished, press CTRL+E to stop recording it. Chat-GPT can automatically detect the language you're speaking (as long as it also supports it), so there's no need to specify it.
Click the "Transcribe" button to convert your dictation into text.
Select your desired target language from the dropdown menu under "Target Language".
Click the "Translate" button to translate the transcription into your chosen target language. The translated text will appear on a blue background after a few seconds.
Click the "Read Translation" button to listen to the translated text.
If you want to repeat the process with a new dictation, click the "Refresh Page" button to reset the page.

As indicated above, you can also use just parts of this full workflow by specifying the name(s) of the file(s) you want to use in the config.ini file and by clicking the relevant button of the user interface.

What to do if you encounter issues

If Chat-GPT or Speech2Speech get stuck or you encounter any issues, simply refresh the browser page. ChatGPT may, however, have lots of users at certain times of the day and be poorly responsive for a while.

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Harrison Butker offseason timeline: From controversial commencement speech to record contract

Over the course of the NFL offseason, Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker was among the biggest recurring storylines — and for a variety of reasons.

Butker, who’s been the Chiefs kicker since 2017 , made headlines often between February and August for his off-the-field comments, what others said about him and his new contract.

With the two-time defending champions in 2023, Butker totaled 33 field goals made on 35 attempts, and he now heads into the eighth year of his career.

Here’s the timeline of what happened with Butker over the course of the NFL offseason, including his controversial speech and record-setting deal.

WEEK 1 NFL: Power rankings | ATS picks | SU picks

Harrison Butker offseason timeline

February 2024

Kansas City is crowned the winner of Super Bowl LVIII. Butker nails four field goals, including a new Super Bowl record with a 57-yard connection, in the big game.

It marked title No. 3 for Butker, all of which came with the Chiefs.

In mid-May, Butker appeared at Benedictine College to make a commencement speech, where he made controversial comments regarding LGBTQ+ Pride month, politics and women entering the workforce.

"I think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolical lies told to you," Butker said in his speech. "Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world."

The full speech is on YouTube, and now has over two million views.

Butker’s speech stirred up controversy across NFL headlines and social media from fans, celebrities, politicians and other league figures.

At the time, NFL senior vice president and chief of diversity and inclusion officer Jonathan Beane responded to Butker’s speech on behalf of the league.

"Harrison Butker gave a speech in his personal capacity," Beane told PEOPLE. "His views are not those of the NFL as an organization. The NFL is steadfast in our commitment to inclusion, which only makes our league stronger."

Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, head coach Andy Reid and tight end Travis Kelce were each asked about Butker’s comments. All three took a cautious approach in their response, respecting Butker’s right to his opinion even if they didn’t agree.

"We're not always going to agree. He said certain things I don't agree with,” Mahomes said, per The Athletic's Nate Taylor .

The Los Angeles Chargers even got in on the topic — as the team unveiled its 2024 schedule with a video poking fun at each of its opponents, it included a clip of Butker working in a kitchen.

should we REALLY make our schedule release video in the sims? yes yes yesyes yesyes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yesyes yes yes yes yesye yes yes yes yes yesyes pic.twitter.com/MXzfAPyhe8 — Los Angeles Chargers (@chargers) May 16, 2024

During the ESPYs on July 11, tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams, along with comedian Quinta Brunson, took a shot toward Butker while on stage.

“You can enjoy women's sports, just like any other sport, because they are sports. Except for you Harrison Butker, we don't need you. At all, like ever,” the three combined to say.

Serena and Venus Williams took a shot at #Chiefs K Harrison Butker during tonight's ESPY Awards: pic.twitter.com/7jhacDECV7 — Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) July 12, 2024

Shortly after the ESPYs, Butker responded to the comments, saying Serena Williams “used (the stage) as an opportunity to disinvite those with whom she disagrees with from supporting fellow athletes.”

MORE: All of Travis Kelce's TV and movie appearances

August 2024

Following all the controversy of his offseason, the Chiefs signed Butker, 29, to a new contract that made him the highest-paid kicker in the league.

Butker soon confirmed the news, sharing his excitement to stay in Kansas City for the long term.

There’s no place I’d rather be than with the Chiefs, excited to finalize a 4 year extension. To the Heights! pic.twitter.com/geMUZTaNmZ — Harrison Butker (@buttkicker7) August 5, 2024

Butker’s four-year, $25.6 million extension , which included $17.75 million guaranteed, put him above other kickers like Jake Elliott, Justin Tucker and Matt Gay in annual salary.

In recent weeks, Kansas City’s kicker has also doubled down on his commencement speech comments when given the opportunity to reflect a few months later.

Finally, in a social media post on August 18, Butker misquoted Winston Churchill about the “enemies” he’s created since his speech — and many were quick to correct him that the quote instead belonged to Victor Hugo.

“You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.” - Sir Winston Churchill pic.twitter.com/OjVtW9kzNw — Harrison Butker (@buttkicker7) August 19, 2024

It’s been a busy offseason — especially for a kicker — for Butker, who’s found himself in headlines often.

He’ll now join the Chiefs in their quest for a Super Bowl three-peat, which begins against the Ravens on Thursday Night Football.

Daniel Mader is an editorial intern for Sporting News.

Read and watch: former President Bill Clinton's full speech to the Democratic National Convention

Bill clinton made the case for democrats' handling of the economy and jobs, published august 21, 2024 • updated on august 21, 2024 at 10:35 pm.

Editor's note: The text of the speech below is as prepared. His actual delivery may have varied.

Free 24/7 Connecticut news stream: Watch NBC CT wherever you are

Good evening. After the last two days, am I proud to be a Democrat! I’m especially proud of President Biden, who came to office during the pandemic and an economic crash. He healed us and got us back to work. He strengthened our alliances for freedom and security.

Perhaps the greatest test of anyone in power is whether they’re willing to relinquish it. George Washington knew that and it enhanced his legacy. The same is now true for Joe Biden. Mr. President, thank you for your courage, compassion, and class; for your service and your sacrifice. You have not only kept the faith—you are spreading the faith.

Get top local stories in Connecticut delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC Connecticut's News Headlines newsletter.

Now, let’s cut to the chase: The stakes are too high and I’m too old to gild the lily. I actually turned 78 two days ago. And I’m still not quite as old as Donald Trump. Last night we nominated Kamala Harris and Tim Walz to be the next president and vice president. Two leaders with improbable, all-American life stories that could only happen here, with careers starting in community courtrooms and classrooms. Two leaders who have spent a lifetime getting the job done.

A presidential election is a job interview for the greatest job in the world. What questions will you ask—because you’re doing the hiring. Will a president take us forward or backward? Will she give our kids a brighter future? Will she make us more united or more divided? Will we all feel heard, seen, and valued, regardless of who we voted for?

We, the people, are the employers, charged by our Constitution to hire a president to do a job that we get to redefine every four years. In effect, the American people say, “Here are our problems; solve them. Here are our opportunities; seize them. Here are our fears; ease them. Here are our dreams; help us make them come true.” A president can answer that call by leading us to work together—or dodging what needs to be done by dividing, distracting, and deceiving us.

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In 2024, we have a clear choice: “We the People” versus “me, myself, and I.” I know which one I like better for our country. Kamala Harris will solve problems, seize opportunities, ease our fears, and make sure that every American can chase their dreams.

When she was a student, she worked at McDonald’s. She greeted every person with that thousand-watt smile and said, “How can I help you?” And now, at the pinnacle of power, she’s still asking “How can I help you?” I’ll be so happy when she actually enters the White House because, at last, she’ll break my record as the president who has spent the most time at McDonald’s.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump—a paragon of consistency—is still dividing, blaming, and belittling. He creates and curates chaos. It’s showmanship, but it’s not leadership. Not a day goes by that I’m not grateful for the chance the American people gave me to be one of the 45 people who have held the job. Even on the bad days, you can still make something good happen.

Kamala Harris is the only candidate in this race with the vision, the experience, the temperament, the will, and—yes—the sheer joy to do that on good and bad days. To be our voice.

Now, how does Donald Trump use his voice? Mostly to talk about himself—his vengeance, vendettas, complaints, conspiracies. The next time you hear him, don’t count the lies—count the I’s. He’s like the tenor warming up before the opera: me, me, me, me. Kamala Harris is focused on you.

Do you want to build a strong economy from the bottom up and the middle out? Or do you want to spend the next four years talking about crowd sizes? Since the end of the Cold War in 1989, America has created about 51 million new jobs—about 50 million under Democrats, 1 million under Republicans. 50 to 1! Coach Walz will tell ya, if you’re up 50 to 1—you’re winning!

Do you want more affordable housing, affordable health care, and affordable child care? Do you want more financing for small businesses? Do you want to strengthen our alliances and stand up for freedom and democracy around the world? Or a tribute to the “late great” Hannibal Lecter? Do you want to save our country and our world from the calamities of climate change? Or obsess on the vital debate between getting eaten by sharks or electrocuted? President Obama once famously called me the Explainer in Chief, but folks—but I can’t even.

I want an America that’s more joyful, inclusive, and future-focused. Where we weather the storms and earn the benefits together. That’s the America Kamala Harris will lead. She’s already made her first presidential decision, picking a running mate. And boy, did she knock it out of the park. She called Tim Walz for duty one more time. He’s the real deal with a record—as a coach, as a teacher, as a soldier, as a congressman, and as a great governor—to prove it. And he reminds us of home.

Kamala Harris has fought for kids that were left out and left behind. She’s taken on gangs trafficking across the border, and fought to protect the rights of homeowners. She’s been our leader in the fight for reproductive freedom, and advanced America’s interests and values all over the world. She’ll work to make sure that no American working full-time has to live in poverty and that homeownership is an achievable dream, not a privilege. She’ll protect your right to vote, including your right to vote for someone else.

For 250 years, the forces of division have tried to halt the march of progress in this beautiful experiment of ours. In the face of stiff, often violent opposition, we have kept hope alive and kept marching forward together.

Kamala Harris’s story is the story of an America we all know is possible. Where “We the People” continually strive to make our union more perfect. One where a daughter of the Bay and a son of the Heartland can be the president and vice president.

We should not despair about America’s divisions, because we move from happiness to heartbreak, from building and breaking to rebuilding and making. We do the best we can. Until, in God’s good time, there comes a new generation to pick up where we left off. That’s the opportunity we’re given now. To pick an extraordinary woman, clearly up to the job, who’ll bring us together and move us forward.

So, talk to your neighbors. Meet people where they are. Don’t demean them. Ask them for their help. And ask them, as Kamala still does, “How can I help you?” We’ve got a lot of hay in the barn—we just need to saddle up and ride with strength through November. If America hires Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, we will never regret it.

Take it from the Man from Hope, Kamala Harris is the woman from joy. And we will make a joyful noise on Election Day if you do your part. Thank you. God bless you and God bless America.

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Trump Says Some Migrants Are ‘Not People’ and Predicts a ‘Blood Bath’ if He Loses

In a caustic and discursive speech in Ohio, former President Donald J. Trump once again doubled down on a doomsday vision of the United States.

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Donald Trump, seen from behind and at a distance, speaks to a large crowd from behind a lectern.

By Anjali Huynh and Michael Gold

Anjali Huynh reported from Vandalia, Ohio, and Michael Gold from New York.

Published March 16, 2024 Updated March 18, 2024

Former President Donald J. Trump , at an event on Saturday ostensibly meant to boost his preferred candidate in Ohio’s Republican Senate primary race, gave a freewheeling speech in which he used dehumanizing language to describe immigrants, maintained a steady stream of insults and vulgarities and predicted that the United States would never have another election if he did not win in November.

With his general-election matchup against President Biden in clear view, Mr. Trump once more doubled down on the doomsday vision of the country that has animated his third presidential campaign and energized his base during the Republican primary.

The dark view resurfaced throughout his speech. While discussing the U.S. economy and its auto industry, Mr. Trump promised to place tariffs on cars manufactured abroad if he won in November. He added: “Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a blood bath for the whole — that’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a blood bath for the country.”

For nearly 90 minutes outside the Dayton International Airport in Vandalia, Ohio, Mr. Trump delivered a discursive speech, replete with attacks and caustic rhetoric. He noted several times that he was having difficulty reading the teleprompter.

The former president opened his speech by praising the people serving sentences in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol. Mr. Trump, who faces criminal charges tied to his efforts to overturn his election loss, called them “hostages” and “unbelievable patriots,” commended their spirit and vowed to help them if elected in November. He also repeated his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, which have been discredited by a mountain of evidence .

If he did not win this year’s presidential election, Mr. Trump said, “I don’t think you’re going to have another election, or certainly not an election that’s meaningful.”

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IMAGES

Speech #2 Explained
Speech 2
Fast Speech 2
Speech 2 Overview
Parts of Speech 2 (examples, videos)
Speech 2

VIDEO

Speech 2
Spotlight 2 pages 20-21 Английский в фокусе 2 класс страницы 20-21
Части речи в таблицах и схемах Русский язык 2-4 классы
Нито звук 2
Обзорный доклад по распознаванию и генерации речи
RESET, RESTART, REFOCUS.

COMMENTS

Speech Learning App for Kids / Speech Blubs
1. Watch and repeat. Kids first watch other kids act as teachers and role models, and are motivated to copy and repeat after them. 2. Role-play. Take pictures with fun face filters that are designed so kids can become the word they practice. Build a fun photo book along the way. Save and share the memories! 3.
Communication Milestones: 2 to 3 Years
Learn about hearing, speech, and language development in children aged 2 to 3 years. Find out what your child should be able to do and what you can do to help them communicate better.
Toddler speech development: What's typical for a 2-year-old?
Follow simple commands and understand simple questions. Speak about 50 to 100 words. Be understood at least half the time by adults who don't know the child. Between the ages of 2 and 3, most children: Speak in two- and three-word phrases or sentences. Use at least 200 words and as many as 1,000 words.
2-Year-Old Speech Milestones: Speech Therapy for 2-Year-Old
2-Year-Old Speech Milestones: The following skills are all expected to emerge by or around 2 years of age. Not all children will acquire all of these skills by this age. If a child is missing a few skills, we generally don't worry too much. However, if a child is far off from many of these
Age-Appropriate Speech and Language Milestones
Uses 2-word phrases. 2 to 3 years. Knows some spatial concepts, such as "in" or "on" Knows pronouns, such as "you," "me" or "her" Knows descriptive words, such as "big" or "happy" Uses 3-word sentences. Speech is becoming more accurate, but may still leave off ending sounds. Strangers may not be able to understand much of what is said.
Toddler Learning Video with Ms Rachel
Ms Rachel will teach important 2 year old milestones and social skills for toddlers and preschoolers in this fun toddler learning video! Join her at the play...
2 Year Old Milestones
When it comes to 2 year old speech milestones, the most important milestone has to do with speech intelligibility, or how clearly your child is speaking. At 24 months old you want to be sure that you are understanding at least half of the things your little one says. Speaking clearly (at least 50% of the time) is an indicator that your child ...
Toddler Speech Milestones: 12 Months, 18 Months, 2 Years & 3 Years
12-month speech milestones. Most babies say their first word around 12 months, although it takes some a little longer. Just like adults, some babies are simply less talkative than others! Around the 1-year-mark, your newly-crowned toddler will likely be able to: Imitate speech sounds. Say a few words, such as "mama," "dada," "uh-oh" or "no".
2-Year-Old Not Talking but Babbling: Should You Worry?
By age 2, milestones for speech and language include having a vocabulary of 50 or more words, even if they aren't pronounced perfectly or understood by strangers. Your tot may also call their ...
Speech Therapy for Toddlers
Speech therapy is a treatment led by a speech and language pathologist (SLP) or speech therapist. It helps a person communicate and speak more clearly. Toddlers may develop language or speech impairments due to illness, hearing problems, or brain disorders. This article covers speech and language milestones, causes of speech disorders ...
Top 20 Speech Therapy Toys For 2 Year Olds
Understanding In and Out - This speech therapy toy is great for teaching toddlers "in" and "out.". You'll do this by repeating the words often in phrases -"The fish jumps in" "Get it out", or just by themselves "IN!" or "OUT!". Buy on Amazon. 5. Play-Doh. I always buy name brand Play-Doh (or make it homemade).
Speech Therapy for Younger Children
Maximizing the child's gaze to the speaker's mouth by putting toys or objects of interest near the speaker's mouth during imitation tasks. In summary, two primary treatment goals for young infants and toddlers with suspected apraxia of speech are, according to Davis and Velleman (2000, p. 184):
Activities to Encourage Speech and Language Development
Tell them who or what you will see. Point out colors and shapes. Count what you see. Use gestures, like waving and pointing. Talk about animal sounds. This helps your baby connect the sound and the animal. Use words like "The dog says woof-woof." Add on to what your baby says. When your baby says, "Mama," say, "Here is Mama.
Warning signs of a speech delay in toddlers
Signs of a speech delay. and other experts recommend talking to your child's doctor if they show any of these signs: Advertisement | page continues below. Doesn't say "mama" or "dada". Doesn't use gestures such as waving, shaking their head, or pointing. Doesn't understand and respond to words such as "no," "bye-bye," and their name.
Speech and Language Milestones for 2-Year-Olds
Other important milestones for 2-year-olds. Beyond speech and language, there are many other important developmental skills that are generally gained between ages 24 and 36 months. For example, it's common to see an increase in the development of a child's play skills. Their play-based activities become more complex as they begin to ...
Developmental Norms for Speech and Language
Developmental Norms for Speech and Language. This is a collective resource of norms and milestones for speech-language development. SLPs are often asked questions regarding typical age of sound acquisition and development of language. This information will help to answer those questions and provides resources to share with parents and colleagues.
Delayed Speech or Language Development (for Parents)
by 2 years: has an unusual tone of voice (such as raspy or nasal sounding) Also call the doctor if your child's speech is harder to understand than expected for their age: Parents and regular caregivers should understand about 50% of a child's speech at 2 years and 75% of it at 3 years. By 4 years old, a child should be mostly understood ...
Language development: Speech milestones for babies
If your child hears or speaks two languages, a bilingual speech-language pathologist can test your child in both languages. To help your child talk, talk to your child. Talk about what you're doing and where you're going. Sing songs, read stories and count together. Teach your child to copy actions, such as clapping, and to make animal sounds.
How Does Speech Therapy Work for 2-Year-Olds?
A 2-year-old in speech therapy may work on developing early sounds such as /p/, /b/, /m/, /w/, /h/, /d/, and /n/. Feeding skills Many people don't realize that speech therapists also see children for feeding therapy. If a child is having trouble safely eating or drinking, or is nervous about trying new foods, feeding therapy can help. Feeding ...
Deep Speech 2: End-to-End Speech Recognition in English and Mandarin
View a PDF of the paper titled Deep Speech 2: End-to-End Speech Recognition in English and Mandarin, by Dario Amodei and 33 other authors. We show that an end-to-end deep learning approach can be used to recognize either English or Mandarin Chinese speech--two vastly different languages. Because it replaces entire pipelines of hand-engineered ...
FastSpeech 2: Fast and High-Quality End-to-End Text to Speech
By Xu Tan , Senior Researcher Neural network based text to speech (TTS) has made rapid progress in recent years. Previous neural TTS models (e.g., Tacotron 2) first generate mel-spectrograms autoregressively from text and then synthesize speech from the generated mel-spectrograms using a separately trained vocoder. They usually suffer from slow inference speed, robustness (word skipping and ...
speech2speech
Speech2Speech. The Speech2Speech Python package is a Streamlit Web application that models all phases of speech-to-speech translation, including:. recording speech in the source language, converting the source language speech to source language text,
Harrison Butker offseason timeline: From controversial commencement
Butker's speech stirred up controversy across NFL headlines and social media from fans, celebrities, politicians and other league figures. ...
2022 Joe Biden speech in Warsaw
President Biden delivering the speech in the courtyard of the Royal Castle in Warsaw. Biden delivered his speech from the inner courtyard of the Royal Castle. [13] The speech began at 18:16 CET (17:16 UTC) and lasted 27 minutes. [13] [2] Biden opened his speech with a reference to Pope John Paul II and his message to "[b]e not afraid".[1] [2] The speech also paid tribute to Lech Wałęsa ...
September 2, 2024, presidential campaign news
September 2, 2024, presidential campaign news By Maureen Chowdhury , Michelle Shen and Isabelle D'Antonio , CNN Updated 8:27 PM EDT, Mon September 2, 2024
ASHA's Developmental Milestones: Birth to 5 Years
Developmental milestones will help you be familiar with what to expect as your child grows and develops; identify skills to work on with your child and when to get professional assistance; know when to seek audiology and/or speech-language pathology services; and gain valuable information and resources to share with your child's doctor and others.
Read and watch: Bill Clinton's full speech to the DNC
Read and watch: former President Bill Clinton's full speech to the Democratic National Convention Bill Clinton made the case for Democrats' handling of the economy and jobs
Trump Says Some Migrants Are 'Not People' and Predicts a 'Blood Bath
The former president opened his speech by praising the people serving sentences in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol. Mr. Trump, who faces criminal charges tied to his efforts ...
Does ESG investing count as free speech?
The 2021 law "has allowed the Comptroller to punish speech he dislikes," ASBC said in the complaint. Skye Perryman, chief executive of Democracy Forward, a legal organisation representing ASBC ...
Howard University's capstone moment: Kamala Harris at top of the ticket
Analysis: The 2 key states that could decide the 2024 election. 5:33 PM Trump issues appeal to N.H. after volunteer downplays expectations. 5:10 PM Harris's new ad focuses on middle-class families.