Speech Therapy Exercises to Enhance Your Child’s Speech with Open Lines’ 

At Open Lines, we are dedicated to setting new standards of excellence in speech therapy by providing practical yet innovative solutions that enhance communication.

We are thrilled to introduce our latest premium offering: the “L” Articulation Flip Book. Developed by our team of expert licensed pediatric speech therapists. This resource is specially designed to provide easy to use articulation exercises for targeting the letter “L”. 

Understanding Articulation Delays and Disorders

Articulation delays or disorders occur when children struggle to produce sounds expected for their age. During early speech development, children may exhibit immature speech motor coordination, resulting in sound substitutions, distortions, or omissions. This could look like a child substituting certain sounds with ones that are easier for them to produce (e.g., saying “wamp” instead of “lamp”). These patterns of substitution are typical in young children. However, persistent substitution or distortion patterns can hinder effective communication and may impact social interactions and self-confidence.

If your child, by age 3, is not understood by peers, teachers, and family at least 75% of the time, seeking an evaluation by a licensed speech-language pathologist is recommended. While articulation delays and disorders may initially cause concern for families, we want to assure you that they can be effectively addressed with skilled articulation therapy and targeted speech therapy exercises. Results  leading to age appropriate speech clarity and confidence in communication.

Introducing the “L” Articulation Book

The “L” sound is typically acquired by the age of 4. The sound is made by placing the tip of your tongue just behind your front teeth. It’s not unusual for children to struggle with this sound as their speech develops. Some children may struggle to produce this sound when it appears in the beginning of words (e.g., “love”), in the middle of words (e.g., “balloon”), at the end of words (e.g., “ball”), or in consonant blends (e.g., “play”). When this occurs, children often replace the /l/ sound with one that is easier for them to say.  Several sound substitution patterns–known as phonological processes –can affect how children produce the “L” sound. For example:

1. Vowelization: This process involves replacing the “L” sound with a vowel (e.g., “appo” for “apple”). 
2. Gliding: This process involves substituting the “L” sound with a glide sound, such as “W” (e.g., “wing” for “ring”). 
3. Cluster reduction: This process involves simplifying consonant clusters, where two or more consonants appear together. For words containing “SL”, “FL”, or “BL” clusters, the “L” sound may be omitted or replaced (e.g., “boo” for “blue”; “sweep” for “sleep”).

Our “L” Articulation Book comprehensively targets the “L” sound. Moving through a hierarchy of development, it teaches children how to accurately produce “L” in simple syllables and words all the way through fluent conversation. Furthermore, it was thoughtfully designed to ensure accessibility for children of all abilities, whether receiving therapy or practicing at home.

What makes this product unique:

• Comprehensive coverage from isolation to conversational speech.
• Over 600 practice words, never run out of ideas!
• Dedicated space for tracking accuracy and trials, facilitating progress monitoring.
• Engaging illustrations and interactive exercises to make learning enjoyable.
• Suitable for both therapists and parents to integrate into therapy sessions or daily routines.

Like learning any skill in life, it takes practice! Designed using principles of motor learning, this product optimizes for skill repetition and performance results by offering hundreds of engaging practice opportunities. At Open Lines, we believe that speech therapy exercises need to be fun, or they just won’t happen! That’s why this product comes complete with suggestions for a variety of games and activities that can foster fresh opportunities to increase sensory engagement and family connection all while maximizing repetitions of practice. 

We’ve also included easy to follow instructions describing articulation therapy strategies to cue and help your child so you feel confident that you’re appropriately supporting your child’s development in a way that will improve their clarity and confidence with communication!

The “L” Articulation Book includes:

• “L” Isolation warm ups
• Word level practice
  • Initial “L” – monosyllabic 
  • Initial “L” – multisyllabic 
  • Medial “L” 
  • Final “L” – monosyllabic 
  • Final “L” – multisyllabic
  • Blends
    • Initial /pl/ – monosyllabic 
    • Initial /pl/ – multisyllabic
    • Initial /bl/ – monosyllabic 
    • Initial /bl/ – multisyllabic 
    • Initial /fl/ – monosyllabic 
    • Initial /fl/ – multisyllabic 
    • Initial /cl/ – monosyllabic 
    • Initial /cl/ – multisyllabic 
    • Initial /gl/ – monosyllabic 
    • Initial /gl/ – multisyllabic 
    • Initial /sl/ – monosyllabic 
    • Initial /sl/ – multisyllabic 
• Sentence level practice
  • Initial “L”
  • Medial “L”
  • Final “L”
  • Blends
    • Initial /pl/
    • Initial /bl/
    • Initial /cl/
    • Initial /gl/
    • Initial /sl/
  • I Spy Boards + Word Lists
• Structured conversation level practice
  • Busy Picture Scenes + Word Lists
  • Graphic Organizer to support storytelling

Designed with the busy family, educator, and SLP in mind, our “L” articulation therapy exercises require no preparation, offering a hassle-free, high-quality solution to enhance therapy sessions for anyone looking to support their child’s speech sound development. 

This premium product is available to purchase via our Etsy store

Curious about other articulation therapy resources and speech therapy exercises? Check out other FREE products and helpful information on speech therapy for kids here 

Looking for a resource that you don’t see here? Let us know! We’d love to help. Reach out to us here