a written speech on home training

E-village for Parenting

Home Training In The Family

Home training in the family cannot be over emphasized when bringing up a child. Every adult is the end product of the success or failure of their parent as regards to home training.

It’s quite unfortunate that most of us expect that our children will get the training they require from school. While teachers have a role, not every teacher is detailed enough to notice that a child is picking his nose, biting his nails, not covering his mouth when coughing e.t.c

Let’s look at Home training and simple ways of teaching some of the things that children need to know.

Personal hygiene is a big element to successful home training. Some of the things that you could teach your child not to do or do when it comes to hygiene include:

• Do not rub your face when sweating, use a handkerchief to wipe your face.

• Do not pick your nose, always use a tissue and always sneeze into a tissue.

• Do not bite your fingers, they should use a nail cutter if they are old enough to do that themselves or you do it for them.

• Always wash hands after using the toilet, before and after eating.

There are more to add to the list depending on the other values you have built over the years.

You will agree with me, this is a very serious issue in the 21st Century, many parents might talk about it but then do not require it from their children. It is in your childs’ best interest to get the principle of respect from a tender age. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying we should make them scared of us, but teach them about respect.

An effective way to teach respect comes from the little things you do, how you treat people. I mean we (parents), should take the lead, you would be surprised to see how your child would follow suit. It’s easier to teach children by example, they will more easily do what they see than do what they are told. How can a child relate with a mum who consistently says, you should treat people with respect even  when they offend you and yet that mum keeps yelling at everyone around the house, or in the office.

Teaching integrity includes teaching children to always do the right things, say the right things and stand by what they say. My little niece was ill some time ago, and she said to me, I believe God will heal me because when daddy promises to give me something, he gives me. I was ‘whaooed’ by the statement from an eight year old, seeing how far our integrity can affect and teach our children.

Social Etiquette

There is soo much on etiquette you can teach a child, it has a lot to do with your values, etiquette such as table manners, talking manners, how to seat, standing without leaning on anything, not interrupting elders when they are talking e.t.c

There is a lot of home training you can give your child, digest this and watch out for the subsequent discussions.

Contributed by Olamide Tawose

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10 Effective Strategies to Practice Articulation at Home

As a Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP), I understand the importance of consistent practice and reinforcement when working on speech sounds with clients. In fact, research shows that practicing articulation targets 5-10 minutes a day is more effective than 30-60 minute consecutive sessions. So it is critical for clients with articulation goals to practice a few minutes each day. Here are ten effective strategies to practice articulation at home with your child!

• Expand Vocabulary through Reading Reading is an excellent way to expose your child to a wide range of words and sounds. Emphasize written words that correspond to the pictures on each page. By focusing on these words, you can draw attention to specific sounds and help your child develop phonological awareness and better articulation skills.
• Provide Correct Models Be a model of correct speech production by demonstrating the accurate pronunciation of sounds and syllables in words. Encourage your child to imitate your correct production. Avoid imitating your child’s incorrect articulation, as this may reinforce the wrong patterns.
• Emphasize Syllables and Final Consonants To help build phonological awareness, have your child become aware of syllables and final consonants in words. Encourage your child to clap out each syllable or final consonant. Alternatively, you can use visual and tactile cues such as stacking blocks to represent syllables or final consonants, making the learning process more interactive.
• Rhyming Games Playing rhyming games can be an enjoyable way to teach your child that different sounds in words can alter their meanings. Rhyming games also help create nonsense words, which aids in phonological awareness and speech sound practice.
• Environmental Print Encourage your child to look for environmental print in the community, such as signs and logos. Point out familiar symbols like the McDonald’s arches, Lego, or Fruit Loops. This activity helps your child connect sounds to written words in real-world contexts.
• Daily Target Sound Practice Set aside 5-10 minutes each day to focus on the target sound or sounds. Aim for 20-30 productions at the isolation level and 30 productions at the word, phrase, or sentence level. Two helpful websites for word lists are Home-Speech-Home.com (written words only) and MommySpeechTherapy.com (written words with pictures).
• Incorporate Games Make practice sessions more enjoyable by incorporating games. Play Match or Go Fish with picture cards, tape words to the fridge and practice whenever you open the door, review word lists at red lights, or create a scavenger hunt by hiding cut-up pictures around the room.
• Encourage Teaching Role Allow your child to become the teacher. Purposefully produce sounds or words incorrectly, and challenge your child to identify the errors and suggest ways to fix them. This activity promotes critical thinking and active engagement.
• Story Time with Target Sounds Read stories aloud to your child regularly, emphasizing words that contain the target sound or sounds. This helps your child hear the correct production within a meaningful context, reinforcing the correct articulation patterns.
• Scavenger Hunt for Target Sounds Send your child on a scavenger hunt around the house to find ten items with the target sound. Put these items in a box and use them to review sounds. This activity combines speech practice with a sense of adventure.

Remember, when practicing at the word level, breaking up words initially can be helpful to isolate the target sound before blending the word. For phrases, giving the child a carrier phrase like “I see ____” or “my ____” is beneficial, especially during the initial stages of practice.

By incorporating these ten strategies into your daily routine to practice articulation at home, you can support and enhance your child’s speech sound development. Remember to make practice sessions fun, engaging, and consistent.

For more strategies, check out my blog post Articulation Therapy Techniques for Tricky Words .

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How to Write a Speech to Engage your Audience

February 19, 2021 - Dom Barnard

In order to write a speech, you need to think about your audience, the required length, and the purpose or topic. This is true whether you are writing a wedding speech, conference presentation, investor pitch, or any other type of speech.

Being a great speech writer can help you get a promotion, motivate people, sell a business idea, persuade others and much more – it’s an essential skill in the modern world. In this article, we cover key tips for writing a speech.

Initial planning – Why? Who? What?

You should invest time strategically considering the speech. This will help you decide on the key message and content about your topic. Here are some points to consider.

• What do I want to achieve?
• When I achieve this, what will that do for me?
• Why am I speaking?
• What is the purpose of this speech?
• Who are the audience and who do they represent?
• Who do I represent?
• What do I know about them? (culture, language, level of expertise)
• How much influence do they have?
• What is the main message and key points?
• What specific action is implied?
• What level of information should I include?
• What is important to them?

Popular speech structure

You need to catch the audience attention early, very early (see section below). Deliver a memorable beginning, a clear middle and structured ending.

Popular speech structure:

• Explanation 1
• Explanation 2
• Explanation 3

Secondary Point (Optional: supports main)

Tertiary Point (Optional: supports secondary and main)

Attention span of your audience

Research shows that attention span is greatest at the beginning of a speech, reduces considerably during the middle of your speech and picks up again towards the end when your audience know you about to finish.

Don’t try to put too many ideas into your speech. Research shows that people remember very little from speeches, so just give them one or two ideas to hang onto.

These two articles explain audience attention span in more detail, and how to write a speech to extend it:

• How many minutes is the audience’s attention span?
• What to do when you’re losing your audience

Speech introduction

Make sure your opening few seconds are memorable as this is when your audience will make up their minds about you. Use a bold sentence to grab their attention, works best with numbers reinforcing your point.

An example sentence might be – “After this speech, I’m confident 50% of you will go out and buy a VR headset.” Follow these tips on how to write a speech intro:

Remember the INTRO model

This is more focused on presentations but sections can be applied broadly to other general speeches.

1. Interest

You: Introduce yourself confidently and clearly Audience: Why should I listen to you?

You: Remind the audience the reasons for this speech Audience: What’s in it for me?

You: State length of speech at beginning, “Over the next 15 minutes” Audience: How long until I can get a coffee?

4. Routemap

You: State the main points, “Today I’m going to cover 4 main points” Audience: Which sections of the speech are important to me?

5. Objectives

You: Clearly state the objective, “By the end of this speech, I would like to…” Audience: So that’s what you want from me today…

Example: Great speech opening

This speech opening is by Jamie Oliver, giving a TED talk on teaching every child about food.

Sadly, in the next 18 minutes when I do our chat, four Americans that are alive will be dead through the food that they eat. My name’s Jamie Oliver. I’m 34 years old. I’m from Essex in England and for the last seven years I’ve worked fairly tirelessly to save lives in my own way. I’m not a doctor; I’m a chef, I don’t have expensive equipment or medicine. I use information, education. I profoundly believe that the power of food has a primal place in our homes that binds us to the best bits of life. We have an awful, awful reality right now. America, you’re at the top of your game. This is one of the most unhealthy countries in the world.

How not to open your speech

Avoid the following opening comments:

• “ Apologies, I’m a little nervous about speaking ” – no need to make the audience aware of this, it will make them focus on how nervous you are instead of what you are saying
• “ I’ve got the graveyard shift ” – you are telling people not to expect much
• “ I’m what stands between you and lunch ” – even if people weren’t thinking it, after this comment, all they are thinking of is when will you finish so they can eat
• “ We are running late, so I’ll do my best to explain… ” – instead of this, state how long your speech will take so that people know when they will be leaving

Middle of the speech

The body of your speech is where the majority of the information is. The audience has been introduced to the subject and reasons for the speech. Now you need to present your arguments and examples, data, illustrations backing up your key message.

How to write a speech body can be difficult, the best way to build this section is to write down three points you are trying to convey in your speech, your main, secondary and tertiary points. Then write down three descriptions clarifying each of these points. The descriptions should be simple, memorable and meaningful.

The middle of your speech is where the audience start losing attention. Keep this in mind and ensure your message is clear. Use images, jokes and rhetoric questions to keep the audience engaged.

Don’t overwhelm your audience with many points. It is much more valuable to make a small number of points well, than to have too many points which aren’t made satisfactorily.

Obama and his speeches

Obama’s speeches are well prepared with a focus on powerful words “A change is brought about because ordinary people do extraordinary things“. His speeches use simple language and quotes from famous speeches his listeners can relate to.

For additional trademark Obama techniques, check out  How Barack Obama prepares his speeches.

How to end a speech

Similar to the opening, your closing statements should be impactful, re-stating the key message of your speech. We advise learning your ending few lines word for word. The ending is an opportunity to:

• Leave the audience with a lasting impression of your speech
• Summarise the main points
• Provide further ideas and discussion points for the audience to take away with them
• Thank the audience for taking the time to listen

Methods to end your speech

Quotation Close  – use a famous quote to get the audience’s attention and create a link to your speech.

Bookend Close  – refer back to an opening statement and repeat it or add a few extra words to elaborate on it.

Open Question  – ask the audience a provocative question or a call to action to perform some task on the back of your speech.

For additional tips on how to write a speech, in particular how to close your speech, read:

• 5 great ways to end a speech
• 10 ways to end your speech with a bang
• Presentations: language expert – signposting

Ideas for ending a speech

• Key message
• Refer to opening impact statement
• Objectives met
• Call to action
• End on an Up

Step-by-step process for writing a speech

Here’s how to write your speech from concept to completion.

• Outline your speech’s structure. What are the main ideas for each section?
• Write out the main ideas in your outline. Don’t worry about making it perfect – just write as much of it down as you can
• Edit and polish what you’ve written until you have a good first draft of your speech
• Now you need to practice and  memorize your speech . The more you practice, the more you’ll figure out which sections need changing. You’ll also get an idea of length and if you need to extend / shorten it.
• Update your speech, practice some more, and revise your speech until it has a great flow and you feel comfortable with it.

Classic speech transcripts

One of the best ways for learning how to write a speech is reading other well written ones. Here are a list of famous speeches to read and learn from:

• Bill Gates TED Talk Transcript from 2015: Warns of Pandemics, Epidemics
• Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg Commencement Speech at Harvard 2014
• Ronald Reagan Memorial Day Speech Transcript 1984
• I Have Been to the Mountaintop Speech Transcript – Martin Luther King Jr.

• Special Education Needs
• Specialists & Therapists
• School Children
• University Students
• Professionals
• Speech Difficulties
• Discover Forbrain
• Try our Demo
• Speech Therapy for Kids
• Autism and Learning
• Dyslexia in Children
• ADHD and Learning
• Starter Guide

Speech Therapy at Home: Tips & Strategies for Parents to Try

If you’re a parent who’s concerned with your child’s speech and language development, one of the best things you can do to help is to use speech therapy strategies at home during daily routines.  

Practicing therapy exercises at home is critical for helping children with communication difficulties make progress. This provides consistency and reinforces skills learned in therapy. 

Speech Therapy sessions are certainly important. However, they are usually held once or twice a week for 30 or 60 minutes. Children need to practice more than that in order to progress their skills.  

Home speech therapy activities can be personalized according to a child’s needs and interests to encourage motivation and generalization of skills to a variety of environments. 

Incorporating speech therapy strategies and exercises at home can help a child with mild delays improve their skills to an age-appropriate level. Children who have articulation errors can make more progress at a faster rate when they practice speech sounds at home throughout the week.

Understanding the Importance of Speech Therapy at Home

Parents play a vital role in supporting their child’s speech development by serving as a child’s primary language model. Even during infancy, babies learn to learn and understand language by interacting with their parents. 

By providing a rich language environment (in which they speak out loud and to their child often, introducing a variety of new words), parents help their children build a strong vocabulary. Having a robust vocabulary is critical for communication and academic success. 

Clear communication skills are crucial for child development for reasons such as:

• Academic Success. Research shows that communication skills predict academic achievement.
• Social Interaction. There’s a proven correlation between a child’s language skills and their social skills. When a child can appropriately communicate, they can more competently interact with peers.
• Future Success. Developing strong communication skills during childhood can set a child up for success with their future career.
• Problem-solving and Critical Thinking: When a child can clearly communicate, he or she can express thoughts and ask questions. This allows them to analyze situations and determine solutions. 
• Emotional Regulation: Having the ability to clearly communicate their feelings can better equip a child to regulate their emotions and reduce negative behaviors.

Parents can also help a child learn to have clear articulation of speech sounds by modeling correct pronunciation. They can interact face to face with their child to encourage him or her to look at the parent’s mouth to learn how to articulate sounds. 

Consistent practice of speech therapy activities at home maximizes the benefits of speech therapy by accelerating a child’s progress through ways such as:

• Increasing frequency of practice. A child can have more repetitions of practicing speech sounds or language skills, which can encourage improved learning of these skills.
• Reinforcement of therapeutic goals. Children learn to apply and practice communication skills into their home environment.
• Generalization. Home practice allows a child to practice skills they learned in speech therapy to their home environment and real-life situations.
• Improved motivation. Children are often motivated to practice skills during functional, daily activities that tune in to their personal interests.
• Increased parent engagement. By practicing speech therapy at home, parents become more aware of therapy goals and strategies. This engagement allows them to better understand their child’s strengths and difficulties when it comes to their language development. They can play a more active daily role in supporting their child’s skills.   

Assessing Your Child’s Speech Needs 

It’s essential for parents to recognize the signs of a speech or language delay so their child can benefit from early identification and timely intervention. 

Parents can keep track of the expected speech and language milestones for their child’s age. Comparing these developmental expectations to their child’s skills helps a parent recognize if their child may have a delay. 

Your child might also benefit from Speech Therapy if any of the following apply:

• His or her speech is difficult to understand
• Teachers have expressed concerns with your child’s communication skills
• Your child appears to be frustrated or have negative behaviors due to their difficulty communicating

If you are concerned with your child’s articulation or language skills, you should consult with your child’s pediatrician. A pediatrician can write a referral for a comprehensive evaluation by a Speech Therapist. 

Creating a Supportive Environment at Home

Parents can set up an environment at home to support their child’s speech and language development through changes to their physical space and in how they interact. 

Speech therapy practice can happen anytime, anywhere at home. For example, at bathtime, snacktime, storytime, or during play. 

However, it can be helpful to have a designated space where you and your child can engage in speech therapy activities. This could be a small table or special area of their room. That way, the child might be less distracted by things around them and stay more engaged in the activity. 

It’s also important to provide a positive and encouraging atmosphere for a child to practice their speech and language skills. 

Gentle corrections of speech sound errors, modeling correct grammar, and using a rich vocabulary at home are all ways you can support your child’s communication skills. 

16 Tips and Strategies for Speech Therapy at Home 

Promoting language use and expression  .

These activities encourage a child to develop their use of language and communicate verbally.  

• Narrate daily routines. Talk out loud often at home to provide your child with a model verbal expression.
• Offer choices. Limit the amount of yes/no questions you ask your child and instead, offer choices. For example, “do you want blocks or bubbles?” will encourage a child to say words beyond just “yes” or “no”. 
• Modify your environment. Put toys away in clear containers. That encourages the child to come to you to communicate what they want or need. 
• Stop before anticipating their needs. Hold back from anticipating your child’s needs and instead, wait for them to communicate. For example, Instead of opening a snack container right away, hand it to your child while it’s closed to encourage him or her to ask you for help. 

Enhancing Articulation and Pronunciation Skills

Improve your child’s speech clarity through activities like these. 

• Playing games with the target sound. Choose board games that allow your child to practice a sound that’s difficult for them. For example, you can practice “P” in the “Pop the Pig” game or “L” in “Chutes and Ladders.”
• Use a mirror. Take turns with your child naming words that start with a sound they need to practice. Model how to say the sound, then encourage your child to say the word while looking in the mirror. 
• Arts & crafts. Make a craft that relates to the sound your child needs to practice saying. Talk about it together as you help your child make it. For example, you can make a tissue paper flower to practice the “F” sound. 

Building Vocabulary and Language Skills

There are several creative ways you can expand your child’s vocabulary and understanding of language. 

• Read books. Read out loud, pausing throughout the story to ask your child to point to pictures of words you name. Choose books that contain a variety of different subjects and vocabulary. Point to pictures as you name them.
• Give directions. Ask your child to follow simple directions daily. Make them more challenging by giving directions that have several steps, like “go get your shoes and bring them to dad”. 

Developing Listening and Auditory Skills

These activities can enhance a child’s auditory processing and comprehension skills. 

• Story Retelling. After reading a story or listening to a podcast for children, ask the child to retell you the story. Ask specific questions to check the child’s comprehension.
• Household activities. Ask your child to complete a set of tasks at home in a certain order.  For example, give the steps involved in setting the table or doing chores and ask your child to follow them.

Encouraging Social Interaction and Conversation

Here are some strategies for promoting social communication and conversation skills. 

• Role play and pretend play.  Create scenarios that require your child to practice applying social communication skills. For example, use toy figures to act out talking to a friend about your day. Or, role play being a customer and store worker engaging in a conversation. 
• Play turn-taking games. Playing turn taking board games at home allows a child to practice social skills as you coach them. For example children practice waiting and taking turns as they should in conversations. They also get to practice skills like having appropriate reactions to winning or losing a game. 

Incorporating Speech Practice into Daily Routines

Parents can integrate speech therapy activities seamlessly into everyday activities that can be fun and engaging for kids in ways like these. 

Use Strategies During Daily Routines

Put sticky notes around the house reminding you to use language stimulation strategies during daily routines with your child. For example, an “offer choices” note on the fridge can remind you to do something like asking your child if he or she wants “milk or juice?”, a strategy that can increase their vocabulary. 

As you engage in daily activities like diaper changes, sing songs that have repetitive lines (like “Old McDonald Had a Farm”). Encourage your child to sing along, imitate words, and try pausing to see if he or she will fill in the blank with a part of the song. 

Daily Outings

Take going to places like the park or the library as an opportunity to coach your child through using appropriate social communication skills. Encourage him or her to say “hi” to peers, take turns appropriately, and engage in conversations.   

Utilizing Technology and Online Resources

Speech therapy apps, websites, and digital tools can be useful in motivating your child to work on their speech and language skills at home. It’s important to research which ones are most appropriate for your child and their needs. Here are some to consider: 

• Smarty Ears Apps : This is a collection of apps that target speech and language skills such as articulation, vocabulary, and social skills. 
• Articulation Station : A popular app designed to help a child practice certain speech sounds within interactive games. 
• Kokolingo : A website that contains over 300 different games and activities for children to practice articulating speech sounds. It can be accessed on any computer, tablet, or smartphone. 
• Khan Academy : This educational website offers activities that target various subjects (such as language arts, science, and math). The activities can be used to target language skills like reading comprehension, following directions, and sentence formulation. 
• Forbrain : Forbrain, a brain training device designed to improve communication skills, has a website that offers valuable resources. Parents can find tools for practicing speech therapy at home, such as word lists for various sounds that can be used to work on articulation. There’s also a blog with helpful tips for parents.
• Language Adventures : An app that provides a comprehensive set of language-based activities that target a child’s grammar, vocabulary, and sentence structure.  

Tracking Progress and Celebrating Achievements

It’s important for parents to monitor a child’s speech development and recognize milestones because this can lead to a child making more progress. 

Monitoring can lead to early detection of potential speech and language delays, facilitate timely intervention through Speech Therapy, and improve a child’s social and emotional development. 

Once a child is receiving speech therapy, parents should continue to track their progress to provide valuable input to the therapist regarding the child’s need for working on specific goals.  

And don’t forget to celebrate achievements! Recognizing your child’s improving speech and language skills can encourage both them and you to continue using therapy techniques and activities. 

Recognizing When to Seek Professional Help 

Because parents know their child best, observing how your child is reaching expected speech and language milestones can help you identify signs that may indicate the need for professional intervention. 

Recognizing that need is crucial to start getting your child the intervention he or she may need as early as possible so that your child can have the best opportunity possible at improving their communication skills. 

If parents have concerns, they should consult with a Speech Therapist. A therapist who is qualified to address complex speech and language issues can perform a comprehensive assessment and provide recommendations for home strategies and activities to implement. 

Benefits of Forbrain in Speech Therapy at Home

Incorporating technology and innovative Speech Therapy tools like Forbrain can help parents practice their child’s speech and language skills with them at home. 

Forbrain is an auditory stimulation headset that uses a dynamic filter to modulate the sound of your voice, analyze and enhance it, and immediately transmit the sounds back to you. Forbrain is designed to retrain the brain’s auditory feedback loop to enhance auditory processing, improve articulation, boost vocal clarity, and promote overall communication skills.

Final Words

Using speech therapy strategies at home enables parents to accelerate their child’s progress towards improving their speech and language skills.  

Home speech therapy practices allow a child to practice skills more often and during daily routines, which are often motivating and encourage carryover of skills learned in therapy. 

By remaining proactive in supporting your child’s speech development, you can have a lasting positive impact on your child’s life.  

Mahyuddin, R. & Elias, H.. (2010). The correlation between communication and social skills among early schoolers in Malaysia. Read more.

Masrai, A., & Milton, J. (2016). Recognition Vocabulary Knowledge and intelligence as predictors of academic achievement in EFL context .   Read more.

Ramsook, K. A., et al. (2020). What you say, and how you say it: Preschoolers’ growth in vocabulary and communication skills differentially predict kindergarten academic achievement and self-regulation. Read more.

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Resource 10: How to Coach Speech Writing

Resource 10, how to coach speech writing.

To craft engaging, compelling speeches, it is important to start with how ideas are selected, written, and organized. Remind students that speech writing is different than regular writing, since the listener has to be able to learn, remember the content, and stay engaged without being able to go back and reread what the speaker just said.

Coaches play a key role in the speech-writing process, both as a sounding board and as a source of feedback on ideas, organization, language choice, and reasoning. Even with limited time, it is better to focus deeply on two or three main areas then to try and cover everything. It takes time to improve speech writing skills, so it’s important to give students focus and time to develop.

Overall Coaching Approach

What to refine over time.

Phone: (865) 851-9192

Email: [email protected]

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Speech Therapy at Home: How to Incorporate Speech Therapy into Daily Activities

How can you ensure speech therapy treatment is the most effective? If you are new to speech-language therapy with your child, you may be wondering how as the parent or guardian, you can help. The best way is to implement techniques that support speech-language development at home. Along with creating and sticking to a plan that your speech-language pathologist (SLP) has created, we compiled a list of ways you can practice speech therapy at home. 

Break down words into smaller pieces

Starting small and working your way up to full word pronunciations is a valuable technique for practicing speech therapy at home. You can use this technique once you identify the specific sounds that your child struggles to pronounce. It’s important to work with your child’s SLP to identify the right sounds to work on for your child’s age. You can then demonstrate this sound, like the “f” sound, and have your child repeat it. Always make sure your child is watching your face as you model the sound for them. Once you have made progress at this level, you can try the sound in syllables, such as “fa,” “fo,” “fe,” etc. Once your child has mastered the sound in syllables, try some simple words, such as “fun, phone, farm, etc.”

Read together

Reading is another excellent way to help your child’s speech and language skills grow. Reading is an excellent opportunity to have your child practice using their good speech sounds.  Instead of reading each word on the page, follow your child’s lead, and talk about what you see in each picture. It’s also good to remember that you can start reading with your child as soon as possible, and you should start reading with your child at birth. Reading is the best way to build early language and literacy skills and help prepare them for later academic success.

Follow your child’s lead

Following your child’s lead is a great way to work on speech and language at home.  Focus on what they are looking at, playing with, or seem interested in.  Use short sentences to talk about what you and your child see, hear, or feel (i.e., You want the red ball. I will get the red ball, and we can play.  Should the ball go up or down? You want the ball up. Here it goes up, etc.).  Talk about what you and your child are doing throughout your day while your child is near you so they can learn new words and use these new words in their vocabulary.

While practicing at home with your child, it is essential to remain calm and focus on having FUN while targeting speech and language skills at home! Showing frustration or pushing your child beyond their comfort zone can cause stress and lessen their confidence. 

Praise small victories

Remember to celebrate the small wins throughout your child’s speech therapy treatments and at-home practice. This positive reinforcement can reassure your child that their efforts are worth it. 

With these small techniques and activities, you can help your child progress faster in speech therapy. Just make sure to continue following the plan of your speech-language pathologist. If you have questions or are looking for more specific activities, consult a professional and work with a speech-language pathologist. Above all, stay supportive and patient as your child continues to learn and grow.

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Why does my child just play in speech therapy, building speech and language into christmas activities, stuttering in preschoolers: typical disfluencies, developmental stuttering, and when to refer.

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How intensive home exercise helped my patient talk again

I’m sharing the amazing story of how an intensive home exercise program helped my patient talk again. He went from single words to full conversations!

This post is the follow-up to “ Improve aphasia outcomes by creating intensive home exercise programs “, which was inspired by a fantastic seminar by Amanda Eaton and Carmen Russell, which I attended at the ASHA Convention in 2018.

Free DIRECT download:  Response Elaboration Training (patient handout). ( Email subscribers  get free access to all the resources in the  Free Subscription Library .)

• Meet my patient “Ralph” .
• Ralph’s prior experience with speech therapy .
• Speech therapy now limited to once per week .
• The intensive home exercise program .
• What is Response Elaboration Training ?
• How I adapted the protocol to meet Ralph’s goal .
• Ralph’s amazing progress with intensive home exercise .
• Full extent of impairment became more obvious .
• Ralph’s language is good, now improving cognition .
• Related Eat, Speak, & Think posts .
• Have you tried an intensive home exercise program ?

Meet my patient “Ralph”

Ralph is a 70-year-old man who was very healthy and active in the community until he had his stroke about a year before I met him. He had a wide circle of friends, volunteered weekly, and was always outdoors engaged in one sport or another.

When I met him after his stroke, his life was completely changed. He was paralyzed on his left side, wheelchair-bound, and home-bound. He rarely left the house, and in fact, rarely left the room that he now was confined to.

Most of his friends stopped coming by. When they did come by, conversation was stilted and visits were short. Ralph, who was gregarious by nature, now spoke only in single words or very short utterances. And usually only when asked a direct question.

Ralph was also confused about time, place, and events. He became upset when people said things he didn’t believe were true. He had left neglect, which means he often didn’t notice things on the left side of what he was looking at. And he didn’t seem to realize the extent of his impairment.

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Ralph’s prior experience with speech therapy

Based on conversation with his wife, Ralph had had nearly continuous speech therapy since his stroke the year before. Previous therapy focused on attention, automatic sequences, answering yes-no questions, following one-step directions, confrontation naming, verbalizing personal facts, reading, and writing.

At my first meeting with Ralph and his wife, I was firmly told “no worksheets, no flashcards, and no technology”.

I think Ralph found worksheets and iPads frustrating due to his impaired ability to sustain attention to a task in addition to his left neglect.

Plus, they didn’t see how that was going to help with their main goal: teaching Ralph to have conversations again.

Speech therapy now limited to once per week

In addition to no worksheets, flashcards, or technology, they also limited me to once per week. Generally, I would start off at three times per week for someone who was so impaired.

Ordinarily, I would have felt very challenged by these restrictions.

Because I knew that Ralph was not likely to improve if his rehabilitation consisted solely of speech therapy once a week during which I provided conversation-based therapy.

Lucky for me (and Ralph), I had just come back from the ASHA Convention, where I had learned about intensive home exercise programs for people who have aphasia . And his wife was willing to work with Ralph every day.

The intensive home exercise program

Here are the highlights of what I learned from the ASHA Convention seminar “Creating Deliberate Independent Practice Programs for PWA: Insights from Intensive Therapies.”

• 60-90 minutes of daily practice requiring high effort .
• Break this up into two to three sessions across the day.
• Engage your patient in writing SMART goals .
• Plan three types of activities: journaling, practical tasks, and drill exercises .
• Choose personally-relevant materials and tasks at the Goldilocks level .
• Vary the context (here are 30 activity ideas ).
• Set an intentional schedule targeting mini-goals .

Ralph was not going to follow this protocol

You may already realize that Ralph was not going to follow this recommended protocol. He would willingly engage in conversational tasks, but no reading or writing, and no drill work.

But he had four things going for him.

• He agreed that he wanted to talk more.
• His wife said she would do whatever I recommended (outside of the restrictions above).
• He responded well to Response Elaboration Training.
• His living space was full of interesting memorabilia.

What is Response Elaboration Training?

Response Elaboration Training is a way to help people with aphasia produce complete sentences.

Tactus Therapy has an article on Response Elaboration Training , which shares a link the original 1985 case study by Dr. Kevin Kearns and gives examples.

If you’re an ASHA member, you have free access to a 2019 meta-analysis of Response Elaboration Training . Analysis of nine studies shows that the training method is effective for many people with aphasia. Effect sizes varies from small to large, and applies to both treated and untreated items after treatment and at follow-up.

Basically, you find a small set of pictures showing some activity. Show the first picture to the person with aphasia and ask them to describe it.

However they answer, you reinforce it by repeating what they said and adding a few more words to make what they said more complete. (If they can’t say anything, offer them a choice.)

Ask them to repeat what you said.

Then you ask a “wh” question (or “how”) to elicit more information about the picture. They answer. You reinforce and ask them to repeat.

You continue talking about the picture in this way, asking questions, reinforcing, and adding information. In this way, the person with aphasia begins saying longer sentences.

How I adapted the protocol to meet Ralph’s goal

I decided to fully lean into their goal of improving conversation by focusing solely on conversation, but using the evidence-based practices of Response Elaboration Training combined with an intensive home exercise program.

Remember, Ralph was not initiating conversation or doing anything to keep conversation going. He was speaking mostly in single word utterances, in direct response to prompting from the other person.

I educated Ralph and his wife that he needs to work hard at talking for 60 to 90 minutes a day. I gave them a month calendar with 3 boxes drawn for each day. Ralph’s wife was to check off a box when they completed 20-30 minutes of conversation practice.

Then I trained Ralph’s wife on Response Elaboration Training. This is what I told her:

• Pick out an interesting object from the display cases.
• Say “Tell me about this”.
• Repeat what he says and fill in any gaps, adding just a few words.
• Ask Ralph to repeat what you said.
• Continue asking questions about it, following the same steps.

That’s it. They started this during the last week of November.

Ralph’s amazing progress with intensive home exercise

By the end of December, Ralph was frequently initiating conversation, asking questions, and making comments. Within a month, he was speaking mostly in phrases with occasional sentences!

I told them what to do and how much time to spend on it each day, and they followed through. Not only was his wife using Response Elaboration Training with him, but she had various family members also doing it.

They were motivated because they were working directly on the specific outcome they wanted from speech therapy. And they were using very personal items and memories to achieve that outcome.

And now that Ralph could carry a conversation, his friends started visiting more often and staying longer.

Full extent of impairment became more obvious

Now that Ralph was talking more, his family could more easily recognize that he had significant language and cognitive-communication impairments beyond conversation.

Some of Ralph’s difficulties included:

• Frequent word choice errors.
• Difficulty forming full sentences.
• Often misunderstanding what he heard.
• Stopping talking mid-conversation for no apparent reason.
• Switching the topic of conversation inappropriately.
• Easily distracted by his environment.
• Mixing up family member’s names and relationships.
• Forgetting where he was, when it was, and recent events.

Ralph and his wife were thrilled at his progress (as was I!), and they were more than willing to try anything I suggested.

At this point, I began introducing activities and materials to address some of the above difficulties:

• Spaced retrieval with errorless learning for family names and relationships.
• Auditory comprehension exercises.
• Left neglect compensatory training.
• TalkPath Therapy for language and cognition (home exercise program).
• Tactus Therapy apps for language and cognition (during therapy only).
• Worksheets and verbal exercises to practice left attention strategies, reading comprehension, following directions, reasoning, and problem solving.
• Journaling.

Ralph loves the worksheets and verbal exercises. So far, the journaling hasn’t caught on. And he’s not doing the TalkPath Therapy because the internet reception is poor.

So Ralph’s home exercise program has been intensive daily practice with verbal exercises and worksheets. I know worksheets are a controversial topic. I think it comes down to how and why they are used. All I can say is that I try to be thoughtful about which worksheets I select and what skills and strategies I want him to practice.

The bottom line is that my job is to work with whatever modality my patient is willing to try and to do my best to make the activity relevant, meaningful, and effective.

Ralph’s language is good, now improving cognition

My patient is lucky in the sense that he has private insurance with no limits on rehab, as long as he’s making progress. I’m still working with him once a week, and we’ve accomplished a tremendous amount over the past seven months:

• Talking in full sentences with appropriate word choices.
• Speech is fluent and clear.
• Conversation skills are normal except for mild issues with relevance and appropriateness.
• Sense of humor is recovered.
• Auditory comprehension is adequate for everyday conversations.
• Use of left attention strategies is improving.
• Remembers family names and relationships.
• Memory for recent events is improved.
• Oriented to place and inconsistently to time.

Ralph has improved from a moderate-severe cognitive-communication impairment to a mild impairment. He’s made consistent progress with therapy, still has deficits that are impacting his daily interactions, and wants to continue. So we’ll continue, now with a focus on cognitive-communication skills.

Related Eat, Speak, & Think posts

• Improve aphasia outcomes by creating intensive home exercise programs .
• Free course to improve conversation skills in aphasia .
• How to assess pragmatic skills in adults with brain injury .
• Free multimedia resources for the SLP .

Have you tried an intensive home exercise program?

If you have, please share what you tried and how it went! You can leave a comment below or contact me privately.

Or, if you haven’t tried it yet, maybe consider it for your next patient with communication difficulties. I wasn’t able to follow the exact protocol with Ralph, but we still had remarkable gains.

Featured image by Monika Rams on Unsplash .

Lisa A Young M.A. CCC-SLP

Lisa earned her M.A. in Speech-Language Pathology from the University of Maryland, College Park and her M.A. in Linguistics from the University of California, San Diego.

She participated in research studies with the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) and the University of Maryland in the areas of aphasia, Parkinson’s Disease, epilepsy, and fluency disorders.

Lisa has been working as a medical speech-language pathologist since 2008. She has a strong passion for evidence-based assessment and therapy, having earned five ASHA Awards for Professional Participation in Continuing Education.

She launched EatSpeakThink.com in June 2018 to help other clinicians be more successful working in home health, as well as to provide strategies and resources to people living with problems eating, speaking, or thinking.

• Lisa A Young M.A. CCC-SLP https://eatspeakthink.com/author/admin/ An easy way to write participation-level speech therapy goals
• Lisa A Young M.A. CCC-SLP https://eatspeakthink.com/author/admin/ Learn how Goal Attainment Scaling makes SMART goals better
• Lisa A Young M.A. CCC-SLP https://eatspeakthink.com/author/admin/ Quick guide to self-management training in Parkinson's
• Lisa A Young M.A. CCC-SLP https://eatspeakthink.com/author/admin/ Soft skills for SLPs: Taking your practice to new heights

Thanks for this – super helpful . I love the way you break things down, too! Perfect for my organization-minded brain.

Thanks, Megan, I really appreciate that!

Thank you!!! Great summary of working around barriers and what actually worked!

You’re welcome, KMW! Everyone’s different, but maybe something in here will be helpful!

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DPI-835M: Speechwriting

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Stephen Krupin

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What makes a speech persuasive and memorable – and how do you write one? How can storytelling help political, corporate, nonprofit, and community leaders achieve their goals? What is the role of the speech in our politics, policymaking, and international relations? This course will explore the techniques speechwriters and speakers use, from research to rhetoric, to shape messages that move people and change the world.

Each course in the DPI communications series assumes a fluency with the English language. Attendance at first class mandatory.

Home Training & Therapy Packages

At Hope Rising we understand the importance of helping families help their loved ones on their own time, in their own environment. We also understand the importance of the functional application of speech therapy strategies and tools across these environments. We offer home training programs that combine the best of the therapy world with the home carryover world at an affordable cost to you both in terms of time and money.

Articulation Home Package:

This program consists of the following:

• Initial session (if client has current evaluation), informal in depth evaluation of sounds client is having difficulty with; this includes a short write up OR
• Initial session (if client does not have recent formal evaluation), formal in depth evaluation of sounds client is having difficulty with; this includes a more detailed write up
• Follow up within approximately one week to go over results, explain basics of articulation therapy for specific needs, and provide materials to get started for a couple of weeks
• Future follow ups up in 2-4 week intervals (based on client preference and need)  to see how home sessions are going, provide tips on working on sound, provide materials and training until next sessions

Setting up Your Home for Communication Package :

This program is geared towards clients who are non-verbal or have a limited number of verbalizations and have or may need AAC. It consists of the following:

• Initial session to review client communication needs through interview, observation, and review of speech therapy records
• Second session for more specific evaluation of needs if necessary
• Third session to review a plan outlining how to set up the home environment for communication, including family training on increasing client communication
• Future follow ups up in 2-4 weeks intervals (based on client preference and need)  to see how home sessions are going, provide tips on improving communication, provide materials and/or sources to make/acquire needed materials for client

Sessions for both packages would be scheduled for 50 minutes each in the comfort of your home, and would include materials you can use on your own and suggestions for apps/other materials that could help. Please contact us for more information on these packages.

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If you are like me, you are busy treating patients during the day and can’t absorb a treatment protocol / prep materials / figure out who to use it with / figure out how to word things in documentation… all on your lunch break.

Here’s where the One Click series comes in: This series highlights various treatment protocols that are evidence-based, and I will provide everything you need to implement the therapy in just One Click (or 1 download!). They include a person-centered section to explain how you can use the materials in a person-centered way. So far,  VNeST ,  CART , and RET  have been covered.

Today we are talking about Script Training : With the upcoming holidays, this is the perfect time of year to incorporate meaningful goals through scripts that your Person can use with holiday gatherings!  See below for the Script Training Quick Reference Sheet, Holiday Script Ideas, and Key References. Everything else you need to start using Script Training in therapy can be found in the Script Training Packet .

*Please note the following are my personal notes from reading the research; key references below if you would like to review them yourself.

Who should i use script training with.

-Script Training has been successful with both fluent and nonfluent aphasia.

-Script Training has also been successful with acquired apraxia of speech.

What sort of goals would Script Training address?

-Improved accuracy and speed for a script that meets a specific functional need

-Improved confidence while communicating script information in a variety of situations

-Improved total word production

What does the evidence say I should expect?

-Improvement on topic content, grammatical productivity, and speaking rate for all scripts

-Increased communication across a variety of situations and listeners

-Improved patient rating of naturalness and confidence while speaking

How does Script Training relate to a person-centered approach?

-Script Training is completely personalized and dependent on the Person’s situation and goal! The content is highly meaningful and relevant to the Person (because it is chosen by them!).

-The Person’s word choices are used, so responses sound natural and access preserved wording.

What are some Holiday Gathering Script Training Ideas?

What do I need to start Script Training tomorrow?

Click here to download the script training packet.

This 8-page download will allow you to use Script Training tomorrow, with no further prep. You will find the protocol cheat sheet, key articles, an in-session therapy form, template for Script Training and home program, and a documentation sample!

Please also check out the  VNeST Packet  ,  CART Packet , and RET  if you work with aphasia!

Enjoy adding script training  to your practice and adding value to your speech therapy session (with real life results for your person), key references, cherney, l., halper, a., holland, a., & cole, r.  (2008) computerized script training for aphasia: preliminary results. american journal of speech pathology & audiology, 17(1): 19–34.  online at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc2896889/, youmans, g. & youmans, s. (2011). script training treatment for adults with apraxia of speech. american journal of speech pathology & audiology, 20: 23-37. online at: http://www.unm.edu/~atneel/shs531/youmans_script.pdf, leave a reply cancel reply.

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60 Speech Therapy Sentences forSpeech Therapy Practice

As promised here are the sentences for  your unlimited use .

If you know others who can use our lists...

... please share this page  using the share buttons above.

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Speech Therapy Sentences

• My mom drove me to school fifteen minutes late on Tuesday.
• The girl wore her hair in two braids, tied with two blue bows.
• The mouse was so hungry he ran across the kitchen floor without even looking for humans.
• The tape got stuck on my lips so I couldn't talk anymore.
• The door slammed down on my hand and I screamed like a little baby.
• My shoes are blue with yellow stripes and green stars on the front.
• The mailbox was bent and broken and looked like someone had knocked it over on purpose.
• I was so thirsty I couldn't wait to get a drink of water.
• I found a gold coin on the playground after school today.
• The chocolate chip cookies smelled so good that I ate one without asking.
• My bandaid wasn't sticky any more so it fell off on the way to school.
• He had a sore throat so I gave him my bottle of water and told him to keep it.
• The church was white and brown and looked very old.
• I was so scared to go to a monster movie but my dad said he would sit with me so we went last night.
• Your mom is so nice she gave me a ride home today.
• I fell in the mud when I was walking home from school today.
• This dinner is so delicious I can't stop eating.
• The school principal was so mean that all the children were scared of him.
• I went to the dentist the other day and he let me pick a prize out of the prize box.
• The box was small and wrapped in paper with tiny silver and red glitter dots.
• My dad is so funny that he told us jokes all night long and we never fell asleep.
• The camping trip was so awesome that I didn't want to come home.
• Are you going to have a blue birthday cake for your next birthday?
• How did you know that I was going to have a peanut butter sandwich for lunch?
• That boy is so mean that he doesn't care if a door slams in your face or if he cuts in line.
• The moms and dads all sat around drinking coffee and eating donuts.
• My mom made a milkshake with frozen bananas and chocolate sauce.
• My pen broke and leaked blue ink all over my new dress.
• I got my haircut today and they did it way too short.
• My pet turtle, Jim, got out of his cage and I could not find him anywhere.

SEE ALSO:   The Best Free App for Speech Therapy

• The dog was so tired he fell asleep on the way to his doghouse.
• My mom drives a green jeep and my dad drives a black truck.
• Your sister is my best friend because she always shares her treats with me.
• My pet Roger is white and fluffy and he loves to eat carrots.
• Your neighbor is annoying because he cut down my trees.
• The tape was so sticky it got stuck to my fingers and wouldn't come off.
• My glass of water broke when it fell off the table.
• The clock was ticking and kept me awake all night.
• My dad told me that I was his favorite person in the whole wide world.
• The chickens were running around and pecking worms out of the ground.
• The game looked fun but all the pieces were missing.
• I got my finger stuck in the door when I slammed it.
• I was so mad that I yelled at him at the top of my lungs.
• My favorite dress is ruined because I spilled ketchup on it last night.
• My home is bright pink and has yellow flowers growing all around it.
• My buddy is going to pick me up after school and give me a ride to work.
• I don't know where my list of friends went to invite them to my birthday party.
• The gum was stuck under the desk and I couldn't get it off.
• The baby was so cute but she was crying so loud I had to plug my ears.
• The flowers smelled beautiful and made the room so happy.
• My sister likes to eat cheese on her peanut butter sandwich and pickles on her ice cream.
• The alligator's teeth were so scary that I ran back to the car as fast as I could.
• Her dress was blue with white and pink polka dots, but it was ripped down the back.
• The puzzle took me so long to put together that I threw it in the garbage.
• He was driving me crazy so I told a joke and made him laugh.
• I started walking home and my feet got so tired I had to stop and take breaks.
• I piled my books in my arms and then they fell all over the floor.
• The dog chased the cat around the block 4 times.
• My lunch box had a peanut butter sandwich, crackers, juice, and a cheese stick in it.
• I accidentally left my money in my pants pocket and it got ruined in the washer.

This list of functional words was professionally selected to be the most useful for a child or adult who needs practice with speech therapy sentences.

We encourage you to use this list when practicing speech therapy sentences at home.

Home practice will make progress toward meeting individual language goals much faster.

Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) are only able to see students/clients 30-60 mins (or less) per week. This is not enough time or practice for someone to strengthen their understanding of this important language concept.

Every day that your loved one goes without practice it becomes more difficult to help them. 

SEE ALSO:   The Best Books for Speech Therapy Practice

We know life is busy , but if you're reading this you're probably someone who cares about helping their loved one as much as you can.

Practice 5-10 minutes whenever you can, but try to do it on a consistent basis (daily).

Please, please, please use this list to practice.

It will be a great benefit to you and your loved one's progress.

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This workshop is ideal for staff in local government, or large corporations, who are occasionally asked to write speeches for their executive officers, elected Members, or senior colleagues.

Whether delivered online, or in public, speeches have the power to transform how others behave. Perhaps the aim is to win votes, press for cultural change, or build sales?   Whatever the objective, the speech remains one of the most powerful forms of communication.   However, professional full-time speechwriters are a rare commodity in most organisations.

So the speechwriting task is delegated, and the time to plan and draft the text can be limited by the many other jobs on the writer’s desk. The resulting speech might be adequate, but an opportunity for impact may be lost.

Drawing on centuries-old speaking techniques beloved of orators from Aristotle to Shakespeare, Churchill to Obama, this workshop transforms the way speeches are planned, pruned and polished.

  How attendees will benefit.

Whether you relish the opportunity, or reluctantly pick up the brief, this workshop will transform your approach to speechwriting.

·          You will be clearer about your role, your relationship with the speaker and how to get started;

·          You will have planning tools to guide you through the drafting process;

·          You will learn how to transform a good speech into a great speech;

·          You will learn with colleagues; listening to their feedback and giving them the benefit of your ideas;

Who should attend

Speechwriters can be found in multiple departments and sections of larger organisations. If you have staff in the following roles, they may well be asked to write a speech:

·          Local Authority Executive support officers;

·          Mayor and Cabinet Office support;

·          Council political advisers;

·          Local government press officers;

·          Corporate press officers;

·          Personal Assistant to Board and CEO;

Put out an internal memo, and invite these colleagues to apply for a place on the PRCA workshop.

The maximum number for this workshop is 12.

What attendees learn. They will be able to:

·          Assist colleagues with speech planning well ahead of the event;

·          Organise material under a single clear, memorable and compelling message.

·          Create content to connect with the audience in an informal, engaging and persuasive manner using story-telling, facts and emotion.

·          Employ the best stage-craft techniques and rhetorical devices to ensure the desired outcome.

The workshop is currently delivered online in two parts, with a gap of two weeks between sessions.

Delegates will learn the theory of speechwriting in Session One, then work in pairs to draft and deliver a speech on a topic of their choice in Session Two.

Session One (2.5 hours) covers:

·          The skills required to make effective speechwriters

·          Establishing the purpose of the speech

·          Where to find inspiration for the content.

·          Choosing the best structure for the speech.

·          How to get attention and keep it. An introduction to classic rhetorical devices.

·          Working with the speaker to draft, edit and polish the speech.

Session Two (3 hours) is a chance to hear speeches drafted by the delegates, to give feedback and suggest improvements. Peer-to-peer reflection is a crucial part of this session.

What material attendees will receive

The PRCA trainer Louise Third will work with the commissioning manager to design the workshop according to needs. Delegates receive joining instructions, including a reading list for anyone interested in reading around the topic beforehand.

The Workbook (a Word Doc.) is emailed just before Session One; this is a comprehensive tool in which delegates can take notes. It is packed with tips, reminders, and suggestions for further reading. All the slides are available afterwards via the commissioning manager.

Louise recommends that the draft speeches are collated into a single file for future internal use and reference.

Contact PRCA Training

If you would like more information on PRCA's courses and qualifications, please contact the Training team  on  020 7233 6026 or [email protected] .

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XCOM-020 - Professional Speechwriting for Military and Government

Course description.

Professional Speechwriting for Military and Government prepares participants to write speeches for leaders at any level in the military and in government. The course presents practical, step-by-step methods so that speechwriters can analyze an event, work constructively with a speaker, present a topic in the most effective and memorable way, hold the attention of the audience, and achieve the ultimate goal of a speaker by crafting a professional and compelling text. These techniques are presented in the context of the unique nature of military and government communication and occasions, with attention to the use of specialized language, dealing with classified or proprietary material and attendant language, and certain customary requirements associated with remarks such as memorials, dedications, retirements, award ceremonies, expert testimony, changes of command, eulogies, expert-to-public explanations, and statements in times of crisis.

Course Objectives

Upon completion of Professional Speechwriting for Military and Government, participants will be able to:

Write a complete, compelling, and professional speech appropriate to military and/or government considerations;

Write in a variety of speechwriting styles;

Write multiple styles of speech openings and closings;

Identify and understand the importance of “the big takeaway”;

Transform single large claims and arguments into more easily explainable elements;

Use language in more creative ways;

Employ a methodical approach to persuasive writing;

Use emotion to reinforce fact;

Analyze an audience and the occasion;

Manage the relationship with the speaker/principal and content contributors;

Maximize the efficient use of the writer’s time and resources;

Review and revise speeches to improve their effectiveness and readability; and

Organize the task of speechwriting for the writer, the speaker, and all participants in the process.

Session Time-Out

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Katie Maloney and Ariana Madix Admit They Have "Salary" Issues with Chef Penny

Ariana emphasized that she and Katie are “the two sole owners" of their sandwich shop: "This isn't, like, the three of us as 'The Three Musketeers.'"

Hold they mayo — and the chef/consultant.

How to Watch

Watch Vanderpump Rules on Bravo Tuesdays at 8/7c and next day on  Peacock . Catch up on the Bravo app .  

Vanderpump Rules ’ Katie Maloney and Ariana Madix now admit to having “salary” issues with chef/consultant Penny Davidi , who’s no longer connected to their sandwich shop Something About Her.

The new revelation helps illuminate what’s behind the severed business arrangement at the long-delayed West Hollywood eatery Katie recently said will open “very, very soon.”

In a preview for  Vanderpump Rules  Season 11, Episode 14,  Lisa Vanderpump visited the still-in-the-works shop, where Katie and Ariana pointed out to her that Penny was “to be paid a salary and … a percentage” and that Something About Her was never going to be a "Three Musketeers" deal.

Katie Maloney and Ariana Madix's Salary Issues with Chef Penny at Something About Her

Penny has been seen throughout Season 11 of   Vanderpump Rules  helping Katie and Ariana make “nuts and bolts” staffing and menu decisions.

But on April 19, Katie appeared on Popping Off With Teddi Mellencamp and Emily Simpson and revealed that Penny was out of the picture at the sandwich shop.

“U ltimately it wasn't the right fit," she said.

Here's what you missed on Bravo:

Brittany Cartwright Wants to Be “Clear” About Jax Taylor’s Publicist After Viral Photo

Everything to Know About Chateau Marmont, a Historic Hotel at the Center of The Valley Drama

Here's How Ariana Madix Has Been "Checking In On" Brittany Cartwright After Jax Taylor Split

But now compensation arrangements also appear to have factored into the decision to part ways with Penny.

When Lisa arrived at the shop, she told Katie and Ariana that she was aware that they cut off communications with Penny.

“You guys aren’t speaking to her," she noted.

“ There’s a lot of missing pieces,” replied Ariana.

She and Katie clarified that they were “the two sole owners of this business": This isn't, like, the three of us as 'The Three Musketeers.'”

Lisa appeared a bit taken aback by Penny’s proposed limited role, saying, “Oh, she's not going to be a partner?”

Katie then outlined the plan that had been in the works with Penny.

“She proposed she would like to be paid a salary and then, like, a percentage that she would want,” she said. “So we sent that to our lawyer.”

Ariana echoed Katie’s explanation about Penny: “She receives a salary and then we offered, on the back end, 10% of profits from this location. That's a great deal.”

Lisa didn’t disagree, and said that she recalled Penny saying that “she’d be OK with that.”

But business deals change quicker than customers going from wanting a Greek salad sandwich to a croissant ( both are on the planned menu ).

“But now she’s saying she’s not,” explained Ariana.

Katie revealed that they “originally had brought Penny on to be our COO and head of back of house. But we are having a little trouble seeing eye to eye on what her role will be in our business.”

“Do you want to part ways?” asked the ever-intuitive Lisa, who later expressed concerns that the shop “will just never open” without Penny.

“That's kind of what we're trying to figure out right now,” said Ariana — and now we know how that worked out.

Learn more about Something About Her on Vanderpump Rules , airing Tuesday at 8/7c on Bravo .

• Ariana Madix
• Katie Maloney
• Lisa Vanderpump

Vanderpump Rules

• Restaurants

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