Pre-Speech Exercises: A Guide to Speech Therapy Activities at Home

Last updated on:

When a child struggles to produce even simple sounds, the path to speech begins long before words ever form. For children with intellectual disabilities, communication challenges are common – and the groundwork for spoken language often needs to be laid carefully, one muscle movement at a time. This is where pre-speech exercises come in. These structured activities target the lips, tongue, cheeks, jaw, and breath control – the very physical foundations that make speech possible. The good news for parents and caregivers is that many of these exercises can be woven into daily routines at home, turning ordinary moments into meaningful practice.

Table of Contents

The role of a speech therapist

Before any home practice begins, the journey starts with a speech-language pathologist (SLP). According to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), comprehensive speech-language assessment addresses a child’s speech, language, cognitive-communication, and swallowing function – examining both strengths and areas of need. In practical terms, this means the therapist carefully evaluates how the child understands language, how they express themselves, how clearly they hear sounds, and how well their speech organs – including the lips, tongue, jaw, and cheeks – are functioning.

Based on this assessment, the therapist builds a personalized plan. No two children are alike: some need help with muscle strength, others with coordination, and many need a combination of both. Crucially, research shows that children’s outcomes improve when parents actively collaborate with speech pathologists – practising assigned exercises at home between sessions. Regular follow-ups with the therapist remain essential to monitor progress, adjust techniques, and introduce new challenges as the child develops.

Blowing exercises: building breath and muscle control

Blowing might seem like simple play, but it is one of the most important pre-speech skills a child can develop. Producing explosive sounds like “ta,” “pa,” or “ka” requires strong breath control and coordinated muscle movement. Blowing exercises strengthen lip muscles, improve breath control, and develop the sustained airflow needed for connected speech. Here are five activities that build these skills:

  • Candle blowing: Hold a candle (or a drawn flame on paper for safety) a short distance from the child and encourage them to blow it out. Gradually increase the distance to build stronger airflow.
  • Ping-pong ball race: Place a ping-pong ball on a smooth table. The child blows through a straw to push the ball from one end to the other. This builds directed, controlled airflow.
  • Soap bubbles through a straw: Pour soapy water into a cup and let the child blow through a straw to create bubbles. This encourages sustained, gentle exhalation.
  • Whistles: Blowing a whistle requires firm lip closure and controlled breath – great for building cheek and lip strength.
  • Balloon blowing: Encouraging a child to inflate a balloon (with supervision) exercises the cheek muscles and builds significant respiratory effort.

Keep sessions short and celebratory. Even a few successful blows deserve enthusiastic praise.

Sucking exercises: control, strength, and drooling management

Sucking exercises teach children to consciously draw air inward and build muscle memory around the lips, cheeks, and tongue. These activities also play a useful role in helping manage drooling – a common challenge for children with intellectual disabilities – by strengthening the oral muscles needed to keep the mouth closed and control saliva. Oral motor exercises can help reduce drooling by strengthening the lip and cheek muscles and improving the ability to close the mouth fully.

  • Straw drinking (Activities 6-7): Begin with a wide, short straw and a thick liquid like a milkshake or smoothie – these require less effort. As the child gains strength, gradually introduce narrower, longer straws and thinner liquids. Using wavy or curly straws can increase the muscular effort required, adding a gentle challenge.
  • Lollipop sucking (Activity 8): Sugar-free lollipops or ice pops naturally encourage the sucking motion. The sustained effort builds muscle memory and endurance while the flavour keeps the child motivated.
  • Paper pickup with a straw: Cut small pieces of lightweight paper. Show the child how to pick up a piece by pressing the straw against it and sucking, then move it to a bowl or container by releasing the suction or gently blowing. This activity is particularly valuable because it teaches the child to alternate between sucking and blowing – developing conscious control of airflow in both directions.

Oral motor exercises: targeting specific speech muscles

Oral motor exercises aim to improve the functioning of the mouth, jaw, lips, cheeks, and tongue so that the child can demonstrate the coordination needed for sound production and articulation. Different sounds rely on different muscle groups, so a comprehensive programme targets each area systematically.

Jaw exercises (for chewing and foundational strength)

A strong jaw is the base for almost all mouth movement. Providing foods that require sustained chewing – baby carrots, apple slices, or sugar-free gum – helps develop jaw strength and endurance. Chewing with the lips closed is a particularly useful technique, as it simultaneously builds jaw muscle and trains the child to maintain lip closure, which supports drooling control.

Lip exercises (for sounds like b, m, and p)

The lips must press together firmly to produce bilabial sounds such as /b/, /m/, and /p/. Exercises include pressing the lips tightly together and releasing repeatedly, making exaggerated “fish lips,” and playing games of puckering and smiling. Lip presses – where the child squeezes their lips tightly and then releases – help build the lip strength necessary for these sounds and also aid in preventing drooling. Making funny faces in front of a mirror turns this into an enjoyable activity that children are happy to repeat.

Cheek exercises (for sounds requiring air pressure)

Several speech sounds require the child to build up air pressure inside the mouth. Cheek exercises address this directly: the child fills their cheeks with air and holds it without letting any escape through the lips or nose, then moves the air from one cheek to the other. This puffing movement can be repeated 5 to 10 times as a structured exercise. A mirror helps the child see what they are doing and self-correct.

Tongue exercises (for palatal sounds like t, n, and r)

The tongue is perhaps the most active articulator in speech, and it needs targeted training. A range of exercises build tongue strength and mobility:

  • Extending the tongue as far as possible and holding it steady for a few seconds builds general tongue strength.
  • Touching the tongue tip to the roof of the mouth (the alveolar ridge, just behind the upper teeth) and holding it there is essential preparation for sounds like /t/ and /n/.
  • Moving the tongue side to side – touching the left corner of the mouth, then the right – improves lateral coordination.
  • Licking a spoon or a small dab of peanut butter placed on the roof of the mouth encourages upward tongue movement in an engaging, motivating way.
  • Pushing the tongue against a spoon held in front of the mouth builds resistance strength.

Short sessions tied to existing routines – after brushing teeth, before meals – work best, with consistency more important than duration.

Managing drooling through oral motor training

Several specific techniques within oral motor training address drooling directly. Chewing gum with lips closed trains the child to keep the mouth shut during jaw movement. Sucking liquid from a spoon (rather than a bowl) encourages controlled lip and tongue action around a utensil. Maintaining an upright head posture – sitting straight rather than with the chin dropped – is also important, as a forward-tilting head makes saliva pooling more likely. Intraoral approaches can help overcome drooling and improve chewing and biting in children with neuromuscular motor challenges.

Breathing and humming exercises: establishing nasal sounds

Before a child can produce nasal sounds like “ma” and “na,” they need to develop a correct breathing pattern – specifically, breathing through the nose rather than the mouth. The final group of pre-speech activities targets this directly.

Making home practice work

The most important principle for home-based pre-speech practice is consistency over intensity. Short, daily sessions of 5-10 minutes embedded into existing routines – bath time, snack time, or a quiet moment after school – are far more effective than long, infrequent sessions that can feel like a chore. Keeping activities fun, engaging, interactive, and game-like leads to optimal progress. Always follow the therapist’s guidance on which exercises are appropriate for your child’s current stage, and bring observations about what is working (and what is not) to every follow-up appointment.

Parent training – where caregivers learn strategies to support speech development – is itself a recognised component of effective intervention for children with intellectual disabilities and speech delays. You are not just practising exercises; you are building your child’s communication future, one small activity at a time.

What do you think? Which of these pre-speech exercise categories – blowing, sucking, oral motor, or breathing – do you think would be easiest to weave into a child’s daily routine at home, and why? If you work with or care for a child who has an intellectual disability, what has been your experience with motivating them to stay consistent with these kinds of activities?

How useful was this post?

Click on a star to rate it!

Average rating 0 / 5. Vote count: 0

No votes so far! Be the first to rate this post.

We are sorry that this post was not useful for you!

Let us improve this post!

Tell us how we can improve this post?

References
  1. https://www.asha.org/policy/pp2004-00191/
  2. https://www.expressable.com/learning-center/tips-and-resources/15-speech-therapy-strategies-for-parents-to-use-at-home
  3. https://www.heartwisesupport.org/post/speech-therapy-exercises-for-strengthening-oral-motor-skills
  4. https://www.mywellnesshub.in/blog/oral-motor-exercises/
  5. https://www.yourmodernfamily.com/helping-a-toddler-with-a-speech-delay-activity-ideas/
  6. https://www.theottoolbox.com/oral-motor-exercises/
  7. https://userweb.ucs.louisiana.edu/~ncr3025/roussel/codi531/oralmotor
  8. https://uplifttherapycenter.com/oral-motor-exercises-for-toddlers/
  9. https://www.kinspirehealth.com/blog/oral-motor-skills-development-milestones-activities-more
  10. https://www.speechpathologygraduateprograms.org/blog/speech-therapy-exercises/
  11. https://www.achievebeyondusa.com/speech-therapy-exercises-for-children-with-speech-disorders/
  12. https://connectedspeechpathology.com/blog/a-guide-to-intellectual-disability-and-speech-delay-in-children
PDF 📄

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Intervention & Education for Children with Intellectual Disability

1 The Nature of Intellectual Disability

  1. Nature of Intellectual Disability
  2. Classification of Intellectual Disability
  3. Intellectual Disability and Global Developmental Delay
  4. Causes and Prevention of Intellectual Disability

2 Intellectual Disability Identification and Characteristics

  1. Appearance
  2. Delayed Milestones of Development
  3. Impaired Cognitive Abilities
  4. Poor Motor Development
  5. Delayed Language Development
  6. Inadequate Social Skills
  7. Difficulty in Personal Care /Daily Living Activities
  8. Lack of Self-Direction
  9. Inadequate Health and Safety Skills
  10. Difficulty in Leisure and Work-related Activities
  11. Lack of Motivation

3 Assessment

  1. Introduction
  2. What is Assessment?
  3. Purposes of Assessment
  4. Assessment for Screening and Identification
  5. Assessment for Diagnosis and Referral
  6. Annexure A – Screening Schedules
  7. Annexure B – Basic Information on Developmental and Psychological Assessment

4 Assesment-Part 2

  1. Assessment for Planning Individualized Education Programme
  2. Assessment for Evaluation
  3. The Overall Process of Identification and Training

5 Individualized Programme Planning

  1. The Need for Individualized Programme Plan
  2. Steps in Developing an IPP
  3. Teaching and Learning in Appropriate Context
  4. Evaluation
  5. The Overall Process of Programme Planning
  6. Maintenance of Records

6 The Process of Learning

  1. What is Learning?
  2. Stages of Learning
  3. Strategies to be used during Acquisition Stage
  4. Strategies to be used during Fluency Stage
  5. Strategies to be used during Maintenance Stage
  6. Strategies to be used during Generalization Stage

7 Principles of Learning

  1. Introduction
  2. Principles of Learning
  3. Guidelines for Effective Learning
  4. Feedback

8 Teaching Strategies- Task Analysis

  1. What are Teaching Strategies?
  2. Task Analysis
  3. How to do Task Analysis?
  4. How does Task Analysis Help Us?
  5. Modeling/Demonstration
  6. Shaping
  7. Prompting and Fading
  8. Scaffolding
  9. Study Skills Training
  10. Co-operative Learning

9 Teaching Strategies- Reinforcement

  1. Introduction
  2. Reinforcement
  3. Types of Reinforcers
  4. Selecting Reinforcers
  5. Methods of Selecting Reinforcers
  6. How to Give Reinforcement?
  7. When to Give Reinforcement? (Schedules of Reinforcement)

10 Fostering Gross Motor Development

  1. Introduction
  2. Focal Areas of Early Stimulation Activities
  3. Steps in Designing Early Stimulation Activities
  4. Guidelines for Carrying Out Stimulation Activities
  5. Fostering Development in Multiple Areas through Each Activity
  6. Activities to Foster Gross Motor Development of Children

11 Fostering Fine Motor Development

  1. Significance of Fine Motor Development
  2. Fostering Reaching for Objects
  3. Activities for Grasping
  4. Activities for Transferring and Releasing Objects
  5. Activities for Using Both Hands Simultaneously
  6. Activities for Eye-Hand Coordination
  7. Recapitulation of Some Practical Tips
  8. Therapy

12 Developing Communication Skills

  1. Introduction
  2. Communication and Its Purposes
  3. Why do we Need to Communicate?
  4. Communication and Intellectual disability
  5. Types of Communication Difficulties
  6. What Happens when there is Difficulty in Communication?
  7. Some Activities for Developing Language
  8. Music and Movement Activities
  9. Providing Speech and Language Therapy
  10. Correcting Articulation Errors, Stuttering and Stammering

13 Training in Daily Living Skills – Part 1

  1. Daily Living Skills and their Significance
  2. Guidelines for Training in Daily Living Skills
  3. Training in Eating and Drinking
  4. Training in Toileting

14 Training in Daily Living Skills – Part 2

  1. Introduction
  2. Training the Child in Brushing
  3. Training the Child for Bathing
  4. Training the Child for Undressing and Dressing
  5. Training the Child in Grooming

15 Enhancing Social and Personal Skills

  1. What is Social Development?
  2. Why do Children with Intellectual Disability lack Social Skills?
  3. Enhancing Social Development through Day-to-Day Activities
  4. Specific Activities to Promote Social Development

16 Fostering Cognitive Development – Part 1- Stimulating Sensory Development

  1. Introduction
  2. Activities for Stimulating the Senses
  3. Memory Games
  4. Strategies to Improve Attention

17 Fostering Cognitive Development – Part 2 – Developing Cognitive Abilities and Concepts

  1. Concept Development
  2. Activities for Concept Development in Children with Intellectual Disability
  3. Theme Approach to Teaching-Learning

18 Teaching Functional Academics-Reading and Writing

  1. Functional Skills Curriculum
  2. Functional Academics
  3. Functional Reading
  4. Functional Writing
  5. Teaching Reading and Writing Together
  6. Increasing Vocabulary and Making Sentences

19 Teaching Functional Academics – Numeracy, Time and Money

  1. Introduction
  2. Functional Arithmetic
  3. Teaching Pre-Number Concepts
  4. Teaching Counting
  5. Reading and Recognizing Numerals
  6. Writing Numerals
  7. Teaching Numerals above Ten
  8. Teaching Addition
  9. Teaching Subtraction
  10. Teaching Concept of Time
  11. Teaching Concept of Money

20 Activities to Support Primary Schooling

  1. Introduction
  2. Educational Provisions and Options
  3. Adapting the Curriculum
  4. Methodology of Teaching (Teaching Strategies)
  5. Teaching-Learning Materials
  6. Involvement of the Family
  7. A Case Study

21 Leisure and Recreational Activities

  1. Introduction
  2. Importance of Leisure and Recreational Activities
  3. Types of Recreational Activities
  4. Focus on Abilities

22 Difficult Behaviours- Causes and Techniques for Management

  1. What is Behaviour Difficulty?
  2. Causes of Behaviour Difficulties
  3. Approach to Managing Difficult Behaviours
  4. Techniques for Managing Difficult Behaviours

23 Some Difficult Behaviours and Their Management

  1. Temper Tantrums
  2. Repetitive and Self-injurious Behaviour
  3. Bed Wetting (Enuresis)
  4. Withdrawn Behaviour
  5. Aggressive Behaviour
  6. Hyperactivity
  7. Play Therapy

24 Information and Communication Technologies- Relevance in Education

  1. What Is Information and Communication Technology?
  2. Types of ICT and their Applications
  3. Use of ICT For Individuals with Disabilities
  4. Using ICT for Developing Teaching-Learning Materials (TLMs)
  5. Teaching Addition Using ICT
  6. Teaching Language, Vocabulary, and Grammar through ICT
  7. Explaining Science Concepts Using Digital Content
  8. Teaching Life Skills
  9. Collaboration of General Education Teachers and Special Educators with the Help of ICT
  10. Challenges in Using ICT for Children with Disabilities
  11. Choosing the Right ICT for Students with Disabilities: How Can Teachers and Parents Make It Work?
  12. The Future of Special Education: How Technology is Changing the Way Every Child Learns