Keeping Kids Engaged With Paint-by-Stickers

Full transcript

Nicole here, coming in from the Motor Speech Lab at NYU. Today I wanted to share very quickly how I keep my kids interested during our really intense speech therapy.

We know motor speech therapy is not play-based, but that doesn't mean it can't be fun. We just have to figure out how we can get multiple repetitions, keeping our kids focused and looking at us, while also reinforcing them. Dr. Grigos here at the lab really loves stickers, and I got on the sticker train about two years ago.

One thing I really, really love is this. It's paint-by-stickers. Just like you would think of paint-by-number, it's the same thing. I'll show you quickly. You get a picture, and then you give the kids the sticker sheet. They get to put the picture together with the stickers, just like you would think. So after every couple of productions, I give a sticker or two, and at the end of the session, we come out with a completed picture. Really cool.

For the younger kids, I like these. They're smaller. You can get these on Amazon. I'll get a piece of blank paper and put down the face, and after every block or two, I'll have them create the face. It's a good way to keep them engaged during therapy.