BOARD GAMES TO PROMOTE SPEECH AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

The invention relates to devices and methods designed to promote speech and language development and, in particular, learning upper and lower case letters, shapes, colors, numbers and phonemes to improve articulation. Phonemes, which form one of the basic building blocks of speech, are distinguishing speech sounds that differentiate one word from another, e.g. the sounds d and t in the words bid and bit and are the smallest phonetic units that can carry meaning.

Claims

1. A device for promoting speech and language development among young children comprising a game board, magnetic pieces, cards, number box, and plastic shapes.

2. The device according to claim 1, wherein the magnetic pieces represent lower and upper case letters, shapes, colors, numbers and phonemes.

3. The device according to claim 1, wherein a board game comprises a board that is assembled from magnetic pieces into a shape of phonemes.

4. The device according to claim 1 wherein the device is used for learning upper and lower case letters, primary and secondary colors, numbers and phonemes in order to improve articulation, for practicing target phoneme(s), to improve articulation of young children, to learn shapes including circle, square, triangle, oval, trapezoid, hexagon, octagon, and to learn the alphabet, upper case letters on the front, and lower case letters on the back of each board.

5. A method of promoting speech and language development among young children, including steps of letters identification, verbal label of letters, pronunciation of letters, recognition of letters sound at the beginning and/or at the end of single words, consonant-vowel-consonant sound sequences, including words like cat, can, and fun.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the board game has the initial, medial, and final level.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the age of young children ranges from 2 to 6 years old.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein activities of young children, the age above 6 till 10 years old, include use of a word and/or picture cards to practice target sounds in isolation, initial, final, and medial positions of words, consonant blends, phrases, sentences, wherein the method includes: rolling dice, spinner, by a participant picking a number box, moving indicated number of spaces, and picking the number of cards indicated that his/her marker lands on says words for the cards picked.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein consonant blends, phrases and sentences are used in the game.

10. The method of claim 5, wherein a Mediator is a Therapist, a Teacher and/or a Parent.

11. The method of claim 5, wherein Clients, at a level of self-monitoring, carry over correct sound production in connected spontaneous speech.

12. The method of claim 5, wherein individual shapes with magnets of different colors should be connected together, wherein game board length and configuration is depended on how shapes are connected, wherein in case of premade game boards one of each letter of the alphabet is used, one side upper case, and flip side lower case, wherein plastic shapes are together in the form of the phoneme being addressed to form a playing board, wherein in case of the articulation game the plastic shapes should be connected to form the target phoneme being addressed which is held together by magnets, wherein one should follow the same directions as for a letter board game.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein a letter board should be used that corresponds to the phoneme, sound that is being addressed, wherein dice, number cards, and others, should be used to determine number of spaces to move, wherein a player moves game pieces and follows directions written in the space he/she lands on pick number of cards, wherein a Player reads that number of cards which will contain the target phoneme.

14. The method of claim 5, wherein in case of color and/or shape games stack cards or mix in bag/box are used, wherein a Player picks a card, name the color, name the shape, or both depending on concept focus, wherein if correct, the Player finds the same shape and/or color to connect by magnets, and if incorrect the next Player plays, and wherein the Player with the most colored shapes connected wins.

15. The method of claim 5, wherein in case of a letter ID game, letter game boards are used as flash cards, wherein letters can be placed in order on the floor and than scattered randomly, wherein each letter is named, wherein a Player selects the corresponding letter card.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein for beginners a game should start with lower case letters.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

[0024] The patent or application file contains at least one drawing executed in color. Copies of this patent or patent application publication with color drawing(s) will be provided by the Office upon request and payment of the necessary fee.

[0025] Details and features of the board games will become more apparent from accompanying drawings in which:

[0026] FIG. 1 shows a game board that assembles from magnetic pieces in a different shape displaying numbers in different colors and connected together in a shape of a consonant c;

[0027] FIG. 2 shows a game board that assembles from magnetic pieces in a different shape displaying numbers in different colors and connected together in a shape of a consonant h;

[0028] FIG. 3 shows a game board that assembles from magnetic pieces in a different shape displaying numbers in different colors and connected together in a shape of a consonant l;

[0029] FIG. 4 shows a game board that assembles from magnetic pieces in a different shape displaying numbers in different colors and connected together in a shape of a consonant k;

[0030] FIG. 5 shows a game board that assembles from magnetic pieces in a different shape displaying numbers in different colors and connected together in a shape of a consonant n;

[0031] FIG. 6 shows a game board that assembles from magnetic pieces in a different shape displaying numbers in different colors and connected together in a shape of a consonant p;

[0032] FIG. 7 shows a game board that assembles from magnetic pieces in a different shape displaying numbers in different colors and connected together in a shape of a consonant r;

[0033] FIG. 8 shows a game board that assembles from magnetic pieces in a different shape displaying numbers in different colors and connected together in a shape of a consonant s;

[0034] FIG. 9 shows a game board that assembles from magnetic pieces in a different shape displaying numbers in different colors and connected together in a shape of a consonant t;

[0035] FIG. 10 shows a game board that assembles from magnetic pieces in a different shape displaying numbers in different colors and connected together in a shape of a consonant m;

[0036] FIG. 11 shows a game board that assembles from magnetic pieces in a different shape displaying numbers in different colors and connected together in a shape of a consonant w; and

[0037] FIG. 12 shows a game board that assembles from magnetic pieces in a different shape displaying numbers in different colors and connected together in a shape of a consonant z.