Top Tips For Making the K Sound At Home

Here are 3 ways to support a child (or adult) learning the /k/ sound at home. These are NOT a replacement for speech therapy, but they are a great way to practice at home, or to teach your child more about the /k/ sound as they are acquiring it in typical speech development, or while they are seeing a therapist if the sound is delayed. If you’re a therapist looking for some new ways to practice /k/ in speech sessions, these will work for that too. :)

Visit our YouTube, to see Hailey talk about /k/ and offer even more detail on the strategies, and a bonus strategy to help with this sound. In that video, she also talks a bit about the /g/ sound. The main difference between /g/ and /k/ is that your voice is “off” for /k/ (it is a quiet sound, focused on air and not on voicing) and “on” for /g/ (this is a noisy sound, where we need to be voicing to make it accurately), so getting the accurate tongue placement and productions of /k/ first can sometimes help with them acquiring or practicing the /g/ sound.

1. Coughing Sound

We can describe the /k/ sound as our”coughing sound” and can practice coughing to build the child’s awareness of the back of their tongue. This can help to teach your child how to cut off the air flow with the back of his tongue instead of the tongue tip. For more of the wording for this strategy and how to teach it, don’t forget to check out the Reach Speech Therapy YouTube.

2. Use a Toothbrush

I highly recommend watching the /k/ sound video for this strategy too. This is much easier to implement when you have watched an example of someone else doing it first. You will use a toothbrush, lollipop or tongue depressor to hold down the front of your child’s tongue and then encourage them to try and raise the back of their tongue to cough or try to produce the /k/ sound. You can also use the toothbrush to lightly push their tongue back in their mouths in order to promote that bunched tongue in the mouth for an accurate /k/. Of course, be gentle and don’t push back very far, we don’t want to initiate a child’s gag reflex!

3. Use a Mirror

Grab a mirror (or use the front facing camera on your tablet or phone) and model the /k/ sound in the mirror, encourage your child to watch your face and tongue placement in the mirror. Then, encourage your child to watch her own face in the mirror and watch where her tongue is going in her mouth. You want to continue building that awareness of the back of the tongue and mouth, and have them practice with raising that portion of their tongue for the accurate /k/ sound.

I hope you found these helpful, feel free to reach out to us if you’re looking for even more strategies for /k/ sound.

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