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Be Mine?

Valentine Speech Ideas

Kim Knight on February 01, 2019

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I once had a student who, during an activity with a picture of a child holding a big heart valentine that said “Be Mine”, struggled a great deal with what that meant. He just kept saying “Be My what?” After a great deal of discussion and examples, I felt like he better understood this saying, at least a little. It made me think, however, about all of those sayings that we see or hear around holidays that, as adults, we understand, but for children, especially children with language disorders, may be very confusing. Since Valentine’s Day is coming right up, I thought this might be a great opportunity for you to sit down with your children and talk about some of these confusing sayings. Open a box of conversation hearts and you’ll have plenty to talk about I’m sure. Another great source of these sayings is on the valentines that your child will hand out or receive. You could sit down and go through each of them talking about what they say and about what they mean. If time is limited for you, pick one or two to talk about each day—maybe at breakfast or bedtime, until you have gotten through all of them. Also, don’t take for granted that your child knows one without asking; you would be surprised at the ones that are confusing for them. For students with sound errors, have them sort their valentines into piles of ones that have their sounds and ones that don’t. Then they can practice saying the word, phrase, or sentence 5 times. This is great practice outside of the speech room and you get to hear how they are progressing with producing their sounds correctly.

I really believe that everyday opportunities that arise are the best teaching moments for kids. They will learn so much if you take the time to sit with them and read or talk about these opportunities. Thanks so much for lending me your children. You can rest assured that we will also be talking about a lot of these confusing sayings in the speech and language room!

I hope your Valentine’s Day is very special!

Kim Knight

Speech-Language Pathologist

660-947-3361 ext. 391