Free Hand Gestures for Speech Sounds

Pairing hand gestures with speech sounds is a powerful way to support both  articulation and early reading / phonological awareness.

A complete set of hand gestures, movements for every sound in English, including consonants and vowels, are part of my free Ultimate Sound Cues Program. These are the gestures that I have found to be most useful. The program also includes a Label and a Visual for each speech sound in English. Used together they provide children with even more information and understanding of sounds. English is confusing, sound cues help.

Why Use Hand Gestures for Speech Sounds:

  • If you do the same hand gesture each time you say a speech sound correctly, the movement will make it easier for you to make the right sound in more difficult words.
  • Hand Gestures that in someway mimic how the sounds are made in the mouth stimulate the same part of the brain as saying the sound. 
  • Pairing a movement with sound makes it easier for children to understand what the sound is and that it is different from other sounds. This can be especially helpful when children with speech problems are not able to hear the difference between sounds. 
  • Hand Gestures are a great way for parents to remind children to use right sounds. A simple gesture often works much better than a verbal prompt.
  • Hand Gestures provide multi-sensory learning activating more parts of your brain.

Evidence shows an interaction between hand movements and movements of the tongue, lips and mouth.

Example of my Hand Gestures for Speech Sounds

Following is the Hand Gestures plus the Sound Label and Visual for the K sound. The first part gives a detailed description of of the Hand Gesture plus information on Big Body Movements, Ideas for Games to practice the sound in a repetitive way and Additional Cues The next part shows the shortened version of this in a table format. This version can be made into handy “flash cards”.

C / K as in “Cough”

Label: Cough

 Picture Symbol:

Hand Gesture: Place your index finger horizontally across your throat. Move your index finger gently up and back as if trying to raise the back part of your tongue then move it quickly away from your throat as the sound “explodes” out.

Big Body Movements:

  • Gesture with your whole hand instead of just your finger and make a bigger movement as you let the sound come out.
  • Kick and Catch balls.
  • Do a big Karate Chop.

Game Ideas:

  • “Come” as you motion each other or stuffed animals to come someplace.
  • “Can I” as you take turns doing something.
  • “Kiss” as you play with stuffed animals or dolls.
  • Ki” or “Kick” as you kick balls.
  • Label foods as “Uck” or “Yuck”. The back vowel makes it easier to say the K sound.
  • “K” as you karate chop pillows, foam blocks, etc.
  • “Key” as you hide and find keys around the house.

Other Cues:

  • You use the gesture on your child – put your finger across your child’s throat and push up gently to help them know how to make the sound.
  • Say “Open mouth (a bit), tongue back, make it explode”.
  • Lie on your backs and let your tongues fall back in your mouth.

Table Format

I use these same gestures, labels and visuals when I am working with children on speech sounds and early literacy / phonemic awareness in my practice. I hope you find them as helpful as I do.

Let me know if you have any questions. You can reach me at SLP@Speech-TherapyAtHome.com.

Garth Schindel SLPatHome