Overview of Breathing Exercises for Fluency:

• Teach the child how the respiratory system works and what it means to inhale, exhale, hold breath, breathe deeply, and breathe shallowly (demonstrate all)
• Have the child practice passive breathing in steady, controlled manner.  Be able to identify when inhaling and when exhaling.  Practice this using yoga breathing exercises
• Teach child that speech happens on the exhalation and that it is important not to force it out too quickly or let it out too slowly.  Practice saying single words with a normal exhalation.  Then, gradually increase the complexity of utterance as the child continues to maintain appropriate exhalation.
• Once they are able to use normal exhalation for single words and short sentences, teach them how to chunk phrases and sentences so they can breathe appropriately
• Analyze any odd breathing patterns and help the child identify when they are doing them and how to go back to normal breathing patterns.