Jj is for Jottings 83.  Auditory Discrimination of Vowel Sounds.

Auditory discrimination of vowel sounds, especially some short vowels, can be quite difficult for some children.  Very common confusions are between /a/ and /u/; and between /i/ and /e/.  When you consider that there is only one short vowel sound left – /o/ – that’s quite some confusion going on!  Of course, not all children confuse both pairs, many just confuse one pair or the other.

What is Auditory Discrimination of Vowel Sounds?

This is the ability to hear the difference between one sound and another, in this case, vowels.  A clue to this is often that the child does not clearly differentiate between the sounds when speaking.  So, using /a/ and /u/ as an example, the child pronounces the words “bag” and “bug” in the same way, or nearly the same.  The two vowel sounds sort of meet in the middle.  “Bag” frequently ends up sounding like “bug”, but with a longer than usual /u/ sound.  (Say the two words aloud correctly and you’ll find that, with these words, we say the /a/ a little longer than the /u/.  However, if you use the pair ‘”bat” and “but” the vowels are of the same length.  Funny old language, English.)  Note that these words are minimal pairs, because they vary in only one sound.  For other types of minimal pairs, see here and here.

If the Child Isn’t Saying the Vowel Sounds Properly, He Can’t Learn His Sound-Letter Links for Vowels.

If the child isn’t saying the vowels correctly, he has little hope of being able to attach the correct grapheme (written letter symbol) to the vowel.  This greatly interferes with his ability to sound out words, and mucks up the foundations of learning to read.

Many children with speech problems involving consonant sounds also have some difficulties with vowels.  Frequently, once you have worked on the consonants, the vowels sort themselves.  This is possibly because the focus on learning to produce the consonant sounds has a knock-on effect.  The therapy process involves tuning in to speech sounds and listening much more closely.  As a result, the child pays more attention to the vowels as well. (See A Listening Exercise and Cutting Out Visual Props for the importance of listening, and for activities to help develop listening skills.)  Sometimes you have to work directly on learning to pronounce vowels (i.e. via speech therapy). The first step is always auditory discrimination of the offending vowel sounds.

Make Sure the Problem With Auditory Discrimination of Vowels Isn’t Caused by a Hearing Problem.

It is important to check that the child doesn’t actually have a hearing problem, as opposed to a problem with discriminating between sounds, which can occur with perfectly normal hearing.  A hearing test is important to rule out this factor, as it is with all speech and language problems.

If the Child Pronounces Vowel Sounds Correctly  but still has difficulty learning sound-letter links for vowels and doesn’t have a hearing loss, it is necessary to do exercises on the auditory discrimination of vowels, which we will cover in the next article.

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