Jj is for Jottings 155. Auditory Discrimination and Sound Errors.
When children make speech sound errors, we need to consider auditory discrimination and speech sound errors. A child needs to be able to discriminate the difference between the correct sound and what they are saying instead. Otherwise they don’t have much chance of replacing the error sound with the correct (target) sound. Continue reading
Jj is for Jottings 153. Speech Sound Problems: /k,g/
We have previously learned about /s/ as a speech sound problem. Let us now focus on speech sound problems: /k,g/. As always, if your child makes speech errors, you need to know whether the error is actually appropriate for age. (In which case, is it actually an error? Perhaps an “age-appropriate substitution”!) You can find out the rough developmental ages for speech sounds here. Continue reading
Jj is for Jottings 145. Manner of Articulation.
As a reminder from the previous article, we classify the spoken aspects of consonants across 3 dimensions:
We have previously covered voicing, and then place of articulation in the previous article. So now we turn our attention to manner of articulation. Continue reading
Jj is for Jottings 128. Hard and Soft ‘C’ and ‘G’.
The great thing about spelling rules – such as the bossy ‘e’ rule – is that, once you learn a particular rule, you can read (and hopefully spell) many different words. In other words, rules give you lots of bang for your buck. When dealing with hard and soft ‘c’ and ‘g’, we teach the hard sound first as part of basic sound-letter links, and introduce the soft sounds a little later. Continue reading
Jj is for Jottings 125. Nonsense Words.
Nonsense words are letter sequences which follow regular phonetic rules and are pronounceable, but which have no meaning. Examples are ‘bof’, ‘zim’, ‘chog’. They can also be called nonwords or pseudowords. There are stages in children’s development where nonsense words may play a part. These are: babbling, early reading, rhyming, and if they require assistance for speech sound development (speech therapy). All children babble, but children may not encounter nonsense words when learning to read or to rhyme. And many will not need speech therapy, or have access to it if they do.
Atticus is a FAN of nonsense words.
Jj is for Jottings 122. Definite and Indefinite Articles.
Following on from the previous article on nouns, it is timely to discuss definite and indefinite articles. Articles are simply “a” or “an”, and “the”. It sounds simple, but there’s a bit more to it than that. Continue reading
Jj is for Jottings 114. Digraphs vs. Diphthongs.
Digraphs vs. diphthongs – what exactly are they and how do they differ? They both begin with the same two letters, but then they diverge (get the pun?)
It is always helpful to understand the roots of words, because then we are able to transfer that learning to other situations. It’s like teaching a man to fish rather than just giving him a fish. (“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Maimonides.) For a discussion of root words which underlie one of my pet peeves, see here. Continue reading
Jj is for Jottings 102. Effect of Vowel Shapes on Consonant Sounds.
Following on from the previous article on Vowel Shapes, we will talk about the effect of vowel shapes on consonant sounds. This is especially important in sound production for speech therapy and also useful when learning sound-letter links. If you haven’t already done so, I suggest you read the previous article first, to make sense of what follows.
Effects of vowel shapes on consonant sounds. This vowel is /ah/. It doesn’t have much effect on any consonant sounds because it is quite neutral in shape.
Here are some common examples of how the vowel shape can influence the production of a consonant. This is not an exhaustive list, but these are major examples which crop up all the time. Continue reading
Jj is for Jottings 94. Phonological Awareness, Phonemic Awareness and Phonics.
Learning phonics with this book helps with phonemic awareness and phonological awareness skills, too.
You may have heard the terms “phonological awareness”, “phonemic awareness” and “phonics” and wondered what they mean and whether they are different terms for the same thing. Let’s sort this out right now.
This is sound-letter links – i.e. learning which sound is made by each letter of the alphabet, and other sounds which are made by combining 2 or more letters. Children develop the concept that there are consistent relationships between letter symbols and sounds. This book is a great way to learn sound-letter links. But you need to make sure you are saying sounds rather than letter names. You can find this on the video. Continue reading
Jj is for Jottings 93. Consonant Clusters.
Consonant clusters, or blends, can cause problems when analysing sounds and blending. Children with speech, language or literacy problems often have difficulty in detecting the second sound in a consonant cluster. I mentioned this in a previous article on blending sounds. Children who can easily analyse a consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) word, may completely disregard the second sound in a consonant cluster (CCVC). This is even when they say the word correctly. Continue reading
