sounds

Vowel Shapes.

Jj is for Jottings 101.  Vowel Shapes.

 

When I say “vowel shapes”, I am referring to the shape made by the mouth when saying a particular vowel.  We have talked earlier about discriminating between vowels and vowel discrimination activities, but I didn’t mention vowel shapes because we were talking about auditory discrimination.  The visual aspects were not necessary in that context.

VOWEL SHAPES ARE NOT SET IN CONCRETE.

In point of fact, there are no hard and fast vowel shapes, but there are general trends which are useful to know about. Continue reading →

Reading Difficult Words.

Jj is for Jottings 98.  Reading Difficult Words.

Picture of a man reading "Aa is for Alpacas", with the caption: Reading difficult words is not an issue with this book!

Reading difficult words is not an issue with this book!

When your child starts to read aloud to you, they will often have problems with reading difficult words.  These words may be just long, or tricky in other ways, such as having several consonants together.  (See consonant clusters).  Or they could have vowel patterns which are unfamiliar, the rules for which they don’t yet know.  It is important to give children time to try to work out the word for themselves.  This helps develop reading skills.  However, when they get really stuck you will need to help them out. Continue reading →

Phonological Awareness, Phonemic Awareness, Phonics.

Jj is for Jottings 94.  Phonological Awareness, Phonemic Awareness and Phonics.

Picture of the book "Aa is for Alpacas" on a pot-bellied stove, with the caption: Learning phonics with this book helps with phonemic awareness and phonological awareness skills, too.

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.

PHONICS.

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 →

Consonant Clusters.

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 →

Hearing Loss and Speech, Language and Literacy.

Jj is for Jottings 88.  Hearing Loss Effects on Speech, Language and Literacy.

Picture of a young father reading a book to his baby with the caption: 'Hearing loss effects on Violet's speech, language and literacy? None, because at this stage there is no evidence to suppose that Violet has a hearing loss. And Simon is certainly getting her off to a flying start with speech, language and literacy by reading "Aa is for Alpacas" to her.'

Hearing loss effects on Violet’s speech, language and literacy? None, because at this stage there is no evidence to suppose that Violet has a hearing loss. And Simon is certainly getting her off to a flying start with speech, language and literacy by reading “Aa is for Alpacas” to her.

 

Moving on from discussing fluctuating hearing loss in the previous article, we now turn our attention to the effects of hearing loss on speech, language and literacy. Continue reading →

Fluctuating Hearing Loss

Jj is for Jottings 87.  Fluctuating Hearing Loss.

Fluctuating hearing loss in young children often results in speech and language delays.  (For an explanation of the differences between ‘speech’ and ‘language’ see here.)  Figures quoted by the Audiometry Nurses Association of Australia Inc suggest that 90% of childhood hearing loss is of the fluctuating kind.  For figures for Australian 4-5 year olds having a speech problem from any cause see here. Continue reading →

R-Controlled Vowels and Diphthongs.

Jj is for Jottings 86.  R-Controlled Vowels and Diphthongs.

There are other vowel sounds, apart from the short and long vowels.  These include r-controlled vowels, schwa and diphthongs.

Photo of an alpaca with her mouth in an odd position, saying: "Some of these r-controlled vowels and diphthongs are quite tricky to get your tongue around - if you're an alpaca."

“Some of these r-controlled vowels and diphthongs are quite tricky to get your tongue around – if you’re an alpaca.”

 R-CONTROLLED VOWELS.

When a vowel is followed by r, the sound changes, and the result is considered neither long nor short.  These are /ur/ as in fern, bird, and hurt; /ar/ as in park; and /or/ as in fork.

Note that Americans actually pronounce the /r/ in r-controlled vowels, including on the ends of words; we Australians do not.  When I was first working as a speech pathologist Continue reading →

Short and Long Vowels – What Are They?

Jj is for Jottings 85.  Short and Long Vowels.

Since we were on the subject of vowels (see Auditory Discrimination of Vowel Sounds and Vowel Discrimination Activities), it occurred to me that you may have heard of short and long vowels and not know what they are.  You would think that a long vowel is a longer version of a short vowel, but they are completely different sounds.  Quite simply, short vowels are the sounds made by /a,e,i,o,u/, and long vowels are the names of those five letters.

Picture of a lilac Burmese cat stretched out asleep with the caption: Short and long vowels? Who cares? I'd rather have a zzzzz.

Short and long vowels? Who cares? I’d rather have a zzzzz.

 

WHAT DO SHORT AND LONG VOWELS LOOK LIKE?

Short Vowels.

The easiest short vowel words are 3-letter CVC words eg. bag, beg, big, bog, bug.  In each case we pronounce the vowel as its basic sound.  When syllables end in a vowel and then a consonant (as in the examples above), the vowel is usually short. If there is more than one consonant, the vowel is almost always short, eg. “back, stopped”.

Long Vowels.         

There are several ways of making long vowels.

  1. Putting two vowels next to each other. As a result, the word usually makes the sound of the first vowel’s name (“When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking”).  Examples are “bead”, “mail”, “boat”.
  2. Another way of creating a long vowel sound is by putting an ‘e’ on the end of the word. This is often referred to as the “bossy ‘e’” or the “magic ‘e’”.  (“The ‘e’ on the end makes the vowel say its name.  The ‘e’ is silent.”) Examples are “bake”, “seed”, “hike”, “poke”, “mute”.  See how you can use a bossy ‘e’ to change a short vowel to a long vowel with these minimal pairs: can/cane; bet/beet; rid/ride; hop/hope; cut/cute.  If you say each of these aloud, it is very clear that the first half of the pair uses the sound made by the vowel, and the second half uses the vowel’s name.
  3. A vowel at the end of a syllable is almost always long.  Some examples of this are “I, we, he, she, go, try, potato and tomato”.
  4. -Igh and -ight are usually long I (and silent GH), so we have “bright, fight, high, light, might, night, right, sigh, sight, tight”.

Remember that this is English, and there are almost invariably exceptions.

VOWELS OTHER THAN SHORT AND LONG VOWELS.

Short and long vowels aren’t the only vowel sounds, and the other vowels will be discussed next time.

 

Check out the Facebook page: Aa is for Alpacas.

 

Vowel Discrimination Activities.

Jj is for Jottings 84.  Vowel Discrimination Activities.

Vowel Discrimination Activity 3. Identifying /i/ and /e/, plus a picture of the Ii is for Itchy page of "Aa is for Alpacas".

Vowel Discrimination Activity 3. Identifying /i/ and /e/.

 

As promised in the previous article, here are some vowel discrimination activities to help your child to hear the difference between vowel sounds, in particular the tricky pairs of a/u and i/e.  At the same time these activities reinforce the sound-letter links for the vowels.  After all, it’s not much use for reading and spelling if you can hear the difference between them but don’t know which letter belongs to the sound. Continue reading →

Auditory Discrimination of Vowel Sounds.

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

Photo of Droofus, the bearded dragon, not practising auditory discrimination of vowels sounds - she's looking at April shaking off all the dust in "Aa is for Alpacas".

Droofus, the bearded dragon, is not practising auditory discrimination of vowel sounds – she’s looking at April shaking off all the dust in “Aa is for Alpacas”.

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. Continue reading →