Jj is for Jottings 68. Communication Milestones.
Here is a chart put together by a group from Queensland and the National Office of Speech Pathology Australia which you may find useful.
Here is the link if you want to print copies.
www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/milestones
Jj is for Jottings 65. What Is Synthetic Phonics?
We’re just taking a break from the series on How to Raise a Reader – we’ll finish it next time.
Synthetic phonics means “building words from individual sounds”. For example, even if you had never seen it before, you could spell the word “step” Continue reading
Jj is for Jottings 62. Raising a Reader Part 2. Toddlers.
Continuing from the previous article (here), you cannot overestimate the importance of reading with a child at the toddler stage – for intellectual, social and emotional development. They take in everything: vocabulary and language structure, numbers and math concepts, colours, shapes, opposites and many other language concepts, animals, manners and all kinds of useful information about how the world works. What’s more, when you read out loud, Continue reading
Jj is for Jottings 61. Raising a Reader Part 1: The Baby.
There are various things parents can do to maximise their child’s chances of becoming a reader (i.e. someone who is proficient at reading, reads for pleasure and has no difficulty in using reading for information-seeking and the school curriculum.) We can divide this topic into 4 stages: Baby, Toddler, Emergent Readers and Early Readers. Question: What stage comes before the Baby stage? Continue reading
Jj is for Jottings 60. Partial Devoicing of Consonants.
As I said in the previous article “most voiced consonant sounds on the ends of words are actually devoiced , which means they end up sort of halfway between being voiced and unvoiced.” It would really be more accurate to say that they are partially devoiced. Continue reading
Jj is for Jottings 59. More Minimal Pairs: Voiced vs. Voiceless.
I was reminded a couple of days ago that there is more to say on the subject of minimal pairs ( see Jj is for Jottings 47. Minimal Pairs: Voiced vs. Voiceless. You may wish to read/re-read this before continuing), when an intelligent, well-educated adult fell into a common trap – thinking that the letter s (frequently a plural at the end of a word, but sometimes in the middle) is always pronounced as /s/, whereas in fact it is often pronounced as /z/. Continue reading
Jj is for Jottings 56. 3 More Techniques for Helping Your Child’s Language.
We used all these language techniques with our “children”, but it seems that they still have too much screen time.
This follows on from Jottings 55, so you will need to read that first. (See https://educatingalpacas.com/general-language-stimulation-technique-1-modelling/). I decided to combine the last three techniques into one article: Continue reading
Jj is for Jottings 54. Should I Correct My Child’s Speech?
This is Linguine, Kieran’s Murray Darling carpet python. The pic I really wanted was too blurry. Shikha caught a 23 cm long baby brown snake last week and brought it to the front door step to play with. Having just stepped out of the shower I snatched him inside and dressed hastily. When I returned it was nowhere in sight. I found it wriggling around in David’s boot, on the step below! Taking photos inside boots doesn’t work too well. Great composition – reared up with its mouth gaping open – but blurry. Linguine said he’d be happy to stand in (and he’s beautiful and harmless).
Many parents these days are concerned that they will somehow damage their child’s psyche if they correct their speech and language Continue reading
Jj is for Jottings 51. Rhyming, Climbing, Miming… (Part 2).
Shanti says:
“When learning to rhyme just relax, like me,
Play games and have fun: it’s easy – you’ll see.
How do we explain what a rhyme is? I usually say that rhyming words sound the same at the end, and follow it up with plenty of examples. However, be prepared for some children to think that you are talking of only the last SOUND. You might have some extra explaining to do. The most important way Continue reading
Jj is for Jottings 50. Rhyming, Climbing, Miming… (Part 1)
Geisha had a little cria,
But in this pic you cannot see ‘er!
(With thanks to David for this one.)
Children are not often introduced to nursery rhymes, these days, and in fact most seem to have little exposure to rhymes in their early childhood. People seem to think that the old-fashioned nursery rhymes are silly and don’t make sense Continue reading
