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.

COMMON CONSONANT CLUSTERS.

We have had 5 activities for analysing consonant sounds at the beginnings and ends of words.  So now we need to talk about how to help with analysing consonant clusters.  We are talking of CC clusters here (2 consonants), but the principle is the same for 3 consonants, although they can be more difficult.  There are 3 main categories of CC consonant clusters:

1. /l/ clusters, which include /pl, bl, kl, gl, fl, sl/.
2. /r/ clusters, which include /pr, br, tr, dr, kr, gr, fr, thr/. Remember the /thr/ is 3 letters but 2 sounds.
3. /s/ clusters, which include /sm, sn, sw, sl, sp, st, sk/.

We need to help children become aware of the second consonant sound.

ACTIVITIES FOR INCREASING AWARENESS OF CONSONANT CLUSTERS.

LISTENING

1. Use minimal pairs, with the only difference being the presence or absence of the second consonant.    cap/clap; pray/pay; sell/sell.  You don’t have to use real words: you can make up nonsense word pairs eg. bick/blick, sig/smig; bop/brop.  Even if you do use real word pairs, children don’t always know them anyway.  This is a listening exercise, so word meanings don’t matter here.  And it is quite easy to think up nonsense word pairs on the spot.

Concentrate on one cluster type at a time eg. /l/ clusters.  You can ask the child to say “Yes” if he hears the /l/ in the word and “No” if he doesn’t.  Or you could have him put a tick in the /l/ column on a piece of paper when he hears /l/, and a tick in the blank column when he doesn’t.  When he is successful with one cluster type, move on to the next.  Your eventual aim is for the child to be able to tell you the second sound he hears in any CCVC word.

Note that in /l/ and /r/ clusters, it is the first consonant that varies; in /s/ clusters it is the second sound that varies.

LISTENING AND PRODUCING.

2. For /s/ clusters, you can find or draw a picture, give the child a clue to guess the word, or just simply say the word.  Have s written down on a piece of paper, and ask the child to choose the second sound from list (also written down) of m, n, t, l, k, w, p.
3. For all types of clusters, write a series of boxes to represent each sound in a word. Leave the first two boxes blank, and fill in the other sounds yourself.  Then say the word (or have a picture) and ask the child to say the first sound, then write it in the first box.  Then move on to the second sound in the second box.

This is what it would look like for the words stick, pram, star, broom, plant, blind, three.  (th will be in the first box.)

 

CONSONANTS IN CONNECTED SPEECH.

Remember that in this article we are talking about consonant clusters in single words in relation to literacy.  We can have many more consonants in a cluster in connected speech.  Thankfully children are not required to analyse and blend such long strings of consonants.

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