sounds Archives – educatingalpacas.com – palmettoplaceshelter.org

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:

Place of articulation.
Manner of articulation.
Voicing

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 144. Place of Articulation.

We classify the spoken aspects of consonants across 3 dimensions:

Place of articulation.
Manner of articulation.
Voicing.

The voicing dimension specifies whether or not the vocal folds (or cords) are vibrating. It has already been discussed in Voiced vs voiceless minimal pairs. And I have outlined the rules for when we voice the normally voiceless /s/ (resulting in /z/). Most people are completely unaware of doing this, and would be surprised to learn that they are correctly following the rules. The voicing dimension is rounded off by the article on partial devoicing of consonants. Continue reading

Jj is for Jottings 140. Tongue Tie.

After discussing /s/ speech sound problems in the previous post, in a way the topic of this post is the opposite: tongue tie. Why is it the opposite? Some /s/ problems involve tongue protrusion or sideways movement. But tongue tie anchors the tongue which limits movement to varying degrees. Continue reading

Jj is for Jottings 139. Speech Sound Problems:/s/.

Probably one of the first sounds that springs to mind when one thinks of speech sound problems would be /s/ and, more specifically, a lisp. (Remember that the slashes / / mean that we pronounce the sound; ‘s‘ or s means to say the letter name. I think I may have done both at some point. Certainly it is underlined in Aa is for Alpacas.)

The word “lisp” generally refers to the tongue tip protruding between the teeth for /s,z/. (Note that /s,z/ are minimal pairs, and therefore have the same error. For the sake of ease I shall refer to just /s/ from now on, but remember that what refers to /s/ also refers to /z/.) Some definitions of a lisp are much broader, and refer to any speech sound problem involving any or all sibilant sounds. Since this is cause for confusion, I am not going to use the term “lisp” at all. This particular /s/ problem is called an interdental /s/. “Inter” means “between”, and of course “dental” means “teeth”, so there can be no confusion about what it is. Continue reading

Jj is for Jottings 137. Auditory Processing Disorders.

Following on from auditory skills and developing auditory processing skills, we now turn our attention to auditory processing disorders. There are so many conflicting ideas in the literature as to exactly what constitutes auditory skills. One could really become bogged down by this and therefore any resulting disorders. There is even disagreement as to whether it should be “auditory processing disorders” or “central auditory processing disorders.” I’ve decided to go with the thinking that “central” implies problems only at the brain level and consequently limits the definition.

Auditory processing disorders – attempting to prevent them is a good policy.

Jj is for Jottings 136. Developing Auditory Processing Skills.

Following on from the article on auditory skills, we turn to the topic of developing auditory processing skills. An article on communication milestones from 12 months to 5 years can be found here. But now we will explore the development of auditory processing skills in a little more detail.

One general way of developing auditory processing skills is to read to your children.

Jj is for Jottings 130. Auditory Skills.

Auditory skills underpin the development of speech, language and literacy. Therefore it is vitally important to be aware of these skills and, wherever possible, assist our children to develop them.

WHAT ARE AUDITORY SKILLS?

Auditory skills include the following: 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 126. The Bossy ‘E’.

The bossy ‘e’ (sometimes called the magic ‘e’) appears so often in written language that it is worth revisiting in its own right. It is a classic case of “Give a man a fish and you will feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Once you know the rule, you can unlock thousands of words. 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.