educatingalpacas.com supports the book “Aa is for Alpacas”.  See Why This Book? Welcome to my blog – Educating Alpacas.  Does this mean that we are educating the alpacas – teaching them to count and so on – or are the alpacas helping to educate people?  Although we do a little bit of educating the alpacas […]

Jj is for Jottings 75.  Voice Quality and Speech Intelligibility. I was reminded the other day about the effects that voice quality can have on the clarity of a person’s speech.  In addition to reduced speech intelligibility caused by speech sound problems (see here), poor voice quality can also interfere with the listener’s ability to […]

6 days after we said goodbye to April, Shikha had to have surgery on his paw to remove a foreign body (which didn’t turn out to be there after all!) He kept walking around shaking his leg, trying to get rid of the yellow bandage with smiley faces on it. It lasted all of 24 […]

Jj is for Jottings 79.  Literacy, Language and Prison. Here are studies from three countries on the relationship between literacy, language and prison or young offender sentences: 1. USA. Approximately 80% of prison inmates are functionally illiterate, and 47.8% of the inmates were deficient in word attack skills, according to reports.  (Texas, 2000) In a […]

Jj is for Jottings 75.  Voice Quality and Speech Intelligibility. I was reminded the other day about the effects that voice quality can have on the clarity of a person’s speech.  In addition to reduced speech intelligibility caused by speech sound problems (see here), poor voice quality can also interfere with the listener’s ability to […]

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 […]

Jj is for Jottings  58.  More Reading to Dogs. The other reason for children reading to dogs (see previous article https://educatingalpacas.com/reading-to-dogs/)  was intended to benefit the dogs, but turns out to be a two-way street, as you will see.  The Humane Society of Missouri trains children aged 5-15 years to sit in front of shelter […]

Jj is for Jottings 57.  Reading to Dogs. If you had your reading L plates on, who would you rather read to – a person or a dog?  Young readers reading to dogs is an idea which originated in the USA in 1999, and is being adopted in Australia in schools and libraries.  Different programs […]

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 […]

Jj is for Jottings 55.  Helping Your Child’s Language – Technique 1: Modelling. Shikha and Shanti as kittens. They have to be careful when in the paddock with the alpacas because the alpacas will sometimes chase them. Although we refer to them as “the kids”, we didn’t have to bother with language modelling for them. […]

Jj is for Jottings 53.  To Fidget or Not to Fidget? Fidget spinners are all the rage at school and in homes at the moment – flat, triangle-shaped pieces of hard plastic or metal with a ball-bearing in the centre that the user spins between two fingers.  Are they just a distraction in the classroom? […]

Jj is for Jottings 52.  Reading to Children – Some Statistics. Even the alpacas are worried about current trends. Here are some disquieting (but not unexpected) statistics and comments quoted by the guest, who is very experienced in education, at the launch of “Aa is for Alpacas”: Research by Angela Emher in 2013 of 1263 […]

Jj is for Jottings 49.  Nasal Sounds – And I Don’t Mean Blowing Your Nose! Nina is demonstrating how to say /n/: see – her tongue is up behind her top front teeth and of course the air is coming down her nose. She is actually starting to say “Nnnnina”. Clever girl. When you have […]

Jj is for Jottings 48.  One Letter Doesn’t Always Equal One Sound. If you have read “Aa is for Alpacas” you will already know this, but just in case you haven’t… the letter x is actually two sounds /ks/.  (Remember that the slashes mean the sound rather than the letter name/s.)  The other thing you […]