The Path to Good Sounds Part 3

Hello everyone!

Welcome back to our blog series about the Path to Good sounds. We’ve been talking about the different parts and prerequisites needed to be able to produce age appropriate speech sounds and be understood by others! We have already covered “Oral Rest Posture” and “Control of the mouth” so next we are moving onto “Awareness”! The final two blog posts following this will be covering “Sounds in isolation” and “Combining Sounds”, but first…AWARENESS!

We need to build an awareness between the different sounds that we produce in English (or any language that you speak) and how they differ acoustically (the way that they sound) as well as how they are made differently with our articulators (tongue, jaw, lips). For example, if we cannot hear the difference between “tea” and ‘key” we will have a hard time making these two initial sounds “K” and “T” sounds differently. Similarly, if we cannot hear that these sounds are different we will have a hard time distinguishing and differentiating between sounds and words that others are saying around us.

How do we build awareness? Great question! We have broken it down into steps that will help you figure out how to practice these skills with your child. Try the following in this order!

  1. Identifying the picture that matches the word they heard (e.g. “point to the cub”, “point to the tub”.)
  2. Identifying the letter or the picture that represents the sound all alone (e.g. “point to K”, “point to “T”)
  3. Identifying which sound they themselves have produced (e.g. “Did you say call or tall”)

Once your child has practice with these skills and you’re seeing an improvement in their ability to hear and make sounds differently they will be better equipped to speak in a way that is easier for others to understand them! Okay are you still with us? We have covered oral rest posture, control of the mouth, and now awareness! Check in for the next blog post about making sounds in isolation!

 

-Kasey-