The Path to Good Sounds Part 5

Posted on by : Kasey Wade Tags:

Hello One Final Time *for this blog series anyways 😂

We are wrapping up our final blog in the series titled “the path to good sounds” which covers how our children are moving from being born, to babbling, and eventually being a full grown adult who can carry on conversation with others without difficulty. So far we have already talked about:

  1. Oral Rest Posture
  2. Control of the mouth
  3. Awareness
  4. Sounds in isolation

Now we are going to break down how we combine sounds to make words. After we produce sounds in isolation we can move on to putting these sounds into new combinations. Babies already most likely do this on their own by saying words like “ba” for bottle which combines the sound “b” with the sound “a”. They can also reverse the order in which they combine these vowels and consonants by putting the consonant at the end to make a word like “up”.

If you notice your child is having difficulty coordinating the movements needed to transition from one sound to the next, what do you do? You can use something we call “segmentation”. This is essentially a slight pause between the sound you are practicing saying and the rest of the sounds. For example you may take the “ba” that your child is already saying and then tack on the sound “t” to make it a new word “bat”.

Wondering where to start? Some words feel so long and overwhelming, especially if your child is just learning to talk or they are having trouble combining sounds together. No worries, we recommend you try these combinations to start:

  • Consonant Vowel (See, say, sigh, sew, Sue)
  • Vowel Consonant (ees, up, on, in)
  • Easy Sounds in the beginning of words (if we are using “S” words would include: sun, sip, sat)
  • Easy Sounds in the end of words (if we are using “S” words would include: Bus, Ice, yes)
  • Easy Sounds in the middle of words (if we are using “S” words would include: grasshopper, babysitter)

Thanks so much for tuning in and learning about sounds with us during this 5 part series. We hope you feel better equipped to help your child learn sounds and put them on the path to good speech! Message us with questions, comments, or more specific recommendations about your child!

-Kasey-