Teaching the 'CH', 'J' and 'ZH' Sounds

TEACHING THE ‘CH’ AND ‘J’ and ‘ZH’ SOUNDS



The ‘CH’, ‘J’ and ‘ZH’ (as in ‘treasure’) sounds are all produced in roughly the same place as the ‘SH’ sound.  So once your child masters the ‘SH’ sound, these other sounds are easier to teach.

 For the ‘CH’ sound, have your child make the ‘SH’ sound, then tell him to touch his tongue to the roof of his mouth while he’s making ‘SH’.  That will stop the flow of air, but if continues to try to make ‘SH’ while holding his tongue to the roof of his mouth, it will turn into a ‘CH’ sound.  Or you could ask the child what sound a train makes and see if he makes the ‘CH’ sound at the beginning of ‘choo-choo’ on his own!
 
The ‘J’ sound is just like the ‘CH’ sound except you turn your voice on.  Have the child touch his hand to his neck to feel it vibrate when his voice is on (like humming) when he makes the ‘CH’ sound.  If the voice is on, it turns into ‘J’.

The ‘ZH’ sound is like the ‘SH’ sound except the voice is on.  So do the same steps as above, only start with ‘SH’.

Good luck!

Teaching the 'TH' Sound

TEACHING THE ‘TH ’ SOUND 

The ‘TH’ sound is somewhat easy to teach because it is easy to see whether the child is putting her tongue between her teeth or not.  Model the sound for the child, saying “Just put your tongue between your teeth a little bit and blow”.  

You can hold up a mirror for the child to see whether the tongue is in the right place or not.
There are two types of ‘TH’ sounds – a voiced ‘TH’, like the sound in the word ‘THE’, and an unvoiced ‘TH’, like the sound in the word ‘THUMB’.  Tell the child that a voiced sound is when you can feel your neck vibrate because you are making a humming sound while you blow.

The best way to practice the ‘TH’ sound is to first practice making the sound by itself, then in words, then in sentences.  


Good luck!

MULTIPLE MEANING WORDS

Recently we've been learning about multiple meaning words in our language sessions.  It's important for kids to understand that a word that is spelled one way can have more than one meaning.  They will have to determine which meaning to use based on the rest of the sentence.  For instance, the word 'tie' can be used for 'Tie your shoes' or 'Wear a tie to church.'  We know that if we hear the word 'shoes' next to 'tie', it probably means to take two pieces of lace and make a knot, and if we hear the words 'wear' and 'church' in the same sentence as 'tie', it probably means the piece of clothing a man wears around his neck.  

To practice this, we have the kids give us 2 sentences for each multiple meaning word -- one for each different meaning.  (Some words can even have 3 or 4 possible meanings!) For example, here is a list of some words that have more than one possible meaning:

And HERE is a fun Jeopardy-style game online that the kids can play to practice naming the correct multiple-meaning word.

Understanding the different meanings of words will help the students in conversation, writing, and reading.

Have fun!

KINDERGARTEN ROUNDUP

It's that time of year -- schools are holding Kindergarten roundups to see how many little kindergartners they will have in the fall.  If you have a child who is preparing to attend kindergarten next year, you may have a lot of questions.  Kindergarten roundup is a great place to get those questions answered.  What if you missed it?  Contact your school and they can give you a summary of the information you missed and the names of teachers, speech and resource personnel who can answer your questions.

When it comes to speech and language, how do you know if your kindergartner is on track or struggling a bit?

Typically, by age 5 kids will be able to correctly produce all sounds EXCEPT POSSIBLY:

J, SH, L, R, S, CH, V, Z, TH, ZH


Also, they can usually follow one or two-step directions, ask questions, know common opposites, speak in sentences of 5-6 words, and make up stories and then retell them. 

Here is a handout that will show you the typical development of speech sounds:

You can download a copy of the Therasimplicity Sound Development Chart HERE.

Here is another chart giving speech and language milestones for children aged 5, with information taken from the American Speech and Hearing Association's website:

The American Speech and Hearing Association's website also has lots of helpful info on what is typical for children ages 4-5  HERE.

Good luck preparing for kindergarten!

 

VOICING

Sometimes kids have trouble knowing when to voice or not voice their sounds.  For instance, they might say a ‘B’ sound (voiced) when they are supposed to say a ‘P’ sound (not voiced).  

What does voicing mean?  It means that your vocal cords are vibrating.  You might tell a child that his ‘voice box is turned on’.  It’s the difference between whispering and talking.  For the unvoiced sounds, you’re just moving air.  For the voiced sounds, you’re moving air and your vocal cords are vibrating.  To explain this to a child, you can tell them to put their hand on their neck and hum.   They should be able to feel their neck vibrating.

 

There are many sound pairs (cognates) in the English language that are produced exactly the same way except for voicing.   Some of these are:

P and B

T and D

S and Z

K and G

F and V

The P,T,S,K, and F are unvoiced, and the B,D,Z,G and V are voiced.

For the sound ‘V’ you can tell the child that their lip should tickle.  (For ‘F’, it will not tickle.)

For more info about teaching the difference between P and B and K and G, see my post in November titled “My Kid Says B instead of P and G instead of K”.

Antonyms and Synonyms

 

In our language sessions we sometimes work on antonyms and synonyms.  Why is it important for kids to know what things are opposites and what things are the same?  Well, one reason is that it helps the child solidify the definition of the word - it helps them understand the meaning better.  Their ability to understand antonyms and synonyms is a good indicator of how well they understand the abstract concepts of certain words.

Synonyms and antonyms are often adjectives.  These are harder words to learn than nouns, because with a noun you can usually point to it or show a picture of it (Look at the dog! That’s a dog!), but with adjectives it’s not so easy.

For instance, what does ‘hot’ mean?  You can’t really hold ‘hot’, you can only touch something that is hot and feel it.  What does ‘happy’ mean?  You can’t touch ‘happy’, but you can recognize someone who looks happy and you can feel happy.  And sometimes it’s easier to describe a word’s meaning by telling it’s opposite.  (What does ‘tall’ mean?  It’s the opposite of ‘short’!)

Some antonyms and synonyms are easier to learn than others.  Most young kids can tell you the opposite of ‘hot’, but maybe not the opposite of ‘plentiful’.   Or they might know that ‘happy’ and ‘glad’ mean the same thing, but they may not be able to tell you a synonym for ‘frustrated’.  The more of these words that they learn, the bigger their vocabulary will be, and it will also help them to think abstractly about things.  This is an important skill for them to develop as they advance through the elementary grades and move on.

There are lots of fun apps you can download to practice synonyms and antonyms.  One that I use a lot is called The Opposites by Mindshapes:  https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-opposites/id480194638?mt=8

 

And a fun site where you can play a game with synonyms and antonyms is here:

http://www.abcya.com/synonyms_antonyms.htm

 

 

Good luck!

Great app for teaching /r/ and vowels

Many kids struggle to produce a good vocalic /r/ sound – in other words, ‘Errrr’  or ‘Arrrrr’ or ‘Orrrrr’, etc.  It's like asking a child to do a complicated gymnastics routine with their tongue!  For some, it just doesn't come naturally.
 

We’ve talked about different techniques for teaching them where to put their tongue in other posts; however, it can be difficult for kids to figure out exactly what needs to go where and when.  Feedback is important, and for many kids, visual feedback can help them learn more quickly.  There’s an app called ‘Vowel Viz’ that is great for giving instant feedback.  It is intended for teaching correct vowel production, but it is also great for teaching vocalic /r/.  Below is a short video of how it can be used to learn how to say ‘ER’ correctly.  

The idea is to make the orange curser land on the ɝ symbol (the phonetic symbol for ‘ER’, as in the last syllable of ‘teacher’).  If you can get the orange curse in the oval shaded area, you are at least close.

The downside is that the app is about $30.  However, if your child is struggling with /r/ you might find it worthwhile.  My students love to use it and have made faster progress since I purchased it.  You can find more detailed info about VOWEL VIZ at the app store and a review by another speech therapist HERE.

As always, lots of practice is the key!

Good luck!

Teaching ‘Before, After, Left and Right’

This week we have been learning how to follow directions that use the terms before, after, left and right.  You’d be surprised how many kids still struggle with these basic concepts. Try asking your child to do the following:

Before you touch your nose, pat your head.

If she touches her nose and then pats her head, she is merely doing things in the order you named them, and has not understood the concept of ‘before’.  However, she may not have trouble with the following command because you say it in the order it’s to be done:

After you pat your head, touch your nose.

But if you say it with the order reversed, she may have more trouble:

Touch your nose after you pat your head.

Why is it important for kids to learn these terms?  Because they will be used all the time in the classroom, and in the real world!  For example, the teacher might say:

“Class, get out a piece of paper and number from 1-10 on the left side of the paper.”  Or, “Before you line up for recess, finish your math worksheet and put it in the basket on the desk.”

These are simple commands, and many kids who struggle with these words will simply look at their classmates and follow their example.  However; if they are on their own, they struggle.

TEACHING ‘BEFORE’ and ‘AFTER’


 The best way to teach ‘before’ and ‘after’ is to practice.  Start out with simple worksheets such as the free ones HERE.  It may also be helpful to show pictures that illustrate the concept:  an egg before and after it has been cooked, a shoe before and after it has been tied, etc.  Then practice giving them commands such as the ones above, and see if they can follow ‘before’ and ‘after’ directions even when the order it is to be done is reversed in the sentence.

 TEACHING ‘LEFT’ and ‘RIGHT’
‘Left’ and ‘right’ may be a little easier to teach, because a memory device is built into their hands!  Have the child hold up their hands in front of them with the thumbs horizontal, pointing towards the middle.   Ask them which hand forms the letter ‘L’.   It will be the one on the left, and ‘left’ begins with ‘L’, so that is easy to remember.  If they are right-handed, you can also tell them that the hand they ‘write’ with is the ‘right’ hand. (Both words sound the same).

Teaching Your Child to say 'SH'

SH


How can you teach your child to say the 'SH' sound correctly?

Well, if she can say the 'S' correctly, you're halfway there.  First of all, you can tell her to smile as she holds out an 'S' sound, and while she is doing that, have her start to pucker her lips.  You can tell her to put her finger up to her lips and become a librarian, who says, "Shhhhhhhh!"  Puckering her lips should naturally cause her tongue to back up a bit in her mouth, which is where we want to make the 'SH' sound.  So to make a good 'SH' sound, make an 'S' sound and slide your tongue back just a little bit.  Also let your tongue be a little looser.  

Imagine what you do when you put your thumb over a garden hose -- The closer your thumb is to the end of the hose and the tighter your thumb presses down, the faster and skinnier the water stream shoots out.  So compare your thumb to your tongue and the water stream to your air stream.  When your tongue is tight and close to the top of your teeth, you can make a good 'S' sound.  When your tongue backs up and relaxes a bit, it makes a good 'SH' sound.



It may take your child some practice to train her tongue to go where it should, but practice makes perfect!

PRONOUNS ARE PROS AT REPLACING NOUNS!

Recently we started working on pronouns.  The kids are learning that PRONOUNS replace NOUNS.  So instead of saying:

MARY plays basketball.

We can say:

SHE plays basketball.

And instead of saying:

THE CAR is in the driveway.

We can say:

IT is in the driveway.

Here is a chart to help you remember the basic pronouns:

Pronouns make our stories flow better.  Imagine if we never used them -- it might sound something like this:

Jane woke up one morning and went downstairs to get some breakfast.  Then Jane picked up Jane’s backpack and headed for school.  At school, Jane’s friends were waiting for Jane.  Jane and Jane’s friends went inside the school and into Jane’s classroom.  Jane sat at her desk, picked up Jane’s pencil, and began to write on Jane’s morning work paper.  Jane finished Jane’s morning work before any of Jane’s friends.  “Good work, Jane!” said Jane’s teacher.  “You get a prize for being the first student done!”  And Jane’s teacher gave Jane a big lollipop!

Sounds silly, doesn’t it?

It would sound better if we used some pronouns.  There are different types of pronouns, though.  Besides the Singular and Plural pronouns listed above, there are Possessive pronouns and Object pronouns.  Possessive pronouns like ‘her’ and ‘his’ tell us that something is owned by that person.  Object pronouns like ‘him’ and ‘them’ tell us that something is being done to or with that person.  Here is a chart listing the different pronouns:

So if we replace some of the nouns in our story with pronouns, it would sound like this:

Jane woke up one morning and went downstairs to get some breakfast.  Then she picked up her backpack and headed for school.  At school, Jane’s friends were waiting for her.  They went inside the school and into their classroom.  Jane sat at her desk, picked up her pencil, and began to write on her morning work paper.  She finished her morning work before any of her friends.  “Good work, Jane!” said her teacher.  “You get a prize for being the first student done!”  And Jane’s teacher gave her a big lollipop!

Sounds better, doesn’t it?

Hope this helps you learn about pronouns.   Remember, a PRONOUN is a PRO at replacing a NOUN!