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!
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!
