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”.