Did You Know? Speech/Language Articulation & Phonology Phonological Awareness Vocabulary Phonological processes are the patterns that young children use while their speech and language are developing. For example, very young children (ages 1 to 3) may say “wa-wa” for “water” or “tat” for “cat.” By age five, most children stop using all phonological processes. If children continue to use these processes, their speech becomes very difficult to understand. The following 10 phonological processes are often addressed in speech therapy: FINAL CONSONANT DELETION is the deletion of the final consonant or consonant cluster in a syllable or word. Ex: “soap” is pronounced “so”. FRONTING (VELAR AND PALATAL) is the substitution of sounds in the front of the mouth, usually alveolars, for velar or palatal sounds. Ex: “key” is pronounced “tea”. STOPPING is the substitution of a stop consonant for a fricative or an affricate. Ex: “shoe” is pronounced “two”. CLUSTER REDUCTION is the deletion of one or more consonants from a two or three consonant cluster. Ex: “spill” is pronounced “pill”. STRIDENCY DELETION is the deletion of a strident sound “f, v, sh, ch, s, z and j (as in judge)” or the substitution of a non-strident sound for a strident sound. Ex: “fin” is pronounced “in”. Ex: “fish” is pronounced “pish”. GLIDING occurs when /r/ becomes /w/ or /l/ becomes /w/ or /j/ (as in judge). Ex: “rabbit” is pronounced “wabbit” Ex: “leg” is pronounced “weg”. PREVOCALIC VOICING is the voicing of an initial voiceless consonant in a word. Ex: “toe” is pronounced “dough”. POSTVOCALIC DEVOICING is the devoicing of a final voiced consonant in a word. Ex: “bag” is pronounced “back”. INITIAL CONSONANT DELETION is the deletion of the initial consonant in a syllable or word. Ex: “boat” is pronounced “oat”. NASALIZATION is the substitution of a nasal consonant for a non-nasal consonant. Ex: “ball” is pronounced “mall”. Phonological awareness is the knowledge that words are made up of individual sounds. Sound awareness comes before print awareness and decoding written words. It begins developing during the preschool years. By age 5 children who have been exposed to rhyming begin to detect rhymes, or fill in the missing rhyming word in a familiar rhyme. Also, by this age most children have memorized poems or finger plays which are also part of phonological awareness development. Phonological awareness skills include rhyming, syllabification, blending, isolating the beginning or ending sounds of a word, segmenting words into sounds, and deleting the beginning or ending sounds of a word. The brain stores new words, experiences, and other information in categories. For example, if you ask someone to tell you about the beach, he/she will begin to recall words like ocean, sand, waves, towel, and bathing suit. He/she may also remember a specific trip to the beach. All this information is organized in categories. A child with a language impairment may have difficulty organizing information into categories. The problem may occur because they have difficulty making associations between words, as well as retrieving these words from memory. Auditory Processing Sequencing Skills Auditory processing is the ability to understand what is being said. Auditory sequencing is the ability to remember a series of words, sounds, or numbers in the same order that they were spoken. Auditory memory is the ability to remember what was said. Auditory discrimination is the ability to hear subtle differences in similar sounds. Ex: Hearing the difference between the words “bit” and “bat”. A child with a central auditory processing disorder may have difficulty distinguishing speech from background noise, such as a noisy classroom. Often children with auditory processing problems can remember general information, but have trouble recalling details. Sequencing is the process of putting events, ideas, or objects in logical order. Having this skill allows children to see the relationships between cause/effect and actions/consequences. Beginning readers need the skill in order to recognize small differences in the letter order of words. Encourage children to orally tell the story as they put pictures in order. Use the words “first, Next, Last” to reinforce sequencing. The importance of understanding a beginning, middle, and an ending is essential when writing stories. These are a few of the reasons sequencing practice is so important.

Did You Know? Speech/Language Questioning Hearing and Sign Language Park Hill Criteria Sound System Disorders Children follow a developmental sequence while learning to process and answer “WH” questions. “What is the earliest question form mastered, followed by “who” and “where,” and finally by “when” and “why.” Children often have difficulty understanding the meaning of “WH” questions. For example, they may answer “When” questions incorrectly because they don’t understand the meaning of the “when” concept. Ex: The teacher asks, “When do you take a bath?” and the student answers, “In the bathtub.” Cues (hints) often help children answer “WH” questions. Here are some examples of types of cues used: VISUAL CUES include showing the child photos, illustrations, or actual objects. GESTURAL CUES include pointing to pictures or objects. In addition, a teacher may mimic actions in order to give a hint. Ex: The teacher may ask, “What do you do with a fork?” The teacher could mimic picking up food from a plate and placing it in his/her mouth. MULTIPLE ANSWER CUES narrow the correct answer choices for the child, helping the child to focus. Ex: The teacher may say, “What do you wear on your feet . . . shoes or mittens?” 28 million Americans have some degree of reduced hearing sensitivity. Every day 12,000 babies (1 of every 300 newborns) are born in the U.S. with significant hearing loss. Hearing loss in infants and children of all ages can interfere with normal language development. The earlier a hearing loss is diagnosed, the sooner it can be treated. A child may have a hearing loss and should be tested by an audiologist if the child has frequent ear infections, talks in a very loud or very soft voice, seems to favor listening with one ear, seems to daydream or be inattentive, or closely watch the speaker’s face. Among school age children, nearly 5 million school days are missed each year due to ear infections. Infection of the middle ear is known as otitis media. Left untreated, the infection can lead to permanent damage to the ear. Boys have more ear infections than girls, but ALL children have a higher risk of ear infections when they’re exposed to secondhand smoke. Criterion Age Sound Age 3 M H W P B Age 3:6 N D K F (initial) Age 4 T G Age 5 Y -- /j/ Age 5;6 F (final) V W blends (tw, kw) Age 6 L (initial) L blends Age 7 TH (voiced) S & Z SH & CH S clusters/blends J -- /dz) L (final) Age 8 R and R blends TH (voiceless) ZH & NG Age 9 TH blend (thr) Autism Dysfluency Autism occurs in one of two or every 1000 births, It is four times more prevalent in boys than girls. Autism is a developmental disability that typically appears during the first three years of life. Autism affects people throughout the world in families of all racial, ethnic, and social backgrounds. Autism is diagnosed primarily by observing the child’s behavior. Some behaviors are seen more consistently than others. These include poor eye contact and poor social interactions. Autism is a “Spectrum” disorder. This means the degree of impairment can be mild to severe. In addition, there are a multitude of behavioral combinations, and no “one-size-fits-all” diagnosis for autism. Many children with autism are over-stimulated in noisy and active environments. They will cover their ears or cry when they hear certain sounds. Combining pictures, gestures, and/or objects helps a child with autism to communicate. Dysfluency is also known as stuttering. A person who stutters may have whole or part word repetitions. Ex: “My, my, my dog is brown” or “To-to-today is her birthday.” In addition to hesitating, prolonging, and repeating, a dysfluent person may have excessive eye blinking, fist clenching, and facial grimacing. Between the ages of 2 and 5, many children go through a normal period of dysfluency, repeating words and phrases. Ex: “Daddy, Daddy, let’s go-let’s go play!” A speech-language pathologist is the professional who diagnoses dysfluency and designs a therapy program. Speech therapy is not a “cure” for stuttering, rather the focus is on teaching strategies for making speech as smooth as possible (fluency). Strategies may include learning special breathing and relaxation techniques.