Developing listening skills for speech sounds.
When a child has difficulty saying a sound it is tempting to try to encourage them to say it.
It is important that their listening and attention is also encouraged and this should really be the first step in helping them with their speech sounds.
Sometimes by helping a child to recognise the differences between different sounds they will begin to improve their speech sounds for themselves.
When children are very small they may not be ready to listen very carefully to specific sounds and they may not be able to sit and attend for very long. Playing with sounds can help at this time and this can be done in a natural and fun way at any time of day when opportunities arise.
When a children is able to sit for a little longer and listen to someone talking then they are ready for some more specific help in developing their listening for sounds. The following activities can be used: -
Listening for a specific sound.
You say different speech sounds – your child must clap when they hear their special sound.
Write the sound boldly on a piece of paper for them to see. Colour it in and make it pretty. (They can help). Play different games for the same activity e.g. building a tower; throwing a ball into a bucket when they hear the sound; going down the slide; the activities can involve physical activity or can be done sitting at a table.
Which sound am I saying?
Your child may confuse one sound with another: Pick out the sound he says and the one you would like him to learn instead (you may like to check with your speech and language therapist that this is suitable for his stage of development). For example, if your child says ‘tey’ instead of ‘key’ then you could pick ‘t’ and ‘k’ sounds. Write each of these sounds on a large piece of paper and tell your child what the sounds are. Using some counters (about 9 or 10) say one of the sounds and ask your child to decide which one you have said. You may need to help them choose correctly at first. Continue with each of the counters in turn. When your child gets better at listening be careful not to give them too many clues. For example: Are you pointing to the correct picture with your fingers, your head, your eyes? Are you alternating between the pictures or getting into a pattern that your child can see?
Which word am I saying?
Next pick out a pair of rhyming words for your chosen sounds. For example: if you have chosen ‘k’ and ‘t’ then your rhyming words could be ‘key’ and ‘tea’, or ‘cap’ and ‘tap’. Make pictures or have objects for these words. Again use counters and ask your child to decide which one you are saying.
For these activities try to think of different games that still involve the same listening activity but that help to keep your child’s interest. For example: -
- Two cars racing along a road – Label each one with a different word. Each car moves one space when their word is said.
- Throwing a ball into buckets – have a different bucket for each word
- Flicking frogs into a hoop – have a different hoop for each word.