Practicing Letter Sounds

It is no wonder why it is frustrating for children (people in general) to not be able to communicate their needs. If your child or loved one is like mine, they mostly babble and are able to make some consonant sounds. If you were to google some of the most common letter sounds that kids master it would go as the following: P, B, D, M, N, H, and some charts include "W". The next set of consonant sounds would be: T, K, G, F, and some charts include "NG" and "Y". My husband purchased the following device to help our son with practicing letter sounds in isolation. It includes 24 cards to help promote speaking letter sounds. The cards include sounds such as "ch", "oi", "th" (voiceless), "th" (unvoiced), and other sounds children should be making as well. The device includes a little mirror where the child is able to see their mouth move as they try to pronounce the letter sound, a picture of the placement of someone's mouth as they make that letter sound, and 2 different pictures that use that letter sound in the word. The following is the process we use when using this device: We let our son know what letter it is (point to letter at the top left) and then we model the sound while making sure he is looking at our mouth. Then we hit the button on the top left or have him push the button to reinforce that sound. The picture on the bottom left shows him the placement of the mouth as well when that sound is made. We then go over the two pictures on the right by having him push the buttons and emphasizing the letter sound in that word. I want to stress that we do NOT practice this activity for long (about 1-2 minutes) and have started this practice with sounds we know he has made in the past to help boost his self-esteem as we move towards sounds he has not made yet. That is why it is important for us to know which sounds kids typically tend to make as they develop. It is important for us to work on this everyday. If you are interested in learning more about helping your child learn how to pronounce letters in isolation, I highly suggest you watch Carrie Clark's Youtube video at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_qdTJJDbIw. Carrie is a certified Speech Therapist and runs Speech and Language Kids Hub, a website with many tools and techniques to promote language.

Disclaimer: I am not sponsored by hand2mind and the device was purchased out of our own money. I am also not sponsored by Carrie Clark and have not/ will not receive any compensation by promoting her highly resourceful tips.