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Monday, January 14, 2019

Modeling Basics for Articulation Skills

Practice, practice, practice!
The following article is from my book, The Pringle Plan for Pre-Reading Skills.

   As your child’s most important teacher, you are a role model for everything. Children observe how their parents walk, eat, behave, feel, and learn. Your child will also observe how you talk. Not just the sounds you make, but how your mouth moves as it forms sounds and words. She’ll notice how the expression on your face changes as you speak, and how the words and expressions relate to your feelings and tone of voice.

Articulation begins with making sounds. Your child needs you to explain what all those other sounds are that she is hearing: the hum of the refrigerator, the swish of the washer, the bark of the neighbor’s dog, and the tweets of the birds in the trees. Explain and point to where the sounds are coming from. Then have her point and name the sounds as she is able. Together, you can have fun trying to make those sounds. Take turns, laugh, and try again. 

Remember to speak in an elaborative style. By elaborative, I mean you are going to elaborate on everything. Speak in complete sentences that include articles (the, a, an) and verbs (is, are). Using complete sentences means you have communicated a complete thought. You will build your child’s vocabulary, and make it possible for them to understand Standard American English, the dialect used by most North Americans, and in most of the North American books your child will read. Many households use a restrictive style of speech at home. A parent may shout, “Go!” and point in the direction of the child’s bedroom. While this may sound efficient, in the long run it is more work, because it does nothing to develop articulation skills or background knowledge. A parent using an elaborative style would look at their child and say, “You need to go sit in your room for three minutes because you hit your baby brother. I want you to go think about why that is wrong. I will come get you when it is time, and I will expect you to apologize for what you did that was wrong.” I know – that seems like an awful lot of explaining, but that’s the point. You have to explain everything to build background knowledge, and you have to articulate everything in complete sentences in order for your child to comprehend the language of Standard American English. Children who grow up in households using a restrictive style have a much harder time learning to read. The children from elaborative style homes will progress quickly, leaving the restrictive style kids falling further and further behind. Having said all that, don’t worry; I won’t judge you if you first shout, “Go!” and then later elaborate. After all, she just hit her baby brother for goodness sake!

As to which sounds your child should be able to articulate, you will see many different scales online, but in general they agree on:

By ages 2-3    p, m, h, n, w, b
      Ages 3-4   t, d, f, g, k, ng, y
      Ages 4-5   v, r, l, s, ch, sh, z, j, bl
      Ages 5-6  may still be learning l-blend, and r-                           blend sounds
     Ages 7-8   may still be working on th, zh, z, and                         s-blends

If your child is having minor articulation difficulty, you may want to pick up some articulation drill cards at an educational supply store. These cards have pictures and words that focus on a particular sound. The sound will be in the beginning, medial, or end position of the word. Young children need to think of practice as a game. Here are a few ideas:
  • Child gets to feed the card to a stuffed animal, after trying to say the word. 
  • Use a mirror, so your child can see if his mouth is moving like yours. 
  • Child gets to keep the card (until game ends) if she articulates the word correctly. 
  • Play a memory game using 2-3 pairs of cards turned upside down. Try to match up pairs, articulating the word each time she turns over a card. Add more pairs as she becomes skilled at this game. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to teach her how to take turns while you’re at it!

Once children master articulation at the word level, they are often able to apply that skill at the phrase and sentence level. For those students who are not able to apply what they’ve learned, you will need to help them practice phrases first. You can find articulation work books at education supply stores. Practice in sets of ten. When your child has repeated all 10 phrases correctly three days in a row, she has mastered that sound at the phrase level. Now she is ready to move on to the sentence level. Use the same method. Practice in sets of ten sentences. Some young children have trouble remembering all seven or eight words in a sentence, so you’ll need to begin by breaking the sentence apart into two – three phrases. Then encourage her to try putting all the words together to form a sentence. When she is able to repeat all ten complete sentences, and articulate the target sound correctly three days in a row, she has mastered the sentence level.

Keep in mind that this requires a lot of patience on your part. Getting mad or frustrated won’t help. Your child is learning the best she can. We all learn and mature at our own rate. We all have our strengths and weaknesses. If your child has not mastered all the same sounds your friend’s child has, that does not necessarily mean there is a problem. Proper articulation is developed over a wide range of ages.


On the other hand, if you can’t understand your child, or your child is not making progress in her speaking skills, talk to your pediatrician about getting an evaluation from a speech pathologist. Many insurance policies will cover private services. You can also look into whether your child qualifies for speech and language services through your local school district.


See books by Laura S. Pringle on Amazon

 The Pringle Plan is a series of educational guides.

 ©2018 Laura S. Pringle. All Rights Reserved.

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