Clarity Accent Modification

Does your child have speech sound errors, but you’re not sure which ones?  I'll give you some examples to help you figure it out.

Does your child have speech sound errors, but you’re not sure which ones?  Let me give you some examples to help you figure it out.  I’ll start with some of the more common ones.

L and Initial R – These are often mispronounced with a ‘W’ sound, like  ‘wabbit’ for ‘rabbit’, or ‘wike’ for ‘like’.  “I see a wabbit!  I wike it!”

S and Z – These are often mispronounced with a lisp.  It could sound like a TH, SH or ZH, as in “thoup” for “soup”, “shun” for “sun”, or “zhebra” for “zebra”.  “Can I have some thoup?”   “The shun is bright today.”  “Where are my glashezh?”

TH – This might be pronounced as an F or a D.  A child might say ‘free’ for ‘three’, or ‘duh’ for ‘the’.  “Duh dog has free puppies.”

Vocalic R – This is the R that is connected to a vowel sound, like the ER at the end of ‘teacher’.  Vocalic R errors can range from a mild accent to a definite distortion that can make a third grader sound like he’s talking baby-talk.  A child might say “dowa” for “door”, or “teachoh” for “teacher.”  There’s a wide range of distorted sounds for this one.  “My teachoh is nice. She’s at the dowa.”

SH, CH, & J – These sounds will often be substituted with T or D.  Sometimes the SH might be said with an S instead.  For example, “shoe” might be pronounced “sue” or “too”.  “Watch” might be pronounced “wat”, and “pajamas” might be pronounced “padamas”.   “I take off my sues and put on my padamas.”

P & B – These sounds might be deleted altogether, as in “maw” for “mop”, or “ee” for “bee”.  Because these are some of the easier sounds to produce, these errors would most likely occur in very young children or those with co-occurring developmental or health issues. 

G & K – These sounds might be mispronounced as D or T.  For example, “dog” might be pronounced “dod”, or “cat” might be pronounced “tat”.  “I see a dod and a tat.”

F & V – These might be pronounced as P or B, as in “pun” for “fun” and “ban” for “van”.   “It’s pun to go in the ban!” 

I hope this helps you decide what sounds your child might be producing in error.  Thanks and have a nice day!

Research shows that parents who practice with their child at home can improve their child’s speech and language skills.

Hi, my name is Carol Edgel, and I’m a certified speech-language pathologist.  I hope you’ve already had a chance to watch my video, How to Tell If My Child Has a Speech-Language Disorder.  In this video, I’ll summarize the importance of parents being involved in their child’s speech and language therapy.  Research shows that parents who practice with their child at home can improve their child’s speech and language skills. 

First of all, let me just say that it seems obvious that parents should be the child’s main teacher of speech and language, as they are the first and primary influencers in a young child’s life.  What the child hears and learns as an infant and toddler can have a big effect on their skills later on.  The more a child hears words pronounced correctly, or sentences constructed correctly, the more they will imitate that.  Repetition of these forms is crucial for learning, and who better to do it than the child’s parents?  They are around the child the most, and can incorporate learning into daily life in subtle ways.

Let’s talk about how parents can improve their child’s language skills.  This is taken from the research article, “The Effectiveness of Parent-Implemented Language Interventions: A Meta-Analysis,” by Megan Y. Robertsa and Ann P. Kaisera.

1. PARENTS TEACHING LANGUAGE

Parents can improve their child’s language development by doing 4 things.

• Increase parent-child interaction – It sounds simple, and it is! Just interact with your child more.  Take a walk and talk about what you see.  Have him help with chores or cooking and talk about it.  Play with toys or games together and ask him questions.  Interact and talk as much as you can.

• Respond to child’s communication – This begins early, when a parent responds to an infant’s verbal or non-verbal attempts to communicate. It continues as the child grows.  Respond to your child when they are trying to communicate with you, as much as possible.

• Increase the amount & quality of language – As we said above, talk as much as possible with your child, but be sure to use correct grammar when you do it, even with young children. You may shorten your sentences, but you can still use correct grammar.  Use a variety of words; don’t always ‘dumb it down’.  Studies show that a child’s receptive vocabulary correlates to what he hears from his parents.  Frequently label things you see together. “That is a skyscraper.  That is asparagus.  That is a telescope.”

• Use language learning support strategies – When your child speaks, repeat and expand upon what he says. For instance, if he says, “Baby cry,” you could respond, “Yes, the baby is crying.  I can hear him crying too. I wonder why the baby is crying?”  So not only did you expand what he said into a complete sentence, you repeated the -ing form of the verb three times. 

Now let’s talk about how parents can improve their child’s speech skills.  There are many different strategies for teaching speech sounds, and the research shows that parents who are taught these strategies can be effective in helping their child improve their speech.  One such article is “Evaluation of Parent- and Speech-Language Pathologist–Delivered Multiple Oppositions Intervention for Children With Phonological Impairment: A Multiple-Baseline Design Study,” by Sugden, Eleanor, et al.

1. PARENTS TEACHING SPEECH SOUND SKILLS

Parents can improve their child’s speech sound development by doing 4 things:

• Model Correct Speech – Just as with teaching language, it’s important to speak often around your child, and to do so correctly. Model the correct pronunciation of a word.  If your child says, “I want to go wif you,” say, “You want to go WITH me?”

• Teach the Correct Way to Make a Sound – It’s important to teach the child exactly what he needs to do to make the sound correctly; sometimes modeling it is not enough. If you are not sure how to teach it, ask your child’s SLP, google it, or take a mini-class*.

• Practice With the Child Frequently – Practice makes perfect! There’s no way around it.  Have your child practice the sound by itself, in words, in phrases, in sentences, and in conversation.  There are a number of games and cards you can use to encourage your child to practice.

• Incorporate Practice into Daily Life –To really become fluent speaking correctly, your child must incorporate those skills into everyday conversation. Find subjects that include your child’s speech sound, and have conversations about it.  For instance, if your child is working on ‘R’, you could talk about rain, rabbits, or railroads. Talk with him as much as possible, in a variety of locations, and listen for his speech sound.  Encourage correct production (without embarrassing him in public).

So there you have it – simple ways you can help improve your child’s speech and language at home.  You can make a difference! 

*For specific methods on how to teach your child different sounds, check out my course ‘How to Teach Your Child Speech Sounds’ at clarityspeechandlanguage.com.  There are also courses on how to teach each individual sound to your child.  I give you step by step instructions and include practice materials as well.

Thanks for watching and have a great day!

There are multiple avenues to receive speech-language therapy for your child, some that are free to you.

Hi, my name is Carol Edgel, and I’m a certified speech-language pathologist.  I hope you’ve already had a chance to watch my video, How to Tell If My Child Has a Speech-Language Disorder.  In this video, I’ll tell you how to get help for your child.  There are multiple avenues to receive speech-language therapy, some that are free to you.

1. PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT:  First, check with your community’s public school district. 

• Preschool-Age Children -- If your child is a toddler or preschooler, you will want to search the school district’s website for a department called ‘Early Intervention Resources’ or something similar. That is where you can take your young child to be tested for speech-language disorders, as well as any other conditions that might affect your child’s learning.

• School-Age Children -- If your child is attending public school already, check with your child’s teacher and express your concerns. Chances are the teacher may have noticed some issues as well.  The teacher can contact the school’s speech-language pathologist (SLP) to set up a screening.

Keep in mind that the child must have a communication disability that affects his/her education in order to qualify for free services through the school district.  Typically, a child must receive in-class intervention measures by the teacher or SLP for a few weeks or months before any formal testing can be done.  However, if your child qualifies, he will eventually receive an IEP and speech-language services through the school SLP.

1. CHARITABLE ORGANIZATIONS: Some states or communities have charitable organizations that will pay for speech-language therapy for qualifying children.  It is worth your time to do an internet search, ask your local pediatrician or children’s hospital, or the local school district to see if they have resources to recommend.  Sometimes children can receive therapy from a charitable organization as well as school-provided therapy, which is double the help for your child.

1. PRIVATE THERAPY – If you are able to pay for private therapy, your child may receive more individual attention than what he receives through the school district. Individual sessions allow the SLP to focus solely on your child’s goals and needs, and can often speed up the improvement process.  Also, sometimes a child may not qualify for services through the school district if the evaluation team determines that the speech errors are still age-appropriate or that the speech disorder does not affect his education.  Even if your child is young and only has one error, you may still wish to treat it.  Private therapy is a good way to accomplish this.

1. PARENT PRACTICE – Even if your child is receiving therapy at school or elsewhere, parent involvement is crucial! Research shows that parent involvement can benefit a child’s speech and language progress.  If you haven’t already, watch my video, Benefits of Parents Practicing Speech and Language With Their Children.  Also, I have a list of research articles on parent involvement on my website, clarityspeechandlanguage.com.  You can make a difference!

• Online Courses for Parents -- To help parents teach their children speech skills and practice them more effectively at home, I’ve created courses with instructions and practice materials.  The courses will walk you through the entire process, step by step and sound by sound, making it easy and painless.  Please check out these courses at clarityspeechandlanguage.com.

Thanks for watching and good luck!

Parents often can see that their child is struggling with communication, but they don’t know exactly what to call it, or how to help.  I’m going to walk you through the different types of speech-language disorders and how to recognize them.

Hi, my name is Carol Edgel, and I’m a certified speech-language pathologist.  In my years of teaching, I’ve noticed that parents often can see that their child is struggling with communication, but they don’t know exactly what to call it, or how to help.  Even the child’s teachers might not know how to label it.  In this video, I’m going to walk you through the different types of speech-language disorders and how to recognize them.

1. SPEECH SOUND DISORDERS:  First there are Speech-Sound disorders.  These involve the child mispronouncing sounds.  We can divide speech-sound disorders into 2 general types:

1. Articulation Disorder – this is when the child has only a few errors. For example, the child may say, “free” instead of “three”.  F/TH is a fairly common error among young children. 

Depending on the child’s age and how hard he is to understand, the child might need to be evaluated by a speech-language pathologist.  It is always better to begin treatment while the child is young, before he has had time to build up incorrect speech habits.

1. Phonological Disorder – this is when the child has many errors and is very hard to understand. The child is unable to understand the rules of sounds (phonology).  Here is an example of how a child with a phonological disorder would speak. 

If the teacher says, “Tell me what you did last summer,” the child might respond, “We went to Talifonnia an wen to Ditneywan, an we wen to da beats an went surpin. Den we wen to Wedo Wan an Sea Wood an I saw sarts an pendins.  Den we tame home adin an dat’s all.”

The child exhibited many substitution errors, as well as deletion and distortion of other sounds. 

Rare condition -- Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) -- this is when the child cannot coordinate signals between his brain and his speech articulators in order to form words correctly.  His errors will be inconsistent, and he may exhibit groping behaviors.  The cause of CAS is usually unknown, and it is different than apraxia in adults.

Because a child with CAS or a phonological disorder will probably have many errors that make the child hard to understand, he should be evaluated by a speech-language pathologist.

1. LANGUAGE DISORDERS:  There are many facets of a language disorder.  A child may have difficulties in one area or several.

1. Syntax/Grammar – this is when the child struggles with the rules of language and can’t put together a complete sentence correctly. He may struggle to use the right verb form or pronoun when he speaks or writes.

Using the same vacation story above, a child with a grammar problem might say it this way: 

“I go California, go see Disneyland, go at beach and do surfing. Then us see Lego Land and Sea World, I see sharks and penguins.  Then us go home, go home again and that’s all.”

Notice how the child is pronouncing his sounds correctly, but is using the wrong verb tenses and pronouns, among other things.

1. Language Processing – this is when children are slower to interpret and respond to the language signals they receive.  It can take them longer to answer questions, follow directions, write a paper, or do anything involving language. It’s not that they don’t want to listen, or respond, or follow directions, it’s just that they can’t keep up with the rest of the class.  This is different than an attention disorder like ADD/ADDHD, although they can occur together.

An example would be a child who struggles to follow multi-step directions at home or at school.  Imagine if a first grade teachers is telling the class, “Take out your math book and turn to chapter 2, exercise 1.  That should be on page 54.”  Already the child will be struggling to follow the directions but the teacher will continue, “Now get out a piece of paper and write your name on the top right corner and number the paper from 1-10 down the left-hand side.”  By now the child will probably be asking the teacher, “What?  What do we do again?”  or turning to his neighbor and saying, “What page?  What do I put on the paper?” 

1. Language Comprehension – this is where the child just doesn’t understand the language input. Even if they understand the meaning of words, they may not understand the subtleties of how changing the order of words in a sentence can change the meaning.  Or they may hear the words of a story but not understand the underlying message or theme of the story.

For example, you may read your child the story of The 3 Little Pigs, and ask her, “What was the main idea of this story?”  She may answer, “Pigs!”  If you push her by saying, “Yes, there were pigs in the story, but what was the problem?” she may give up and say, “Umm… I don’t know.”

1. Language – Vocabulary – this is when children do not know the amount of words that they should know by their age. It interferes with their ability to understand others and to communicate what they want to say.  It may take them longer than average to learn and store the meaning of words, and so they might need help catching up.  This can be a particular problem if they don’t know ‘academic’ language, or language that is used in the classroom frequently, such as: title, author, absent, conclusion, community, arrive, exit, and many more.

If you suspect your child has a language disorder, she might need to be evaluated by a speech-language pathologist, depending on your child’s age and performance at school.

As with speech-sound disorders, it is best to catch language disorders early and begin treatment when the child is young.  The child’s problems with language can become more evident as they get older and try to keep up with the increased demands of the upper elementary grades and beyond.

1. FLUENCY DISORDERS – this is when the child stutters or clutters.

It is not related to what your child’s teacher might call fluency of reading, or how fast and accurately they can read.  Here we are talking about how smoothly your child can speak without multiple repetitions of sounds and words.

1. Stuttering – this is when the child is repeating sounds and words so frequently that it interferes with communication.  It may often cause stress and tension behaviors while the child is trying to get his words out – blinking, licking lips, fidgeting, groping mouth movements – anything to ease stress or postpone having to get the words out.

Most of us are familiar with what stuttering sounds like.  And most of us repeat our words or sounds on occasion.  When the amount of stuttering reaches a certain point, it becomes an issue.

For example, using the vacation story from earlier, the child who stutters might respond this way, “I–I-I - I went to Ca-Ca-Ca-Ca- California………….. We-We-, you know, we- went to D- d- d- Disneyland.  To Disneyland. ……And and and we went to Sssssss Sea World.”

1. Cluttering – this is when the child speaks unusually fast and in a somewhat disorganized way. It may sound as though they are speaking in rapid spurts, and the syllables in a word may blend together. We see cluttering less commonly, but it is worth mentioning here.  It can co-occur with stuttering.

It is not uncommon for children 3-4 years old to exhibit some  stuttering behaviors.  Often, they will grow out of it, but it’s hard to know who will and who won’t.  If your child has fluency symptoms that make it hard for family, friends and teachers to understand him, it may be time to have him evaluated by a speech-language pathologist.

1. OTHER DISORDERS – You may not be aware that there are other disorders that speech-language pathologists work with that may first occur in children or adults.

1. Voice Disorders – this is when there is an issue with the vocal cords.  Symptoms may include a very hoarse voice for an extended period with no known illness, or a voice having an unusual pitch or sound.

I hope this mini-course was helpful to you.  Please check out our other courses at clarityspeechandlanguage.com.  Thanks and have a great day!