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First Steps to Reading: Phonological Awareness

Phonological Awareness Intelligibility and Phonological Awareness In our last article we talked about intelligibility and phonological processes.  Intelligibility means being understood when you speak. Phonological processes are sound errors that children typically use while their body parts involved in speaking (jaw, tongue, etc.) are still being formed. To Read I Must Speak This week we connect the ability to speak, the ability to be understood while you speak, with the success of reading and writing.  To that end, we shall discuss phonological awareness. What is Phonological Awareness? Phonological awareness is a set of skills that includes identifying and manipulating units of oral language – parts such as words, syllables, and onsets and rhymes.  Simply put, it’s the ability to “play” with words. Reading includes identifying letters, matching the sound the letter makes, and sequencing those sounds together to form words-basically, phonological awareness.  Children that have a hard time with phonological awareness usually experience writing and reading difficulties. … Keep Reading…

Intelligibility and Phonological Processes

Intelligibility and Phonological Processes You Can Understand Me! Your heart wants to burst with joy every time you hear him talk.  You never thought he’d be verbal at such a young age! He went from making cute sounds to speaking a mile a minute in what seemed like days. Can You Understand Me? But then you start to notice things.  People smile and talk to him-that’s nothing new.  They ask what his name or age is .  But when he responds they just smile blankly, but you can tell they didn’t understand him. You realize that you often translate for him, not just to strangers but even family members. You Don’t Get Me Then there’s the final shot to your heart.  ❤ You drop him off at daycare or preschool, and you hear some bad news.  His caretakers and teachers can only understand a word or two. Some can’t understand him AT ALL.🤷🤷 What’s Intelligibility? Let’s … Keep Reading…

Articulation: Speech Sound Development

What is Articulation? Articulation is the production and quality of how speech sounds are produced.👄  Most children will never struggle when it comes to articulation, and will reach the milestones of normal speech development.  Some children will even reach those markers much quicker than others.👶 Markers for Vocalizing And then there are some children who take much longer to reach the same markers as the average child.  Before you throw in the towel let’s get a little understanding on what those normal milestones are. Finally let’s take a  look at what you can do to maybe improve your kiddo’s chances to “speak” at the expected level.👍 Use Age Ranges First off think of age ranges and not specific ages when it comes to achieving those speech markers.  Also, keep in mind that the list of markers isn’t exhaustive; we’re only including a few examples. Vocalizing and Babbling Another thing to keep in mind: vocalizing begins … Keep Reading…