Early Consonant Sound Cues for Toddlers and Preschoolers
I found a great blog tonight with super “how to” tricks for several consonant sounds, and I’m linking the ones for toddler/early preschool consonants.
While regular readers of this site know that my philosophy is language-language-language, there is a place for “no pressure practice” for toddlers, even while your main focus is improving receptive and expressive language skills. Once language is at an age-appropriate level, or your child is preschool-aged (over 3), then you can begin sound practice as your main focus for speech therapy.
Here are the links -
http://mommyspeechtherapy.com/?cat=23 for /t/ and /d/
http://mommyspeechtherapy.com/?cat=22 for /k/ and /g/
She didn’t include tips for /p, b, m/, the earliest developing consonant sounds that I focus on all day, every day, so I’ll try to write these myself soon, unless she does all the hard work and beats me to it! Laura
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Comment by Holly on 13 July 2008:
Thanks for the link Laura. I had never heard of that website and I’m going to try some of her ideas for helping my son. Never know right, something new just might do the trick. As always thanks for keeping us imformed
Comment by Eleanor Grabach on 19 July 2008:
My daughter turned 2 in May. She is coming along fine with communicating her needs & interacting with others. However, she is beginning to repeat ending consonant sounds. IE: Milk-k-k-k, sleep-p-p-p. It is not necessarily with the same word or the same sound all the time. There is no stutter at the beginning of sentences or words, just the extra stress at the end of some words, some of the times. Is this technically a stutter, or just her way of learning sounds?
Thanks,
Eleanor Grabach
Comment by Laura on 19 July 2008:
Eleanor - It’s not totally unheard of for toddlers who are learning to include final sounds in words to add “extra” repetitions for emphasis as they are learning. I have had several children on my caseload do this over the years. And you’re right; it’s just the way she’s learning, not a stutter at all. Be sure that you (or any of her significant “others”) aren’t imitating her words this way since it will reinforce this, or modeling them for her this way to be sure she “learns” to include final consonants.
That’s how it happened to my last little client who did this. His mother over-corrected his speech to the point that he began to imitate all of her corrections, and then he over-generalized it to many words with final consonants! For my little guy, I asked his mother to completely STOP asking him to imitate her and STOP correcting him when he left off the final consonant sound in a word. It was a hard pattern for him to let go, but I hope it won’t be for you daughter. It should go away on its own in a few weeks when she’s finally mastered how she organizes her own speech-language patterns. In the meantime, you may want to watch how much you “correct” her. Just concentrate on modeling words in a “matter of fact” way. When she’s says, milk-k-k-k, say, “Oh - do you want milk?” and then move on. Certainly give no negative attention to the way she produces the word. It will likely make it worse for her to fix.
Thanks for the great question! I love to hear from our readers!!! Laura