Super Star Speech

Here are some more questions that I have been asked:

(See my first FAQ post here.)

My child has trouble with vowel sounds. Do your materials cover vowels?

No, but they do cover most of the consonant sounds. It is unusual for children to have trouble with vowel sounds and if they do, it is likely that the articulation disorder may be severe enough to beyond the scope of Super Star Speech. However, the principles in the book, and the practice activities are easily generalized and may be used with vowel sounds as well as consonants. Just be aware that no specific instructions or speech tips are offered for vowels in the books.

Should I buy physical books or e-books?

This is primarily a matter of personal preference. The e-books are more economical, although they may be less convenient. Either way, you will want to print  or copy many of the pages. The e-books are very convenient for printing out picture cards and practice games. You will probably want to copy the picture cards in the spiral-bound books onto card stock, but they could be removed and used as is.

Does my child need to be able to read to use Super Star Speech?

No, your children will not need to read to use the materials. I use the same activities with non-readers all the time when I do therapy. Super Star Speech has only a few reading activities. Since you will be helping your children practice and playing the games with them, you will just read the word or sentence for them and have them repeat, or fill in the blank.  The sound specific books (Super Star R and L, etc) are geared for somewhat older children and have more reading activities, but again, nearly anything can be read aloud by the parent. Many of the activities are picture-based.

And, the most frequent question..”My child has only a few error sounds. Which books do I need?”

If your child only has a few problem sounds and these sounds are covered by specific books (r,l,s,z,sh,ch,j,th), then you ONLY need the specific book(s) that cover those sounds. For example, if your child can’t say /r/, then don’t buy Super Star Speech. Just buy Super Star R and L. It has everything you need. If your child has trouble with /r/, /s/, and /z/, I would suggest buying both Super Star R and L and Super Star S, Z, and Sh. You would be fine with only Super Star Speech, since it covers all sounds, but I really think you would be happy with the many additional games and practice activities provided in the sound-specific books.

It can be frustrating when your child makes repeated articulation errors. In some cases, you KNOW that the child can produce the sound if you ask him to. But, should you stop your child frequently to make corrections? Will that help to improve his speech, or will it just frustrate him?

Mastery of speech sounds follows an order of progression. First the child learns to imitate the sound by itself. Then he learns to produce it in single words. At this point, it still takes some focus and concentration to produce it correctly. In conversation, however, the child is thinking about his ideas and has little awareness of what his mouth is doing to produce his sounds and words as he speaks. For sounds to be produced correctly in connected speech, the habits of correct tongue placement have to be automatic.

So….stopping your child while he or she is speaking will likely result in little or no improvement in his speech. He is simply unable to monitor every speech sound and effectively communicate his message at the same time. What correction of conversational speech is likely to do is  to make your child self-conscious of his speech and less willing to talk. It may also make him feel that you are uninterested in his ideas and stories. Remember that the transfer of ideas and back and forth interaction is the ultimate goal of communication. Any attempts to improve your child’s articulation should not interfere with that.

If you want to point out some sound errors to your child, or to encourage better speech, try choosing a time when you are not busy or hurried. Model one of his difficult sounds and have him try to imitate you. If he is able to imitate the sound, have him repeat some words beginning with that sound. If he has trouble repeating the sound, have him watch your mouth carefully. Think about what your mouth and tongue are doing, so that you can explain it to him. For many children, this simple activity will encourage him to master the sound and eventually carry it over into conversation, although this is unlikely to happen immediately. The Super Star Speech book includes a separate page of instructions for teaching your child almost every speech sound as well as picture cards and other activities for practicing sounds.

Be patient with your child’s progress, work with his speech sounds in a low-pressure way, and  seek professional help if needed. But above all, make communication a positive experience for your child!

Whether your child is in formal speech therapy, or whether you are working with him or her on your own, consistent practice is very important. What are some ways you can incorporate speech practice into your day?

1. If you homeschool, add speech practice into your daily schedule. Consider that 10-15 minutes to be as important as math or science. If your child is in traditional school, add a few minutes of speech practice to homework time each night.

2. Have your child repeat 10 of his practice words as you sit down to each meal.

3. Play a board game. Have your child say one of his words 3 times before he takes each turn.

4. Read an alphabet book. Emphasize the sounds your child has trouble with and encourage him to repeat.

5. Keep a practice page in the car to work on while driving around town. Use those otherwise wasted minutes!

6. Hop across the room, saying a word or sound on each hop.

7. Read a list of your child’s target words, mispronouncing some of them. See if he can identify your mistakes.

8. Praise your child’s progress! Be encouraging, and stop before he gets frustrated.

9. If you are using the Super Star Speech materials, follow a drill session with a game.

Keep sessions frequent, but brief. Think of ways to make practice fun. You will be pleased at the progress your child will make!

If you’d like a “jumping off place” for more reading about speech therapy, autism, and hearing disorders, take a look at this article referencing the 20 Best Speech Therapy Blogs. I’m familiar with some of these blogs, but not all, and plan to spend some time browsing through them. They contain a wealth of information!

A child with an articulation disorder may have six or eight or even more different sound errors. When a speech pathologist is making a treatment plan, where does he or she begin?

First, an articulation test is given to the child. This test will assess every sound in every word position. Then the speech pathologist will determine whether the sound is stimulable–whether the child can imitate the sound. Then the sound errors will be compared to normative data to determine whether each sound should even be mastered by the child’s age. For example, if a 3 year old cannot pronounce /r/, that is not a concern, because 3 year olds are not expected to produce this difficult sound. This articulation sounds chart will give you some guidelines on the ages at which various sounds should be mastered.

Traditionally, treatment begins with 1-4 sounds that are stimulable and early developing. When the initial sounds are mastered, treatment moves on to sounds that are later developing and/or not stimulable. There are many variables, however. For example, if a child produced a sound correctly 50% of the time, I would assume that it might be mastered eventually without assistance, so I would choose a sound with which the child had more difficulty. I might choose a sound that was in the child’s name or another sound important in the child’s life, even though it might not fit the usual criteria.

Current research in speech pathology is leading in another direction. Some speech pathologist are advocating teaching sounds that are the most difficult, that are not stimulable, and that are not similar to each other. Although this can be more frustrating for the child and initial progress may seem slow, evidence is showing that this method results in learning transfer to sounds that are never worked with in therapy, shortening the overall time needed in therapy.

Overall, I really think that the most important point is for a child who needs speech therapy to get it. Any child who is learning and practicing new sounds will make progress, while a child whose speech disorder is neglected may not improve on his own.

Some speech sounds are very similar.  Two different sounds may be produced with the exact same tongue movement. They may be explosive, short sounds, like t, k, and p. Or they may be stretched out “sibilant” sounds like s or f.  When a speech pathologist (SLP) evaluates a child’s articulation, not only does he or she listen to and evaluate every speech sound, but the SLP will analyze the errors for patterns of mispronunciation. This will often help him or her devise the best and most efficient therapy plan.

Sounds that differ from each other by only one feature are referred to by speech pathologists as “minimal pairs.”  The most common minimal pairs used in speech therapy are the voiced/unvoiced sound pairs. Speech sounds can be produced with the voice on (all vowels, /r/, /l/, /z/, etc.) or with the voice off (/s/, /t/, /k/, etc.).  There are many English sounds that are actually almost identical to another sound in their production. The only difference is whether the voice is “turned on” or “turned off.”

Say, “sssssss.”  You didn’t use your voice, did you? Now say, “ssssss” and turn on your voice. The /s/ just turned into a /z/!  The placement of the tongue and the manner of articulation is identical for the two sounds. Only the voicing is different. This is something that never occurred to me until I was taking courses in speech pathology, so I thought it might be new information for my reader, too!

These are the minimal pairs that differ only in voicing.

p, b

t, d

k, g

s,z,

ch, j

th (thin), th (that)

f, v

When a child is in speech therapy, the voiced/unvoiced pairs will usually be taught at the same time. It is very common, for example, for a child to work on  the /s/ and /z/ sounds together. Practicing one of these sounds will reinforce the other.  At other times, the speech pathologist will choose to focus on sounds that have a different common feature, such as voiced sounds or tongue-tip sounds. Alternatively, the SLP may choose several sounds that have no common features–this procedure has been shown to encourage the acquisition of many sounds that aren’t even addressed!

When you think of a speech/language disorder, what comes to your mind? A child who stutters? One who says, “wabbit” for “rabbit?”  An autistic child who has only a few words in his spoken vocabulary?  Speech-language pathologists work with a wide range of issues. These issues fall into several main categories:

Articulation

Articulation disorders include any type of speech sound errors.

Language

A language disorder is a deficit in receptive language (comprehension), expressive language (speaking), or both.  The child may have deficits in vocabulary, have difficulty formulating complete sentences or difficulty answering questions. He may exhibit poor grammar or misuse pronouns. His speech may sound fairly normal, but he may not use it appropriately in social situations.

Stuttering

A child (or adult) who stutters has difficulty with the fluency of his speech. He or she may repeat sounds or syllables. He may stretch out sounds at the beginning of words or “get stuck” when speaking. He may avoid social situations that he fears will cause him to stutter.  Many children exhibit short periods of disfluency between the ages of two and four as their language skills are rapidly increasing. This can be perfectly normal. If the symptoms are severe, or if the patterns continue beyond four, it may be indicative of a stuttering problem that needs speech therapy.

Voice Disorders

The most common voice disorder in children is a hoarseness caused by vocal abuse. This is typically seen in little boys that scream a lot. It is also common in singers. This vocal abuse can cause physical damage that requires surgery. A speech pathologist can work with the child to help him or her learn speaking methods that will be gentle on the vocal folds, allowing the damage to heal.

Another common voice issue with children is hyponasality or hypernasality. These are generally affected by cleft palate (repaired or unrepaired) or hearing impairment.

Speech-language pathologists also work with some issues that are not directly related to speech, such as swallowing disorders.

If you suspect that your child may have a problem in any of these areas, a speech and language assessment may be advisable. A speech pathologist can help determine whether your child’s speech behaviors need remediation, should be watched and rechecked later, or are within normal limits for his age.

You may have heard of  “apraxia,” but are unsure exactly what it is. Perhaps you have wondered whether your child’s speech problem falls under this category.  The official term for apraxia, approved by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), is “childhood apraxia of speech.”  Adults can also be diagnosed with “apraxia of speech,” but this generally refers to an acquired disorder.

Most children with articulation disorders have errors that follow  a predictable developmental pattern. Certain sounds, like /p/, /b/, /m/, /n/, /w/ are mastered first and are consistently produced correctly. More difficult sounds, such as /th/, /r/, and /ch/ are usually mastered later. Most children with articulation delays have no trouble with vowels or the rhythm of speech.

Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is a deficit in the motor planning and programming of speech.  It is a neurologically-based disorder. Children with CAS have severe speech problems that don’t follow developmental patterns. Some of the indicators of Childhood Apraxia of Speech are:

-Inconsistent errors–A child may produce a sound in one context, but not in another. The child may make different errors when repeating the same word or phrase several times.

-Pauses between the sounds and syllables of a word

-Abnormal rhythm of speech

-Difficulty producing vowels

-More errors in longer and more complex utterances

-Unusual errors

Treatment of apraxia requires different therapy techniques from standard articulation therapy. If you suspect that your child may have apraxia, it is important to seek assessment and treatment from a speech-language-pathologist with experience in this area.

F and V are fairly easy sounds to teach because they are produced at the front of the mouth, making it easy for the child to watch and imitate. Children who have trouble with these sounds commonly substitute P for F and B for V, although other errors may also be made.  The F  and V sounds should be mastered by age four.
F and V are produced by touching the upper teeth to the lower lip. F is produced by passing the breath between the teeth and lip. V is produced in the same way with the voice “turned on.”
Teaching Tips:
1. F and V are easy sounds to teach because the placement is so easy to see. Instruct the child to “bite his lip and blow” to produce F. After the F is produced, instruct him to “turn his voice on” to produce the V.  Use of a mirror may be helpful.
2. Work on auditory discrimination between the error sound and F or V. (“Is this a pig or a fig?”)
3. If V is not being vocalized, thereby sounding like an F, have the child feel the vibrations on his neck while saying the sound. Produce V before or after a vowel (“Va, Vee, uh-V”).

Super Star Speech: Speech Therapy Made Simple includes more tips and instructions, word lists, picture cards and practice activities to help parents teach /f/ and /v/, as well as most other speech sounds to their children.

What causes an articulation disorder? Why do some children have perfect speech at age three while others are difficult to understand at age seven?

There are many causes of articulation disorders. Some children have a hearing loss, either permanent or intermittent loss caused by frequent ear infections. When children go through the critical language learning period of birth to three years, it is very important that they be able to clearly hear those around them. Even a mild loss may make it difficult for the child to differentiate sounds, making it harder for him to master those sounds in his own speech. Hearing deficits account for over 10% of all speech defects.

Other children have physical disabilities that hinder them from producing accurate articulation. Certainly, structural differences, such as cleft palate can cause difficulties with nasality or articulation. Other children have a tongue-tie (ankyloglossia) that may be undiagnosed, yet prevent them from raising the tongue enough to produce the tongue-tip sounds, although this is seldom a significant factor.

Neuromuscular problems, such as cerebral palsy, can affect the control of the speech mechanism. These include dysarthria and apraxia. Dysarthria is a problem with the motor control of the speech mechanism while apraxia is a problem with the coordination of speech.

Children with overall developmental delays often have corresponding delays in the development of both language and articulation skills. It is always advisable to consider a child’s mental age when assessing his speech and language skills.

In most cases, however, there is no known cause for the articulation delay. Most children with articulation delays have no other disabilities. Their language skills are normal. Their home environments are loving and stimulating, and they are of normal intelligence. While it is wise for parents to obtain advice and assistance dealing with their children’s speech errors, they are in no way at fault.

When a speech-language pathologist evaluates a child, he or she will consider the possible causes of a disorder.  These contributing factors will often need to be addressed or at least considered in the treatment decisions. Ultimately, however,  the primary focus  will be on remediation, whether or not any cause is apparent.