| I have found some interesting facts about | | | | your error. For example, if a child says, "Dide" for |
| language and children's language and speech | | | | slide, and if you repeat to her, "Dide?" she is likely |
| learning that you may not have heard before. | | | | to shake her head or say, "No," or "No...DIDE!!" In |
| Here are some fun tidbits for you to think about | | | | my many years of work with young children, I |
| and share with others. | | | | haven't met a child who accepts the repetition of |
| It's no surprise that the many names for mama | | | | his error production as correct or to be what he |
| mom/mother and papa/dad/father in the world's | | | | said. Therefore, I believe that this is a motor |
| languages usually start with speech sounds that | | | | production error and not an auditory perceptual |
| are easier for a very young child to pronounce. | | | | problem. It is not that the child "mishears" what is |
| These sounds include m, p, n, d, f in words such | | | | said to him. His phonological rule system may be |
| as mama, maman, mère, mor, mäe, | | | | immature or disordered, or his motor planning |
| madre, mutter, moeder, papa, papá, | | | | "wiring" may be scrambled, but this is not an issue |
| père, dada, nana, pai, padre, far, vati, | | | | of "hearing" or "perceiving" sounds correctly or |
| vader. | | | | incorrectly. |
| There are 44 sounds and 26 letters in the English | | | | Babies who are developing their language and |
| language. A word can have more letters than | | | | speech skills normally actually babble all of the |
| sounds. For example, the word hat has 3 letters | | | | sounds of all of the world's languages. As they |
| and 3 sounds, but the word hatch has 5 letters | | | | hear the language spoken around them, the |
| and 3 sounds (h + a + ch). | | | | sounds needed for production of that particular |
| In terms of describing a child's speech difficulties, | | | | language are reinforced and retained; the sounds |
| it is preferable that you describe the sounds | | | | not used in the language they hear drop out of |
| rather than the letters your child has trouble | | | | babbled production. Children are "pre-wired" to |
| saying. For example, your child may have trouble | | | | learn language and speech-any language-and are |
| saying the /k/ sound; this is more accurate than | | | | not destined by genetics to learn just the |
| saying your child can't say the c or the k letter. | | | | language they are born into. The environment |
| When children misarticulate or mispronounce | | | | shapes that language outcome. A child born in |
| words, they truly believe they are producing the | | | | Japan of Japanese parents learns to speak |
| words correctly. If you say back to the child her | | | | Japanese. If that same child were raised from a |
| error production, she will probably reject your | | | | young age in Greece by Greek adoptive parents |
| production as "wrong" or wrinkle up her nose at | | | | caregivers, she would speak Greek perfectly. |