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APPENDIx
C
Voiced and unvoiced consonant cognates are usually a good starting point for feature dis-crimination because children usually can feel the voicing vibration and realize that they have mastered a critical binary feature involving 16 phonemes ([p:b, t:d, k:g, f:v, s:z, S:Z, θ:ð, tS:dZ]) that they never considered previously.
The vowel diagram is a useful tool to visu-alize tongue height in relation to the top of the mouth, back/front, and open/closed features.
Because the three-dimensional area in which the tongue moves is very small, listening must be paired with miniscule movements between adja-cent vowels to distinguish differences. For this reason, polar contrasting between [i], [ɑ], and [u]
may be an easier starting point to demonstrate to the child that the tongue operates within a small space but with discrete locales for each vowel in the language. Phonemes closer to each other in proximity may sound very similar, but tactile and kinesthetic feedback can help confirm differences that are typically spelled differently. The index finger can be placed on the jaw as the high front to low front vowels are said to help distinguish vowels that are often perceptually confused, that is, [I], [E], and [æ].
Didactic information can be presented in many types of activities. Simple question/answer activities are efficient but may need an objec-tive to sustain interest, for instance, answering 20 questions in a row correctly as tallied by a smiling versus frowning face or moving from a 70% to a 95% correct criterion for an older child.
After the child demonstrates basic understand-ing, knowledge can be confirmed through further questioning.
Pictures of words can be used to identify designated phonemes with those phonemes then examined for their distinctive features. Minimal pair sets can be presented and the child asked what the phoneme or features were that made the words rhyme. The child can be asked to identify the one of six pictured words displayed on the table or the word for an object in the room that begins with an unvoiced hissing sound; a noisy, back popping sound; or a quiet, dental, friction sound. The task can be made more or less chal-lenging by adjusting the field of choices and number of phonemes/distinctive features to be
considered. Parents can extend these identifica-tion games in the car or at home, usually with an easier criterion such as, “Name a word that starts [or ends] with ___,” letting the person who first names a certain number of words choose the next phoneme (not letter).
Mirror work verifies tactile and kinesthetic feedback for many features. The mirror is also useful for comparison of mouth structures to pic-tures or diagrams of targeted articulators. Shared mirror examination of mouth features is particu-larly enlightening, so large mirrors are needed along with small ones that can confirm nasal emis-sion for nasal phonemes.
Fast naming of words beginning with a spe-cific phoneme in a 1- or 2-minute period solidifies perception of feature quality and also improves retrieval from long-term stored memory.
A number of pictures can be displayed and the child asked to put a flat marble on any pic-tured word that has a named phoneme or dis-tinctive feature. This is an example of a task in which the field can be expanded to the point that it challenges the child’s feature analysis skills.
When simplification and substitution phonologic processes overlap, charts can be used to show chil-dren how they misperceive and/or misproduce a cluster of phonemes sharing significant features.
For older children and adults, once they show good discrimination of features, or even as they are in the process of improving discrimination, they can use International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) symbols to represent phonemes, which makes the process more defined. It anchors their perception to a symbol that will not change, no matter what the word is or how variable the spelling patterns the phoneme has. They can efficiently complete an exercise that tests each feature of each phoneme in the language. The charts in Appendix B can be used as reference for exercises for phoneme feature discrimination.
The following list of example exercises rep-resents just a few simple activities that can target specific phonologic perception principles. SLPs are adept at modifying exercises such as these to be specific to the child:
1. Identify the beginning or last phoneme in heard words, pictures, or objects.
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2. Identify a numbered phoneme (e.g., third sound in fish).
3. Place beginning phoneme at the end of a word/nonword.
4. Count how many phonemes are in a word/
nonword.
5. Repeat increasingly-long nonwords.
6. Code with colored chips all the phonemes in words/nonwords with increasingly long and complex CV patterns, using the same color for duplicate phonemes (primary documentation strategy confirming speed and accuracy of phonologic perception).
7. Blend phonemes/syllables of increasing length to identify the word/nonword.
8. Place objects before the child and have the child code phonemes for the word of the object with colored chips, using the same color for duplicate phonemes.
9. Place pictures before the child and have the child code phonemes for the name of the picture with colored chips, using the same color for duplicate phonemes.
10. Say the word and ask the child if the word has a hissing, exploding, lip, teeth, coughing, librarian, or nose sound.
11. Give more than one feature and have the child name a phoneme(s) with those specified feature(s).
12. Name a specified number of words that have a given phoneme in the beginning, middle, or end of words.
13. Name words while in the car that start/end with a (e.g., hissing, exploding, lip, teeth, coughing, librarian, or nose) phoneme.
14. Sort a stack of pictures by a specified phoneme into beginning, ending, and middle word-position piles.
15. Tap and count syllables in words/nonwords.
16. Identify the stressed syllable in words with two or more syllables.
17. Play Pig Latin.
18. Play Clue by giving some phonemes and their positions and having the child guess the word.
19. Blend phonemes and syllables to identify the word/nonword they represent.
20. Say words/nonwords with a missing syl-lable/phoneme and have the child guess the word/nonword.
21. Specify one or more phoneme-color matches, for example, red is always [p] and [i] is always white (depending on memory skills), and have the child code spoken words/nonwords using colored chips.
22. Say a sentence(s) slowly and have the child clap every time a specified phoneme is heard.
23. Have the child say which articulator(s) par-ticipated in a specified phoneme.
24. Have the child say a descriptor for the begin-ning phoneme of each word in a sentence (e.g., hissing, coughing, exploding, lip, teeth, librarian, or nose).
25. Reverse roles and have the child give direc-tions to the clinician and see if the clinician follows directions correctly, with occasional intentional errors.
26. Ask:
n Did your nose tingle when you made that sound?
n How many sounds make the nose tingle?
n Which one of these sounds pops or explodes?
n What is the “twin” of [tS]?
n Which of these sounds hisses?
n Was your tongue forward or back for [ŋ]?
n What did your teeth touch?
n Tell me five features of [f].
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