Logic of English Foundations

[vaquitita]

My original plan for teaching my 4th kid to read was to just go super simple, Explode the Code and BOB books. But now I'm looking at LOE because 1) this kid's pronunciation is terrible. I mean I've had three older kids and nobody was as hard to understand as this kid. He's 4 and he sounds like he's 2. It's not his hearing, because if you repeat what he says he can hear the difference and gets mad. It seems like LOE actually teaches them how to make the letter sounds? I'm thinking he may need that. And 2) he's a wiggly little boy who has had way more screen time then any of my others and the fun and games aspect would probably go over much better than the workbook method.

 

So my questions are 1) will LOE help him with his pronunciation? And 2) do I need to use their handwriting workbook? I used HWOT with his older brother, he liked it, and the directions were much more wiggly boy friendly than the stuff I used with my older kids. So if possible, is like to continue with HWOT.

[Tanaqui]

Vaquitita, hold up. Are you saying that you and other close family members frequently have trouble understanding him? Because if you're not exaggerating here then it might be time to get an evaluation. A four year old should be comprehensible to people who live with him, even if he's hard for strangers to understand.

 

Edited March 18, 2018 by Tanaqui

[vaquitita]

Vaquitita, hold up. Are you saying that you and other close family members frequently have trouble understanding him? Because if you're not exaggerating here then it might be time to get an evaluation. A four year old should be comprehensible to people who live with him, even if he's hard for strangers to understand.

We understand him 95% of the time. There's an occasional word that I never do figure out. The other kids can usually tell me tho. Lol

[Tanaqui]

Okay, I definitely misread you then!

[sweet2ndchance]

1) will LOE help him with his pronunciation?

Yes, it does deal with pronunciation but not to the extent that a child that struggles with pronunciation would need, at least in my opinion, having had 3 out of 6 kids need speech therapy, one of which is still in intense speech therapy for apraxia and at age 5 we still have times where we can't understand him. For a child who has normal, age appropriate mispronunciations, like still saying "lellow" for yellow and "busghetti" for spaghetti in kindergarten, yes the pronunciation work in LOE will be helpful. For a child who still consistently makes errors that are not age appropriate, something more intense on pronunciation will be needed.

 

You said you can understand him 95% of the time, is that because his speech is correct 95% of the time or because he makes consistent mistakes (always or almost always mispronounces the words the same way) and you just know that when he says "X" he really means "Y"? You also said he sounds like a two year old, can strangers who have never met him before understand 95% of what he says or do you often have to translate for him like you might have to do for a two year old? A four year old should be 95% to 100% intelligible to both family and people he has never met before like a cashier in a store. Some mispronunciation still is normal but it shouldn't interfere with his ability to communicate with anyone at this age. If you have to translate more than just a word here or there every once in a while for strangers, then it is probably time to at least get a speech evaluation.

 

 

 

2) do I need to use their handwriting workbook?

 

No, you can use whatever handwriting you want.

Edited March 18, 2018 by sweet2ndchance

[kristin0713]

It's not his hearing, because if you repeat what he says he can hear the difference and gets mad.

I wouldn’t dismiss the possibility of hearing loss just based on this. Blockage and adenoids can cause enough of a hearing loss to interfere with speech. (Former teacher of the deaf/hh here). I love LOE and I do think it will help some with pronunciation but if he is truly hard to understand I would get a hearing screening and a speech eval.

[Coco_Clark]

I've used LOE Foundations with 5 kids now :). I adore the program so this is not an unbiased opinion, lol.

 

One of my boys was very hard to understand. Many people asked what his accent was. LOE helped somewhat with diction and clear speaking. Not to the extent that speech therapy would.

 

And no, you don't need to use their handwriting. It would be really easy to sub out HWOT.

[vaquitita]

You said you can understand him 95% of the time, is that because his speech is correct 95% of the time or because he makes consistent mistakes (always or almost always mispronounces the words the same way) and you just know that when he says "X" he really means "Y"? You also said he sounds like a two year old, can strangers who have never met him before understand 95% of what he says or do you often have to translate for him like you might have to do for a two year old? A four year old should be 95% to 100% intelligible to both family and people he has never met before like a cashier in a store. Some mispronunciation still is normal but it shouldn't interfere with his ability to communicate with anyone at this age. If you have to translate more than just a word here or there every once in a while for strangers, then it is probably time to at least get a speech evaluation.

I've been thinking this over... I do understand him most of the time, because his speech is correct most of the time. Occasionally there is a word I don't. Most of his mispronunciation is stuff like "dat is dayngous". I guess I need to listen to him and take note of the words he struggles with. It's always buried in the middle of a sentence where everything else is understandable, there'll just be one word I don't. It must be admitted here, that being a 4th kid he doesn't get the same attention that the older kids did and some of my not understanding him is because my mind is usually half on something else. Lol

Edited March 19, 2018 by vaquitita

[vaquitita]

I've used LOE Foundations with 5 kids now :). I adore the program so this is not an unbiased opinion, lol.

 

One of my boys was very hard to understand. Many people asked what his accent was. LOE helped somewhat with diction and clear speaking. Not to the extent that speech therapy would.

 

And no, you don't need to use their handwriting. It would be really easy to sub out HWOT.

If you could use it five times and still adore it, that's saying something! I use AAR twice and couldn't stand it by the end and didn't finish. Lol.

[vaquitita]

LOE foundations does stress how to pronounce sounds along with learning to read them. And the activities are varied. I used the first book with a different kid and he liked it. It was just a lot for me, and I only had two kids at the time. I felt like it was cutting into our reading and outside time. But it's such a super good program, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it!

 

I think I'm going to start with LOE, even just having something specific to teach/look for will either help him or help me see that he needs more help.

[ElizabethB]

Get the sounds of speech app from university of Iowa or use online, it is helpful for lower levels of speech problems, integrate into phonics. He may eventually need speech therapy and something like LiPS. Watch the first 3 videos my pre-reading playlist for more ideas, one of them is from the LOE lady!

 

https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJLxBWdK_5l3aBN-qowg2u8BdGYM64pTi

Edited March 20, 2018 by ElizabethB