how do you teach phonics if your kids is missing sounds

[MistyMountain]

I am probably getting ahead of myself and maybe this won't be an issue. My ds is 3 and not ready to start phonics yet and probably won't be until closer to 5. He was speech delayed and was in speech therapy but he graduated at 2.5 age appropiate and I think he would of even without the therapy because of how fast his language explosion happen. Anyway his language and sentence structure is fine now but he has sounds he hasn't mastered yet. I looked at the sound charts and some sounds are not mastered until some kid gets older so ds is ok. How do you teach phonics if they can't pronounce all the sounds? DD was a late talker too but she didn't qualify for therapy and once she started talking she was very articulate. I am doing phonics with her and she can even do the th sound.

Edited January 2, 2012 by MistyMountain

[boscopup]

I wouldn't worry quite yet, as your son may get those sounds before the end ages anyway.

 

But even if he doesn't... teaching phonics can HELP him get those sounds. My 5 year old is currently in speech therapy. The sounds he had trouble with have been much improved by us talking about the phonics sounds and making them into something visual for him (I suspect he's a visual-spatial learner). Also, he can learn the sounds by me modeling to him, so he is at least hearing them, even if he can't say them correctly yet.

 

I think the only part of phonics-based reading instruction I had to back off on for a while due to speech issues were 3-part blends in Webster's Speller ("SPRA SPRE SPRI SPRO SPRU", etc.). He just couldn't say them for a while. I skipped that section for a few months, then came back to it. Now he can do it (with a lot of work). That wasn't a topic that needed to be taught at 5 necessarily, so if we had needed to hold off even a year, I think that would have been fine.

 

My 7 year old finally got a correct /th/ sound this year, but he didn't have any trouble learning the /th/ phonogram, even if he couldn't say it correctly himself. I think that's the only one he didn't have by age 5 when he started learning phonics. He was also a late talker (started single words at 2, then phrases a few weeks later), but didn't do speech therapy. We gave him a bit more time since he was a preemie, so adjusted age let him off the hook. My full term 3rd child started talking at 2 years old also, just like his big brother, so I don't think the preemie thing really factored in with DS1 afterall. DS2 started talking at age 3, with recognizable sentences by 3.5. He started speech therapy just before he turned 4. This child had ear infections and got tubes at 2 years old when he didn't have the requisite 5 words or whatever it was by that age.

[FairProspects]

This can be a problem if dc can't *hear* the difference between sounds, but they don't need to pronounce them properly to be able to learn the difference if they can hear it. My 5 y.o. can't say the /r/ sound exactly right yet, but he knows that is the sound r makes and he can read it in the word rat. If dc can't distinguish between sounds or the way that the mouth makes sounds, I would do something like LiPS before moving onto a phonics program.

[BriannaG]

I agree with the pp. My dd is still in speech therpay, but has had huge improvements since May and can now be understood. We're working on the last few issues with mishearing sounds and some articulation with r and l even though she's not expected to get those down yet. The phonics practice with both phonograms and Websters Syllables was just extra practice for her. We too, held off on those three letter blends and just today she saw the word spring and read it without any hesistation.

 

Even when she couldn't say a particular sound correctly, she was able to hear/see me pronounce the sound and since she wanted to learn to read, it was something she was willing to attempt. She fought doing her speech homework for about three months, so I was willing to take any practice I could get with her.

 

My ds 3 is also in speech therapy for similar issues, but he's no where near as bad as dd was. Younger siblings pick up a lot just by being around the teaching that is going on. He's already learned the first 29 or so phonograms and asks to do school because of what his older dd is doing. His speech is improving just from that exposure to her stuff. And, I've got him believing speech homework is school! So by the time, your ds begins to learn to read, he may have mastered those sounds already. If he hasn't just teach him that particular sound and give him opportunity practice and mature. If it becomes an issue you can always have an evaluation done at that time.

 

I'd try not to worry about it for now.

 

HTH

[momsuz123]

Give it time. My 6 y/o dd has struggled with some speech sounds. She still is missing a few, but we go through and do the phonics with AAS. She knows she is supposed to say "th" but just can't yet. I don't make a big deal about it when we are doing a word with that phonogram (that is what my awesome teacher friend told me to do):). Good luck!

[EmilyGF]

If he's graduated speech therapy, I wouldn't waste time worrying about it.

 

Goodness, my ds wasn't even saying sounds at 2.5, much less graduated from speech. Unless there are other areas of delay, put it out of your mind and go read a good book with him. (DS 6.75 now reads exceptionally well and had no problem learning to read.)

 

Emily

[MistyMountain]

He doesn't pronounce S, F, R, J, Z, Y or any blends correctly. I think he can hear the sounds but he can't say them. I guess he will learn some of them before we start phonics but some of the sounds may not be learned until 6-8 according to the charts. So he might be able to say rat in his head and read it but will it come out sounding like wat? Phonics may even help him learn the sounds when he is ready to start it? I will keep that program in mind if I am getting close to do a phonics program with him because he seems ready for it but he is still missing a bunch of sounds.

 

I have a feeling my kids are going to be late bloomers when it comes to reading like they were with talking. They will not pick it up early but they will pick it up and eventually catch up so I don't think I will start until he is closer to 5. He took longer to talk then dd, does not sit still is sensory seeking and has a really short attention span so I have a feeling he won't be ready for a while which I am sure will worry me in the future.

Edited January 1, 2012 by MistyMountain

[Lecka]

My son is 6 and still in speech for articulation. He has had one-on-one private speech since June and I have been really working with him on phonics since then, too.

 

Th was no problem with him as far as reading. He substitutes with f or v the same as he does in speaking, and it is no problem.

 

He struggled with phonemic awareness, though. He had a very hard time hearing rhymes and learning to segment and blend. A very hard time. Rhymes are still hit or miss.

 

Blends were hard for him to learn.

 

He has/had a hard time with consonants he works on in speech, especially at ends of words.

 

Some things like s/sh have been hard for him in reading, too.

 

Where he is really confused about the sound, it is hard for him in reading. When he is just substituting one sound for another, but not making the sound correctly, it does not hurt his reading at all.

 

A way to find this out if you are not sure (for an older child): have some pictures, that start with the two sounds you are concerned about, and see if he can sort them into categories based on the beginning sound. If not -- it is a problem. (I mean, it is something to work on, b/c it will be hard to read and spell with the sounds that are confused.) Reading Reflex is good for phonemic awareness... I really used AAS but I got a lot of good information from Reading Reflex about little games to play with letter tiles.

Edited January 2, 2012 by Lecka

[Dmmetler]

I was in speech throughout school (and still qualified for services while in college since they had a Speech pathology clinic) and have never gotten a few sounds. It didn't affect me in reading in the slightest because I "hear" them correctly-I just can't produce them. So, while I might say "thee" for "see", if I sounded out the word, I wouldn't spell it "thee" because I'd "hear" S in my head, even while saying "th". One reason why my speech was so hard to remediate was exactly that-since I didn't "hear" mentally that I was doing it wrong, it was much harder for me to learn how to correct it (I basically had to be taught to pronounce sounds as a child with a hearing impairment would).

[Kathryn]

Hearing the sound and being able to produce the sound are entirely different. If he can distinguish sounds, he'll be able to complete a phonics program no matter what his articulation difficulties. Going through phonics program actually really helped DS with his articulation because he was really focusing on the words and he could SEE what the sound was supposed to be. If it came out of his mouth wrong or I wasn't sure, I would ask him "Was that word laced or waist?" or whatever the words in question may be. Every time, he could tell me.

[MeganW]

Don't stress yet. I have 4 close in age kids, 2 of whom have some speech issues. Those two are reading, and the other 2 aren't! :)

[TracyR]

I agree, give it time. I have two that have had speech issues/delays etc. And they are actually really good readers now.

My 3rd daughter didn't start talking until 4.5 yrs old. Learning the sounds are what helped. You just need to keep working on them with the phonics.

I know my girls really enjoyed Starfall and if you own an Ipod, Pad, they have lots of apps and an app for speech called Speech with Milo.

The program that honestly worked the best with my two 'speech' kids was actually 100 EZ Lessons because you repeatedly go over the sounds with each and every lesson you do.