Speech & Language: Part 3 - Sound the alarm?

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QUESTION...

I work with a group of four-year-olds. We have been working on their listening and speech sounds and I have noticed that one of the girls really struggles. She is not able to tell if words rhyme or hear the difference between sounds. Should I investigate this further?

The skill of being able to hear sounds in words, including rhymes, is known as phonological awareness. It is the skill that allows us to know that ‘cat’ has one syllable, is made up of the sounds ‘c-a-t’, rhymes with ‘bat’, and if ‘c’ is swapped for ‘h’ the word changes to ‘hat’.

Phonological awareness is an essential component in learning to read and write, and so where children have difficulties in differentiating sounds, it may make it harder for them to break into literacy. It is, therefore, helpful that you have identified that this child may need additional support.

DEVELOPMENT

Phonological awareness is made up of several skills, which develop sequentially and over time. Typically, it takes a child until the age of seven to master all the skills of phonological awareness, and some children may need additional support to acquire all of them.

Babies

The first skill to develop in a child is an awareness that the environment is made up of different sounds. Babies begin to develop this skill very early on and so react differently to vacuum cleaners and human voices.

1 and 2 years of age

Between the ages of one and two years old, toddlers focus increasingly on listening to specific speech sounds, which they will need in their speech.

3 to 6 years of age

By three years old, a child will typically be able to recite a familiar nursery rhyme, and by four years old, children will be able to recognise rhyme. They will also be able to clap out syllables – for example, clapping twice for ‘ap-ple’, but also to put syllables together to make a word, such as ‘ra-bbit’ to make ‘rabbit’.

Between the ages of five and six, a child’s phonological awareness skills take a leap forward, allowing them to recognise that ‘ship’ and ‘shop’ start with the same sound. This is one reason why children’s reading and writing often takes off when they move into Year 1.

FACTORS AFFECTING PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS

There are various factors that may affect the development of a child’s phonological awareness, and practitioners need to consider these in relation to any child who they suspect may be experiencing difficulties:

Hearing

Children who are not hearing fully may be unable to pick out certain sounds, as sounds sit within different frequencies. This means that a ‘ssss’ is harder to hear than a ‘mmm’. As many as one in five young children develop a temporary hearing loss known as ‘glue ear’.

This hearing loss is a result of a sticky substance forming in the ear and reduces how much sound is received by the ear.

It is particularly common during or after a child has had a cold, although some children can be affected by it for months at a time. Glue ear can be difficult to detect as children may appear to be hearing in some situations.

Look out for any of the following signs and then consider a referral for a hearing test:

• muffled speech
• ‘selective hearing’ or only responding when an adult has their attention
• staring at a speaker’s lips and slower reactions than other children
• loud and monotone speech
• frustration and solitary play
  
  

Difficulty in producing speech sounds

Children with speech sound difficulties are also likely to struggle with phonological awareness. Their phonological awareness skills may need to be supported to help their speech sound development.

Background noise

Noisy environments make it hard for children to pick out different sounds and conversation. It will also make it difficult for children to concentrate on sounds during activities that support phonological awareness. You may want to consider how noisy your nursery environment is.

Experience

Some of the skills of phonological awareness are linked to practice. Children who have not had their attention drawn to sounds in words may struggle compared with their peers. They may need additional exposure to activities such as nursery rhymes and sound games.

HOW TO SUPPORT PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS

In the case of the four-year-old girl struggling with different sounds, there are many activities that can help support her development of phonological awareness.

Phonological activities are always best carried out in quiet spaces. It is also worth knowing when planning activities that skills are developed sequentially. General listening skills and identifying ‘chunks’ of a word such as syllables will develop before the ability to identify individual sounds and manipulate sounds. For example, a child may identify that ‘bat’ has one syllable, but may not be able to tell you that it starts with the ‘b’ sound, and if you change the ‘b’ to an ‘r’ sound, the word becomes ‘rat’.

General listening

As phonological awareness is sequential, it is always best to start with general listening skills before progressing. Examples of activities include:

Make symbolic noises when you are playing with children – for example, ‘vvvv’ for the Hoover.

Go on listening walks where children are asked to recognise certain sounds and also are asked to talk about the sounds that they can hear.

Say a nursery rhyme but change a word and see if children notice.

See if children can recognise which of two musical instruments have been played.

Play games where children have to stop or start moving when they hear certain words or sounds.

Listening for particular sounds

See if children can recognise and then clap out the syllables (beats) in words or short sentences: ‘My-name-is Ju-lie.’

Play rhyme snap where children have to shout out ‘snap’ when pairs of words rhyme.

See if children can complete a rhyme in a familiar nursery rhyme.

Ask children to listen to the difference between two speech sounds – for example, ‘bun’ and ‘sun’. Then ask them to throw the bean bag on the ‘b’ sound and then throw the bean bag on the ‘s’ sound.

Listening for and using particular speech sounds

Play games such as the shopping game where words start with the same letter – for example, ‘I went to the shop and I bought a TV, a telephone and a tortoise.’

Play a shopping game where each child has a bag and is told to collect items that begin with a certain letter sound – e.g. ‘s’.

Play odd-one-out games where the children are asked to identify which one of four objects does not start with the same sound.

Part 4 of this series – A guide to early communication: Attention, listening and understanding 0-2 – will be published in the 6 August issue of Nursery World