Developing Speech and Language Skills - Noel's ESL eBook Library

‘s’ cluster reductionThere are not many examples of these pairs (that can be used in meaningful activitiesfor children) so pairs of words with the voiceless consonant in the ‘non-target word’(e.g. spot, pot; stable, table; and scarf, calf) are included. These are just as useful, but becareful to produce the ‘s’ cluster words naturally yourself so that the ‘plosive’ sound isnaturally voiced. Do not be tempted to break the word into two separate parts. If yousay ‘sss’ ‘table’ this is not the same as the word ‘stable’. If a child can say ‘sss’ ‘table’ itdoes not mean they can say ‘stable’, for example.To avoid the problem, when saying a word like ‘stable’, lengthen the ‘s’ slightly (as acue) but continue to say the rest of the word naturally. So ‘stable’ should sound like‘sssdable’. This means the child gets a bit more information about the sound they needto be focused on, but do not lose the cues they already know about.Activities for increasing awareness of ‘s’ clusters in speechImportant: Before trying these activities read the general information about listeningand discrimination methods in Chapter 6.‘s’ deleted, word initialPuzzlesTarget sound: ‘sn’ word initialContrast: ‘n’Words: snail, nailResources: enlarged pictures of a snail and nail that are cut into pieces (pictures can befound on the CD); a bag in which the puzzle pieces are keptActivityThe child finds a piece of the puzzle the adult names: ‘Find a bit of snail’ or ‘Find a bitof nail’. Say the same word a couple of times in a row sometimes to keep the childlistening. To speed this up and/or simplify the task, have the puzzle pieces in separatebags. The activity is repeated until the puzzles are complete.Other pairs of words could be used in this activity.143