Sounds that are susceptible to stopping include a class of sounds known as fricatives: /f/, /v/, /s/, /z/, /ʃ/ which makes the "sh" sound, /ʒ/ which makes the "zh" sound as in "genre" or "treasure", /θ/ which makes the "th" sound as in "think," and /ð/ which makes the "th" sound as in "the." Thus, a child may say "tell" instead of "sell."
Other sounds that are susceptible to stopping include a class of sounds known as affricates. They include /tʃ/ which makes the "ch" sound as in "chip" and /dʒ/ which makes the "juh" sound as in "jam." Thus, a child may say "peese" instead of "cheese."
It is important to note that generally a child can produce all the sounds in the word so this is not an articulation problem per se. Rather, this what experts call a "phonological process," whereby a child produces a different "rule" when saying words. In this case, the rule is to substitute a "stop" consonant for fricatives or affricates. Stops consonants are made when airflow is temporarily stopped, such as with /p/ when the lips close together. Fricative sounds are produced when air is forced through a narrow channel, such as /s/ which is made by air moving between the tip of one's tongue and the roof of one's mouth. Affricate sound production begins with a stop sound, and ends with a fricative sound. An example of this is "ch" which is produced by making that /t/ sound followed closely by the "sh" sound.
Now that we've got all the technical stuff out of the way, I'd like to suggest a fun way to practice remediating the phonological process of "stopping." I suggest getting out of the house and practicing speech in a real-world setting: the nationality rooms at the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh. There are over two dozen nationality rooms, many with names that are prone to "stopping." I suggest that you take your child to see the rooms, and have her practice saying the names of the room before she enters the room, once she is in the room, and right after she has left the room. To practice at the sentence level, ask her to tell you what she saw or liked best about the room; prompt her to use the nationality room name in order to hit the target. To practice at the conversation level, ask her to go into more detail about what she enjoyed or learned.
To cue your child, start with what we call "auditory bombardment." What this means is that your child will hear a target sound produced accurately many times in a short period of time. So, I recommend some pre-teaching at home, or in the car on the drive over. Tell your child about the rooms she will see, including the Swiss room, Scottish room, Swedish room, and Syrian-Lebanon room. It is important for her to hear the correct sound (in this case it is /s/) over and over in the correct place. Once you are at the Cathedral of Learning, remind your child to "say all the sounds in the word" and giver her an example, like "Swiss." Have her repeat after you. If she is still "stopping," then draw her attention to the error. Tell her, "I heard 'Twiss,' but you need to say 'Swiss.'" Then, have her repeat "Swiss" several times.
If she is still "stopping," then have her make the /s/ sound all by itself. This will show her that she is able to produce the sound. It will also remind her of the target sound. Finally, cue her to make the /s/ sound, then follow it by having her say the word "Swiss." You may also start with a long production of /s/, then follow it with word production of "Swiss." Gradually shorten the duration between the two until she can produce "Swiss" without error. Here is an example:
ssssssssssSwiss
ssssssssSwiss
ssssssSwiss
ssssSwiss
ssSwiss
Swiss.
The following are names of nationality rooms that are prone to "stopping."
Scottish room
Swedish room
Swiss room
Syrian-Lebanon room
French room
Chinese room
Czechoslovakian room
The Nationality Rooms are a rich source for stimulating language, too. Please post below language goals that you would like to see addressed on this blog!
Reference: All images were retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationality_Rooms.
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