Word List: Cathedral of Learning

Word lists containing nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are useful for many goals.  They can be used to target reading, spelling, writing, stuttering, voice strategies, articulation, phonological processes, vocabulary building, sentence structure, etc.  Thus, I have decided to post word lists relating to Pittsburgh.  This one is centered on the Cathedral of Learning.  Obviously there are many, many words that pertain to this area so I have tried to limit my lists to 25-50 words.  If there is a word that you would like to be included, please post below!

Image retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_of_Learning.

I suggest bringing this list along with you when visiting the cathedral, or other historic campus buildings in the Pittsburgh area.  You can refer to this list on the drive over to pre-teach words, or use this list once you get home to review.

Arches

Artifact

Artwork

Auditorium

Balcony

Blackboard

Building

Carving

Cathedral

Chair

Classroom

Commons room

Dedication

Desk

Education

Elevator

Fireplace

Floors

Food court

Fountain

Gothic

History

Iron work

Laboratory

Learning

Limestone

Listen

Lobby

Look

Nationality rooms

Office

Stained glass

Stairs

Steel frame

Students

Study

Study lounge

Table

Theatre

Tour

Vault

Walk

Walkway

Wood

The 29 nationality rooms include:

African Heritage

Armenian

Austrian

Chinese

Czechoslovak

Early American

English

French

German

Greek

Hungarian

Indian

Irish

Israel Heritage

Italian

Japanese

Lithuanian

Norwegian

Polish

Romanian

Russian

Scottish

Swedish

Swiss

Syrian-Lebanon

Turkish

Ukrainian

Welsh

As mentioned in an earlier post, I have plans to create posts targeting language at the Cathedral of Learning/Nationality Rooms.  Which rooms are your children most interested it?  Please post below; I will try to make them a priority.

Tip: Phipps, Schenley Park and the Cathedral of Learning are all near each other, so you can always visit a couple of them in one day for extra practice.

Deaffrication; Nationality Rooms

Deaffrication, to put it most simply, is when the "ch" sound (/tʃ/) is changed to the "sh" sound (/ʃ/) or the "juh" sound (/dʒ/) is changed to the "zh" sound (/ʒ/).  An example of this error would be saying "sheese" instead of "cheese" or "zham" instead of "jam."  It is important to note that 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 sounds/words.  In this case, it is the elimination of the first sound in the "affricate."  When the "ch" sound is produced, it is made by first making the "t" sound then making the "sh" sound; with deaffrication, the "t" sound is eliminated.  When the "juh" sound is produced, it is made first by making the "d" sound then making the "zh" sound; with deaffrication, the "d" sound is eliminated.

To practice eliminating deaffrication, I suggest going to Pitt's Nationality rooms in the Cathedral of Learning.  The rooms that include the target sounds are the:

"Chinese" room

 

 "Czechoslovak" room

 

 "French" room

"Japanese" room

"German" room

 

"Israel Heritage" room

"Norwegian" room

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 visit, including the Chinese room, Czechoslovak room, French room, etc.  It is important for her to hear the correct sound (in this case it is "ch") 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 "French" or "Chinese."  Have her repeat after you.  If she makes an error, then draw her attention to it..  Tell her, "I heard 'Shinese,' but you need to say 'Chinese.'"  Then, have her repeat "Chinese" several times.

If she is still producing an error, then have her make the "ch" 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.  Next, cue her to make the "ch" sound, then pause.  Then, follow it by having her say the rest of the word "-inese."  This is known as "forward chaining."  Gradually shorten the pause until she can produce "Chinese" without error.  Here is an example:
Ch..........inese
Ch........inese
Ch......inese
Ch....inese
Ch..inese
Chinese.

All images obtain from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationality_Rooms.

Stopping; Nationality Rooms at the University of Pittsburgh

"Stopping" is the substitution of a "stop" consonant (/b/, /p/, /d/, /t/, /g/, /k/) for another sound. 

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.