Improving Your Child's Pronunciation (Part 2) Transfer to Sentences and Spontaneous Speech

In the last article on pronunciation (link to article), I revealed the first 3 steps of speech therapists' "magic recipe" for working on this aspect of language. Once we have ensured that the child can hear and pronounce a sound, we need to get them to say it in isolation, then in combination with different vowels.

Finally, the third step is to have them practice the sound at the beginning, end, and middle of words. Once these steps are mastered, we can then move on to the last two, which will ensure sufficient mastery to maintain correct pronunciation in everyday speech. These steps are:

4. Transfer the correct pronunciation into sentences.

5. Maintain the pronunciation of the sound in spontaneous speech.

Step 4: Transferring correct pronunciation into sentences

Often, by the time we reach this stage, the child is able to make the target sound when they know we are working on that sound, but seems to forget it as soon as they have to say a sentence. First, know that this is completely normal. When a task becomes more complex, the child sometimes reverts to their old habits.

This is why the step of working on pronunciation within a sentence is so important. We must get the child's brain to maintain correct pronunciation even if they cannot predict where the sound will appear in the utterance.

Remember that the child must link several different sounds to form a sentence, which involves the control and coordination of several muscles. This can be a big step to take, so here again, practice and encouragement are in order.

Initially, the child will be encouraged to integrate learned words into short, simple, and repetitive sentences. This makes it easier for the child to begin with, knowing where to focus their efforts. For example, with pre-cut images that the child will paste onto a sheet of paper, they are invited to use the expression "I'm pasting... X" while saying the target word.

Parent : I'm pasting an ant here.

Child : I'm pasting a leaf.

Parent : Ok. My turn… I'm pasting a scarf.

Child : I'm pasting a girl.

Sentence starters like "I see...", "I'm looking for...", "I picked...", or "I'm coloring..." lend themselves well to this exercise during a coloring session or a "seek and find" type game.

Afterwards, when the child easily maintains the correct pronunciation in these easier sentences, we encourage them to use more varied and different statements. What I often advise parents of the young children I see in the clinic is to have fun inventing sentences with words they have already practiced.

For example, with an image of an ant, the adult can ask the child to repeat the sentence "I saw an ant this morning." When the child is 4 years old or older, we can even ask them to come up with a sentence using the word themselves. We then pay close attention to whether they pronounce the target sound correctly (here, the F), and if they succeed, we congratulate them: "Bravo! You said the F well in "fourmi," you're a champion!"

On the other hand, in case of an error, we can remind them or simply pretend that we didn't quite understand the word containing the target sound by asking them a question about their sentence...

Child: The pourmi eats a peuille.

Adult: Mmmm... I don't think I understood...

Child : The fffourmi eats a peuille.

Adult: Listen carefully to the little F sound...in ffffeuille. What is the ant eating?

Child: A fffeuille.

Again, if they succeed, we congratulate them. If they stick with the "wrong" pronunciation, we acknowledge the effort and move on to the next image, repeating the missed word ourselves. (good time to show a video of all this!)

Attention, attention! Often, at this point, children with pronunciation difficulties across several sounds make errors on sounds other than the one being worked on. Do not correct these other sounds at the same time! This is not the time.

You must stay focused on the current objective, even if other difficulties emerge. The adult should then ignore the other "errors" and only encourage or correct the sound being worked on during the activity. For example, with the same statements as above:

Child: The pourmi manze a peuille.

Adult: Mmmm... I don't think I understood...

Child: The fffourmi manze a feuille.

Adult (ignoring that the child changed the ge to ze in "mange"): Yes!!! Bravo!! You remembered to make the F sound in your words. Great!

Other difficulties will then be noted and worked on later. Without this, the child could become confused and no longer know what to pay attention to when practicing with you.

Step 5: Maintaining the pronunciation of the sound in spontaneous speech

The very last step is what we call "generalization" in speech therapy. Sometimes, some children achieve it on their own, without us having to work on it specifically.

Others, however, need to be guided and encouraged to continue paying attention to correct pronunciation throughout their daily activities. Thus, the simplest trick I suggest to parents is to choose a word or phrase that they or their child often use daily.

When this word or phrase comes up in their day, they should pay particular attention to their child's pronunciation and reinforce correct pronunciation when it occurs.

If the child reverts to their previous "error," I advise them to act as if they haven't understood. In this case, it reminds the child that they need to change how they say the word, and regularly, they correct themselves and their pronunciation. It's almost magical! 😉

Magical, perhaps, but not foolproof…

As you may have noticed, working correctly on a child's pronunciation is not done in just any way. It is often necessary to follow a precise sequence of steps that generally works very well when a child presents a simple delay in their language development.

In an ideal world, this work should be supervised by people who are familiar with normal speech and language development, as well as its disorders. However, we also know that speech therapy services are often slow to obtain and not always easily accessible.

By revealing this "magic recipe," I thought that by knowing these steps, it could allow a concerned parent to make their own attempts more appropriately, and that this way, if there is improvement, it can only help a child experiencing minor difficulties.

On the other hand, always keep in mind that magic exists in movies and books, but... not really in real life. Thus, if your child has pronunciation difficulties and you don't see improvements despite the various tips offered here, it is highly probable that your child needs more specific services with a speech therapist.

Do not hesitate to take steps in this direction, and above all, during the first meeting with the speech therapist, tell them what you have tried. Your work and observations will help them in their work, and they will probably be able to continue the steps from where you left off. This is part of parent-provider collaboration!