Listening to Single Sounds
Aims
This activity is designed to:
- regularly expose your child to the sounds that make up spoken language
- give your child extra opportunities to practice listening to speech sounds
- teach your child to associate visual prompts (pictures) with specific sounds
- encourage your child to look and listen to learn how speech sounds are made
- encourage your child to start to imitate individual speech sounds
When to start
This activity is suitable for children from 6 months old through preschool. It can also be helpful for older children who need extra practice identifying and producing individual speech sounds.
Getting ready
Selecting a set of sounds
We have grouped the sound cards into three sets (see Figure 1). Each set contains both consonants and vowels.
Choose one set for your first session and rotate through the second and third sets during your next two sessions so your child gets practice listening to all of the sound cards. This activity should take approximately 5-10 minutes.
Cards
Gather the cards for the appropriate set (see Figure 1). Within a set, the cards can be presented in any order.
Apps
Select Activities > Listening to Single Sounds and select the first set of sound cards.
The apps are designed so that you can hold a tablet against your chest under your chin and operate the controls at the bottom of the display. If you are using a larger computer display you should try to position yourself so that your child can easily switch their attention from the screen to your face.
Initially, the recorded voice prompts are switched off so your child can hear and see you saying the sounds. These options can be changed via the settings menu.
Saying the sounds
The pictures on the sound cards illustrate a word containing the target sound. When using the cards, say only the sound prompted by the picture, not the whole word.
Instructions
| 1 | Show your child the first card. | |
Cards: Hold up one of the sound cards close to your face, making sure you do not cover your mouth. ::: |
Apps: Begin the activity and position the tablet/computer screen so that your child can see the screen and your face. (You can hold a tablet device against your chest below your chin.) ::: |
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| 2 | Attract your child's attention. Give your child time to look at the card that you are showing them. |
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| 3 | Clearly say the sound represented on the card. Make the target sound represented by the sound card. Please remember that it is the single sound that is the target, not the word, so you should only make the sound - for example, say "b" but not "b for butterfly". Encourage your child to look at your face as you make the sound so that they can see your mouth shape and movements. |
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| 4 | Repeat the sound five times. Pause briefly between each repetition so your child can process the information. If your child is only looking at the card, show the card and move it (or the tablet/computer) closer to your mouth while you model the sound to encourage your child to shift their attention from the card to your face. You could also point to your mouth as you say the sound. |
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| 5 | Show your child the next card. | |
Cards: Select the next card and hold it next to your face, near - but not covering - your mouth. |
Apps: Select the next card by tapping or clicking the right arrow at the bottom of the screen. Position the tablet/computer screen so that your child can see the screen and your face. |
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| 6 | Repeat steps 2-5 with different sound cards. Continue with the sounds in the set, repeating steps 2-5 until you finish the set. |
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| 7 | Praise your child. Reward your child for working through the set. Praise them for their attention and focus with 'good looking' as they are learning by watching and listening. By default, the apps will play applause at the end of each set when the check button displayed to the bottom right of the screen is tapped or clicked. |
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| 8 | Repeat the activity with the next set of cards If your child is engaged and attentive, you can work through more than one set of cards in a single session. Alternatively, use the next set of cards during the next session. This activity should take approximately 5-10 minutes. Ideally, this practice should take place every day. |
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:::Recording progress
Use the Listening to Single Sounds record form to record the date of each teaching session and the sets of sounds that you worked through (see Figure 2 for an example).
The main aim of the Listening to Single Sounds activity is to provide opportunities to listen to and learn individual speech sounds. In this activity, we are not looking for measurable progress beyond attention.
You may observe developments in attention as your child progresses from enjoying 'face-to-face' games when they watch and listen to you making sounds to being able to now also attend to a card and you. This shows a development in their attention skills (called joint attention) which is important for learning, especially for learning language where they need to be able to attend/listen to you and look at the object or activity you are naming or describing.
You may also observe your child making noises and imitating some of the sounds.
To monitor this or other progress, you should use the Observations column to record any responses or reactions. For example:
- Good attention - record how long your child is able to attend and engage in the activity
- Alternating focus (babies and toddlers) - make a note if your child frequently shifts their attention between the card and the speaker's face
- Sound attempts - record any responses or reactions your child makes to particular sounds or sound cards - for example, your child may vocalise or move their lips
When to move to the next activity
You can move on to the next activity when your child regularly pays attention to both the sounds and the picture cards when engaged in the Listening to Single Sounds activity.
You can identify this by looking for when your child alternates between looking at the picture and your mouth when you are presenting a card and saying the sound. If you are recording this for most practice sessions, then your child can start the Listening to Different Sounds activity.
For younger children this may take a few months of short daily sessions looking and listening to the sounds. For older children this may only take a few weeks.
Additional activities
- Cards: Hide the cards around the room and ask your child to find them. As they find each card, you model the sound for them to listen and to imitate if they can. Then post the card in a box and look for the next one.
- [App]: Let your child step through the activity with the recorded voice switched on for extra input and practice. Let them listen to the audio prompt then tap or click the card to hear the sound again. Encourage them to imitate the sound if they can. Let them tap the arrow to move to the next card.
- Talk and sing to your child throughout the day to provide lots of opportunities to hear the sounds of their language in natural ways.
- Play sound games with actions and toys so that your child gets extra practice at hearing sounds and seeing how they are produced (e.g. weee, uh-oh, boo, ch-ch-ch, aahh, mmm).
Figure 2 | Example Listening to Single Sounds record form
