Supporting speech sound development through face watching
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Learning to say all the speech sounds in one particular language takes a long time. For example in English it can take up to six years. Developing the art of clear speech is tricky to do because it involves coordination of many muscles in really rapid sequence as well as the ability to hear the tiny distinctions between different sounds e.g f,s,sh
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Some children seem to be using only one or two sounds when all their friends are using clear words and sentences. They may seem to be having difficulty synchronising their tongue, lips and voice box. We can support these children by using silence and developing face watching so that they experiment with what they have and increasingly experiment with sound with us repeating and recasting their sounds in to words (see face watching for feedback).
Many children speak a lot but are not clear in what they say. Frequently they are not face watching when they speak and are speaking down to the floor on the other direction to the person they are engaged with. They may be making typical 'substitutions' (children at 2 can only say a certain number of speech sounds, gradually acquiring more and more over the next 3/4 years) of a younger child or may be using sounds unique to themselves. Often we as adults are not face watching them, we are chatting away and both looking at the thing of interest rather than at each others faces. We have got in to the habit of talking without face watching for feedback (see face watching for feedback). We are likely to both be speaking fast and to be saying a lot with no time for our brains to feel (reflect on) where and how the sound has been made.
We need to allow silence and time to tune in to each other and ourselves by :
Many children speak a lot but are not clear in what they say. Frequently they are not face watching when they speak and are speaking down to the floor on the other direction to the person they are engaged with. They may be making typical 'substitutions' (children at 2 can only say a certain number of speech sounds, gradually acquiring more and more over the next 3/4 years) of a younger child or may be using sounds unique to themselves. Often we as adults are not face watching them, we are chatting away and both looking at the thing of interest rather than at each others faces. We have got in to the habit of talking without face watching for feedback (see face watching for feedback). We are likely to both be speaking fast and to be saying a lot with no time for our brains to feel (reflect on) where and how the sound has been made.
We need to allow silence and time to tune in to each other and ourselves by :
- Sitting opposite our child in the listening space
- Remaining silent and Waiting
- If they speak but don’t look up, we don’t respond/answer
- They will repeat themselves (often with the word now being a little closer to the 'true' production) and then look at us. We nod and repeat recasting (stressing) the bits in the word that they found hard to say
- They may try and repeat us but it doesn't matter if they don't.
- say less and slow down the competition in our conversation
- both start to self calm/regulate (see previous videos) which gives time to think and feel
- show clearer speech ourselves, showing how to be precise with our tongue
- watch and lip read each other
- give our child time to experiment with their own speech, to edge towards the mature sound and to take time to feel their production in relation to what they see and hear
- watch each other for feedback giving our child the chance to repair any breakdown and help our understanding
Developing Fluency through face watching
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Learning to talk is very complex. Each child has to learn how to control and synchronise all their body and speech muscles as well as think about what to say, find the words organise how their mouth is going to do it and then finally say it. They have to work out how to use words on their own and then how to combine words in to sentences. At the same time their little muscles are developing. This can lead to being dysfluent, re-running words and seeming to stumbling over what they wish to say.
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In order to support their developing fluency we need to support them in taking time by:
- Sitting opposite them in the listening space
- Remaining silent and Waiting
- If they speak but don’t look up, we don’t respond/answer
- They will repeat themselves and repair the situation by looking at us
- We then repeat the last word that they have said (to show we are listening) and add on another word
- Slow down the competition in our conversation with them
- We both start to self calm/regulate (see previous videos)
- They mirror (see previous videos) our slow rate which allows them time to smoothly move from speech sound to speech sound
- By showing ourselves managing our own slower speech, our child sees calming our own speech as a natural skill (not something they have to do because they have a difficulty)
- We start to face watch each other for feedback and start to say shorter sentences that build on each others ideas
- We start to watch eachother for feedback and repair (see previous videos)
- Our child will increasingly feel the difference in themselves between when they are ‘calm’/‘smooth’ and ‘fast/’’bumpy’ and will increasingly self calm and be fluent when with other people.
- Their fluency will grow and grow.