Not all words are created equal! When I have a parent who says their child is extremely hard to understand I make sure that I observe their syllable shapes IN ADDITION to their individual speech sounds during my evaluation. Why is it that a child can say moo but not mama? Or happy but not up?
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Some syllable shapes (the pattern of consonants/vowels that make up a syllable) may be harder for some children to say than others. Here are some examples of early words organized by syllable shape:
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CV (CONSONANT-VOWEL): me, my, moo, moh/more, bye, boo, no, neigh, knee, two, toe, pee, poo, wee, woah, why, hi, hey, who, go.
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VC (VOWEL-CONSONANT): up, in, out, on, eat, ate, am, I’m.
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CVCV (CONSONANT-VOWEL-CONSONANT-VOWEL): boo-boo, bubo/bubble, mama, mommy, potty, tabo/table, happy, dada, daddy, nigh-nigh.
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CVC (CONSONANT-VOWEL-CONSONANT): mom, dad, hot, hat, wet, toot, beep, boat, bite, cat, dog, book, done.
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After I observe patterns of difficulty for certain syllable shapes, I also look to see if there are patterns of MOVEMENT difficulty within a certain syllable shape. Maybe the child can’t say a sound when it follows/precedes a certain vowel. Maybe the child can’t say words when the consonants are different or are said in different places in the mouth.
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Notice the subtle differences in these CVC words:
👉 mom
👉 map
👉 moon
👉 meet
👉 make
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When we can pinpoint the area of sound difficulty, syllable shape difficulty, or sound movement breakdown we can BEST meet a child’s needs and provide EFFECTIVE treatment!
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What are some syllable shapes your child is saying?
.
Some syllable shapes (the pattern of consonants/vowels that make up a syllable) may be harder for some children to say than others. Here are some examples of early words organized by syllable shape:
.
CV (CONSONANT-VOWEL): me, my, moo, moh/more, bye, boo, no, neigh, knee, two, toe, pee, poo, wee, woah, why, hi, hey, who, go.
.
VC (VOWEL-CONSONANT): up, in, out, on, eat, ate, am, I’m.
.
CVCV (CONSONANT-VOWEL-CONSONANT-VOWEL): boo-boo, bubo/bubble, mama, mommy, potty, tabo/table, happy, dada, daddy, nigh-nigh.
.
CVC (CONSONANT-VOWEL-CONSONANT): mom, dad, hot, hat, wet, toot, beep, boat, bite, cat, dog, book, done.
.
After I observe patterns of difficulty for certain syllable shapes, I also look to see if there are patterns of MOVEMENT difficulty within a certain syllable shape. Maybe the child can’t say a sound when it follows/precedes a certain vowel. Maybe the child can’t say words when the consonants are different or are said in different places in the mouth.
.
Notice the subtle differences in these CVC words:
👉 mom
👉 map
👉 moon
👉 meet
👉 make
.
When we can pinpoint the area of sound difficulty, syllable shape difficulty, or sound movement breakdown we can BEST meet a child’s needs and provide EFFECTIVE treatment!
.
What are some syllable shapes your child is saying?
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