Correcting Child's speech and Pronunciation?

[hectors house]

I was reading through recent Ofsted inspection reports last night, just trying to get a feel of what they are picking people up for now and noticed on a couple of reports that the childminders had been crititised for not correcting children who didn't pronounce words correctly.

I am working on a 2 year development at the moment and the lo has very good vocab but doesn't use the correct sounds on lots of words, I sat down yesterday looking at a book with her and getting her to talk about the pictures and I wrote a list of which sounds she says wrong and checked them against the "Every Child a Talker" info and the sounds she's substituting are very common, she is perfectly normal in her development eg: tat instead of cat, toat instead of coat, dumper instead of jumper, etc. She seems to substituting “t” for “c” or “k”, “d” for “g” “j” or “sc” and sometimes struggles with these sounds in the middle of a word.

I am worried that if during the 10 mins we were looking at the book if I had corrected her on all her words, she would eventually think "*** you, if you correct me everytime I open my mouth, I'm not going to tell you about the picture in the book". Obviously yesterday was for the purpose of an observation but how much should I be correcting her?

[Mouse]

I don't think it's a case of correcting, in that you need to point out to her that she's getting it wrong, it's more a case of you using the correct sounds to show her.

So, if she points to a picture of a cat and says 'tat', you say 'well done, it's a cat. A big, fluffy cat', with more emphasis on the 'c' sound.

You'd never say 'no, it's not a tat, it's a cat. Try again'!

If Ofsted wanted more of the latter and less of the former example I'd certainly challenge them on it.

[FussyElmo]

yes I agree with mouse its not you correcting them its you saying the right words back to hear so they hear the right sounds being said :thumbsup:

[hectors house]

yes I agree with mouse its not you correcting them its you saying the right words back to hear so they hear the right sounds being said :thumbsup:

Thank you that is what I would normally do (obviously yesterday I was recording what and how she said words for an observation), so I will continue to repeat the word correctly and also I thought I could try some other words that begin with the sounds she is struggling with as I once had a child who would say ban for van but he could say other words (not that there are many) beginning with v - sometimes it becames a learnt habit rather than a developmental stage!

[k1rstie]

I printed of a bit of the ecat stuff for a friend yesterday, The part where it says about the ages when certain speech sounds come is very interesting. I have Lo who says 'hab' instead of 'have' The 'v' sound comes between 30 and 50 months, so at 45 months she should crack it soon.

Although paperwork can be a pain, I DO find it very interesting

[hectors house]

I printed of a bit of the ecat stuff for a friend yesterday, The part where it says about the ages when certain speech sounds come is very interesting. I have Lo who says 'hab' instead of 'have' The 'v' sound comes between 30 and 50 months, so at 45 months she should crack it soon.

Although paperwork can be a pain, I DO find it very interesting

Yes I agree it is very interesting, to start with I was worried about this mindees speech but when I read the ECAT document (Every child a Talker) I realised that the sounds she is having problems with are on the 22-36 months stage as emerging sounds - she is 28 months so still within the correct developmental stage - I was only told about it recently, and I will be using it to monitor this child and support her. I had put it on her 2 year check so the health visitor is aware that Speech Therapy may be required at later date.

[sarah707]

I would have very strong words if an inspector tried to tell me to correct a child's speech!!

Yes, you should model correct pronunciation and grammar and repeat back - but never ask them to say the word properly - that's very bad practice and has been since I was an audiologist over 20 years ago - so it's nothing new.

If childminders challenge incorrect judgements like this then inspectors will have to think more carefully about what they write.

:D

[loocyloo]

my current difficulty is that i have a southern accent and now live in yorkshire! so the way words are pronounced ARE different!!!

i can do the initial sounds etc and do model correct speech, but the way some sounds are made phonetically are different like the 'a' in bath & ba(r)th for the same word! reading at school currently defeats me!!!

and don't get me started on local grammar !!! 'I aren't doing that' !!! as an example :panic: its enough to drive someone mad! :laughing:

[hectors house]

my current difficulty is that i have a southern accent and now live in yorkshire! so the way words are pronounced ARE different!!!

i can do the initial sounds etc and do model correct speech, but the way some sounds are made phonetically are different like the 'a' in bath & ba(r)th for the same word! reading at school currently defeats me!!!

and don't get me started on local grammar !!! 'I aren't doing that' !!! as an example :panic: its enough to drive someone mad! :laughing:

I live near Bath and I say B( ar)th - but people do sometimes say "it hasn't got an r in it" and I do prefer a b (ar)th to a shower!

[TNT]

I had the same problems when I started teaching, I am originally from down south and now live in notts. I really struggled to start with but it soon became second nature to teach phonics in the local dialect.
In fact now people dont even know I am a southerner!

[jillplum]

I do find it hard dealing with local accents. I insisted that my children used correct speech but a lot of mindees use the local slang way of talking and it drives me mad. For example a boy I have always says na (rhymes with the ca in cat) instead of no. I ask him if he means no but I cant say too much as I think thats what his parents say too! :D

[nipper]

An ex-mindee (in my five year old daughter's class) used to say "Emma, hers just done this to me" or "Hers just said this to me" (yes she was a whinger) but the astonishing thing was her mum never made any attempt to correct her, nor did it seem the school for that matter. Used to drive me nuts.

[Helcatt]

I am not saying Ofsted are right, am just wondering that was what they meant, that modelling the word back correctly to the child was not being done, rather than saying that they should be correcting?

That's what I try to do. But there are times when I feel like saying "it's not n'ya, it's YES!" And wonder why the parents are not correcting basics that I know the child can say but chooses not to! (this is with regards to a child who has been referred fro speech therapy)

Hx