FAQs Regarding Intervening with Preschoolers
1. Many of my clients are 3-4 years old. Do you take into consideration the developmental norms when choosing targets for this young age? Is it appropriate to target /r/ as one of the targets for a 3 year old?
I have used this approach with 4 year olds with great success, and have targeted [r] or, more often, [l], if the child demonstrates errors on these phonemes in order to provide targets with an obstruent/sonorant contrast, which Gierut's research indicates may be the most powerful contrast to use (Gierut, 1992).
However, I can hear the collective gasp of panic from my seasoned colleagues when we talk about teaching these "later-developing" so "early." The developmental norms issue is a big one, as our training has generally been adamant in stressing how late some children develop these sounds. However, remember that those late-developers are actually exceptional, as most children have these sounds in their system by the time they enter kindergarten. Add to that my consistent observation that many children with severe phonological deficits actually have a decent [r] in their repertoire, which leads me to conclude that it's OK to start with [r] or [l] as one of the phonemic targets.
The important thing to remember, especially with very young children is that you are shaping phonemic contrasts in order to convey meaning, not to elicit perfect production. The use of maximal contrasts allows the child to latch onto even one salient difference between the 2 target phonemes, and thus differentiate between the two words. That being said, with a younger child, there are probably plenty of errors other than [r, l] to choose from and I have often started with two obstruents as a contrast pair. My personal favorite contrast, because of the high frequency word potential, is [g/ʃ] - I’ve had LOTS of success starting there!
2. How do I do phonological awareness or phonologic contrast activities with preschool children?
The key to doing any phonemic activity successfully with preschoolers and kindergartners is having a motor response for the child to make: it will keep the child engaged with the activity, and gives the child a sense of accomplishing something. Only using listening and repetition of contrasts is not engaging, and speech sounds are so fleeting that the child often has no idea whether their response was correct or not. There needs to be a visible motor response.
Preschool phonological awareness tasks include alliteration and rhyming awareness. Developing these skills supports developing a child's phonologic knowledge. Preschool children are learning to sort and love to sort, so think about sorting activities for beginning sounds using familiar objects or toys. For example, from a farm set you could sort initial [k] - cow, cat, calf, car, combine, coop: initial [r] - rooster, red barn, ram, reach, run; initial [f] - feed, fun, fox, fur, fetch, fix; initial [ʃ] - sheep, shoe, shin, sharp, shut, etc. The child puts the objects in different boxes or bags that correspond to the beginning sound.
Rhymes can be a bit trickier to develop, and for the child with a phonologic disorder to identify, but they can be sorted in a similar fashion. One very engaging activity is to have a paper bag monster puppet that only eats things that rhyme with a particular word, or with the puppet's name. For example, the puppet named "Wick" only eats trick, stick, kick, lick, etc. This activity can be used with initial sound matching as well. Children love to feed the puppet!
References
Gierut JA. The conditions and course of clinically induced phonological change. J SpeechHear Res. 1992;35(5):1049-1063.