Voiced And Unvoiced Sounds

[Guest]

Just been passed an IEP to put into child speak....... 'can distinguish between voiced and unvoiced sounds'. What does that mean exactly? Anyone know? and can anyone think of a way to put whatever it is into child speak, please?

[Lucie]

i think it means when sounds are made, some sounds are made with a voice attached and some aren't

 

eg. if you make the sound 't' you dont use your voice box, wheras if you do 'g' you need to use your voice box.

 

thats my understanding anyway.

 

xx lucie xx

[Guest]

Sounds come in pairs, one voiced, one unvoiced. If you put your hand to your throat while you say a voiced sound you can feel the buzzing as the air goes through your voice box to make the sound. For an unvoiced sound there is nothing to feel.

 

Try getting children to feel the difference, and point out that their mouths, lips and teeth are doing the same thing for both sounds.

 

Here are some pairs, voiced sound first: g & c, d & t, v & f, z & s, b & p, th (as in this) & th (as in thin).

 

In my experience at least some 4 year olds find all this mildly interesting!

[Guest]

Don't know if this will help but I was on a course yesterday regarding 'supporting speech, language and communication needs' and was advised by the area SENCo that if we ever get a report where we are not sure what a phrase means, we should contact the author of the report to find out exactly what they meant by what they wrote.

 

Rachel

[Guest Wolfie]

I agree with Rachel! The author needs to know that the phrase is not a commonly known one!

[JacquieL]

I can't imagine why the underfives need to be able to distinguish between voiced and unvoiced sounds, unless of course the child has a specific speech or hearing disability which requires this kind of teaching. Otherwise is this IEP for the gifted and talented! Children have enough trouble identifying letters sounds as it is without confusing them further.

[Marion]

Voiceless: p, t, k, f, θ, s, ʃ(sh), h, ʍ(wh), tʃ(ch)

Voiced : b, d, g, m, n, ŋ(ng), v, ð(th), z, ʒ(zh), ɹ, l, j, w, dʒ (dzh)

 

but as a SENCO I would say this isn't a suitable target for an IEP

[HappyMaz]

Children have enough trouble identifying letters sounds as it is without confusing them further.

Well this child is very confused: I think I need to read this thread again very carefully!

[Guest]

Think we're feeling a bit confused too, HappyMaz!!

[Marion]

Voiced and voiceless are linguistic terms rather than anything to do with teaching phonics.

[JacquieL]

Exactly, which is why 'can distinguish between voiced and unvoiced sounds' is ridiculous for a child to try to achieve.

[HappyMaz]

Exactly, which is why 'can distinguish between voiced and unvoiced sounds' is ridiculous for a child to try to achieve.

How would you know that a child is unable to distinguish between the two: what would the child's speech sound like?

[Marion]

The fact they can or can't distinguish voice/voiceless may or may not impact on their speech which is another reason this isn't an appropriate IEP target.

[emmajess]

Perhaps the IEP is meaning for the child to recognise when it is the voiced sound s/he needs to make and when the unvoiced? Does the child tend to use the voiced sound rather than the unvoiced, for example (eg says /b/ for /b/ and /p/ ), and so the idea behind the IEP is for the child to listen/think carefully whether it is a voiced or unvoiced sound in the word? For the child to be actively distinguishing /b/ from/p/ and /g/ from /c/ in her/his speech, for example, rather than necessarily talking abstractly using these tricky terms? Perhaps the IEP is just using these terms for the teacher's benefit (!) to explain the specific nature of the child's difficulty, rather than listing every sound substitution? In this case I would put it into child speak by listing the relevant sound substitutions - or a few of them if there are too many?

 

Or maybe the idea is that the concept of using or not using the voice to make the sound might help the child to use /b/ and /p/ (for example) in the right places? If it was this, you could say for the child 'to know when to use her/his voice to make a sound and when to make a sound without a voice'.

 

I'd check ith the person who wrote it exactly what they want you to do with this and the purpose and that will give you a better idea of how to put it into child speak!

[Marion]

The subject of the IEP isn't appropriate whatever terms are used.

[Guest]

Gosh, that brings back memories of being in halls and helping my friend who was on her speech therapy course with her exam revision!

Even if you did want a child to notice the difference between 2 sounds, you'd mention those 2 sounds.

I wouldn't ever give it as a target for my children.