Vowels Archives - Marshalla Speech & Language

Tag: Vowels

Diphthongs and Glides in Core Vocabulary Words

By Pam Marshalla

This slide is from my class on improving intelligibility in apraxia, dysarthria, and low cognitive skills. Research has demonstrated that diphthongs and glides are learned very early and that children with phonological impairment rarely have trouble with them. However, it has been my experience that most clients with apraxia, dysarthria, and low cognitive skills do have trouble with them. Typically these children reduce these early sequences down to single vowels, and they often use the schwa instead of the correct vowel. This means that they are…

Tongue-Protrusion in Toddlers

By Pam Marshalla

Q: I work in the Early Intervention setting and increasingly encounter late talking children (frequently boys) who prefer a frontal tongue posture. What’s the correction? In my experience, this problem does not need to be fixed in a two-year-old boy who is delayed in SL. First, tongue protrusion is normal in two-year-olds. Second, the child is late in talking and therefore should be using the pattern of a one-year-old. The only thing I would do over the next year is…

Vowels and Intelligibility with Apraxia

By Pam Marshalla

Q: My son is 2.5 years old. He can say 6 words: Mom (ma), ball, up (uh), gone, please (pease), and truck. I am feeling overwhelmed with how to incorporate the 3 tracks of your “Vowel Tracks” material. Can I start with one track? He gets really frustrated with wanting stuff. I am getting worried he won’t talk. The purpose of Vowel Tracks is to show how to focus on vowels as new words are being added to a child’s…

Teaching Lip Rounding

By Pam Marshalla

Q: My 19-month-old cannot produce O. She is smart and has no other speech or developmental problems, but it interferes with intelligibility. My guess is that your daughter will learn to round her lips within a few weeks or months all on her own without any help. She is only one year old and has lots of time to gain this simple skill. If you were to come to my office about this, and this was the only problem, I…

The Basics of Teaching Vowels

By Pam Marshalla

Q: My client makes many vowel errors. Can you give me some advice about teaching them? Teaching the vowels is mostly about ear training during the production of prolonged single vowels. Don’t try to teach them within the context of words. That is way too hard. Recent research (1,2) suggests that the vowels are easier to learn relative to one another instead of one-at-a-time. Therefore work on all of them and not only the few your client needs to learn….

Stimulating Long E

By Pam Marshalla

Q: I took your course on intelligibility and understand the importance of Long E in achieving the starting point for all vowels, but I cannot get my client to make a good E. It sounds flat. I would try this–– Have him say a big oral strong “Ah”. The tell him to “keep saying Ah” while he bites his back teeth together (or on a bitestick) Then tell him to “keep saying Ah” while he smiles broadly. Model this diphthong…

Accents: Dialect Reduction / Code Switching

By Pam Marshalla

Q: I am working with an adult who wants to reduce his accent. Do you have any material on this? I am not an expert in working with accents, although I have always had a secret desire to specialize in it. My professors called this “Dialect Reduction” but modern therapists call it “Code Switching.” The continuing ed classes on dialect reduction I have taken in recent years and the old books on elocution that I have read both indicate that…

Prevocalic Devoicing

By Pam Marshalla

Q: Can you advise me as to how to treat prevocalic devoicing of stops? This is what I have found works for me- Voice It’s all about “voice on” vs. “voice off” so begin by teaching the client about his voice. Have him place his fingers on his neck to feel the vibration or lack thereof when he turns his voice on and when he turns it off. Vowels Use “Ah” and whispered “Ah” to teach him to turn his…

Slurred Speech, Epenthesis

By Pam Marshalla

Q: My male client is five years of age. He has developmental artic errors and slurred speech. He also add a schwa at the ends of words: “Baby” is “baby-uh” and “Sand” is “Sand-uh.” What would account for this and how would you address this kind of speech sound error? Developmental errors are normal in a five year old but slurred speech is not. Something is going on. This sounds like mild dysarthria. I see the addition of the schwa…

Teaching Vowels

By Pam Marshalla

Q: My client cannot produce some of the short vowels and I am having a terrible time teaching them to him. He cannot get his tongue in the right positions. Any suggestions? The problem we have teaching the vowels is that most of us have been training to think that it is all about tongue position. Tongue position is important when adults differentiate their vowels. But when children are learning all the vowels in infancy, it is the jaw that…