Playful Sounds FAQ Playful Sounds Evidence Bases Buy at Amazon.com

Playful Sounds Benefits

Easy-to-Learn, Easy-to-Remember, Accurate and Fun!

For Home, School and Clinic

Early childhood
Preschool programs
Beginning readers
Children at risk for reading problems
Struggling readers
Dyslexia

Enrichment for speech and language
Delayed speech and language
Articulation problems (pronunciation)
Phonological or auditory processing deficits
Apraxia
Autism spectrum disorders

Brain Power for Speech Sounds

Oral-Motor Skill-Building Tool
for Clinicians

Establish essential oral-motor movements and placements for speech within a valid speech context. MORE
Rehearse repetitive & alternating movements in any combination, as needed.
Build support for phonation where needed, and establish voiced v.s. voiceless production contrasts.
Rehearse consonant-vowel, vowel-consonant, or longer combinations, as needed.

Beyond Oral-Motor Rehearsal

Develop auditory-motor integration, the foundation for the feedback loop by which correct pronunciation is learned and maintained.

The Sound Foundation
at Home, at School, in the Clinic

Build essential ‘mind’s ear’ skills for speech, phonics and reading: auditory discrimination, auditory memory, naming and Phonemic Awareness.
Pictures hint at the sound they represent, making sounds more easily remembered
Speech sounds are fleeting and abstract; but pictures add a stable and meaningful element to assist children in focusing their attention.
One picture for one speech sound creates clear categories for the various English spellings children will encounter in their Phonics learning.
Sh, Ch, and the two Th sounds are included.

"I Know That Sound!"

candy, kite, Mickey, ache = coughing sound
sun, kiss, city, cent = snake sound
shoe, sure, Chevy = quiet sound

One Playful Picture for one speech sound creates clear categories in the ‘mind’s ear’
for the various English spellings children will encounter in their Phonics learning

Routine use of nonspeech oral motor exercises across diagnostic categories is increasingly questioned. Researchers and clinicians point out that:

Nonspeech oral motor movements are mediated differently in the brain than speech
Oral-motor strength is not typically the issue for children experiencing speech difficulties, as speech requires only a fraction of maximum muscle strength
Mouth awareness is not a developmental step on the path to speaking
There are no speech sounds that require side-to-side tongue movements
Blowing is a different task, neurologically, than vocalizing
Evidence indicates that to improve speech, we need to work on speech

Playful Sounds helps individuals with speech articulation problems to begin productive rehearsal of speech sounds immediately, meeting oral-motor needs efficiently and in a valid speech context.