Speech Therapy - How to Teach the K and G Sounds

Does your child have trouble producing the K and G sounds? The K and G sounds should be mastered by age 3 1/2. Typically, a child who has trouble with /k/ and /g/ will substitute the /t/ and /d/ sounds, respectively. He is attempting to product the sounds with the tongue tip instead of the back of the tongue. These are fairly common speech sound errors, but a child who has these sound substitutions can be very difficult to understand.
Here are some suggestions to help you teach these sounds to your child.
To produce /k/ and /g/, the back part of the tongue is raised and pressed against the roof of the mouth (soft palate), stopping all airflow. The tongue tip is lowered. The tongue then drops, allowing the air that has been held behind the tongue to escape suddenly. The /k/ is voiceless, produced by airflow. The /g/ is produced with the voice "on."
Tips:
1. Demonstrate the sound in front of a mirror. Use a spoon or popsicle stick to touch the back of the tongue and the soft palate or roof of the mouth to help the child feel how the sound is made. (Be cautious about triggering the gag reflex as you do this.) Have the child put his hand, paper, or a feather close to the lips to feel or see the puffs of air.
2. Help the child identify the part of the tongue to be raised by pressing downward on the back of the tongue with a spoon while the child tries to push upward against the spoon.
3. Have the child attempt to say /t/ while you hold the tongue tip down.
4. Play listening games to help the child practice discriminating between /t/ and /k/ or between /d/ and /g/. ("Is this a dog?" "Is this a gog?")
5. Exaggerate the target sound when modeling it.
Have your child practice making /k/ and /g/ in isolation until he can easily produce the sounds. Then practice words that begin with these sounds. When this is easy for the child, have him practice words with /k/ and /g/ in the middle and at the ends of words. Only when the child can produce the error sounds correctly in words, should you require him to correctly produce the sounds in sentences.
The /k/ and /g/ sounds can be difficult for children to master. If your child continues to have difficulty, it is advisable to consult with a speech pathologist for additional help.- Deborah Lott

How to Fix Stuttering

Many people around the world, both young and old, struggle with stuttering. Most of these stutterers will more than likely avoid conversations with anyone for fear of embarrassing themselves.Often times they will avoid people altogether and not interact with anyone. They don't know how to fix stuttering so they become hermits.

Though it is a huge problem with many people, it is possible to learn how to fix stuttering. In fact, it is highly likely to completely cure stuttering all together with just a few simple techniques. Imagine a life free of fear and embarrassment. I would like to take a moment and show you three of the most popular ways to fix stuttering.

Speech Therapy

Speech therapy has become a huge industry over the years. Practitioners claim they can fix stuttering through psychology and counseling. Although therapy cannot guarantee that you will fix your speech problem, there have been reports from many stutterers claiming that it does in fact work.

Like most therapy around the world, speech therapy can put a real hurt on the wallet. Most of these speech therapists charge by the hour and most of the prices are a couple of hundred dollars. When you are trying to cure stuttering with therapy it may take a couple of weeks or some months to even come close to fixing the problem. To make the expense worse, many times speech therapist can't even fix stuttering. So you spend all this money for nothing.

Visualization

when learning how to fix stuttering, visualization may be the only cure you need. This technique uses a more positive approach than others. All you do is visualize that you don't stutter. You clear your mind from the stress that surrounds you and tell yourself that you do not have a speech impediment. Begin to think of what you want to say before you actually say it. The idea behind visualization is to convince yourself that you do not have a stutter.

Visualization can work but you have to have a lot of self confidence and the right guidance for it to be effective, and most stutterers don't have any confidence so learning how to fix stuttering becomes a problem.

Hypnotherapy

one of the most popular treatments for stuttering is hypnotherapy. First you need to find a therapist that has a good track record. Basically, what these therapist due is they hypnotize the stutterer and tell them not to stutter anymore. There is not too much that I can say in regards to hypnotherapy other than people around the world use this to fix stuttering. Be sure to search for a good therapist or you will spend a lot of your money for nothing.

If you want to learn how to fix stuttering, speech therapy, visualization, and hypnotherapy can put you on the road to recovery. These techniques, if done correctly, can fix your stuttering issue. You can now go through life without having to feel embarrassed or ridiculed. Enjoy your life free from stuttering!

By Thomas Davey-Clarke