Phonological Processes Series - Stopping
Welcome to the second installment of my blog series on phonological processes. Phonological processes are typical error patterns that many kids use as they are learning to talk. If these patterns persist past the age of expected disappearance, it can negatively impact how much others understand a child’s speech.
One common phonological process is called stopping. Some sounds in English are called fricatives (ex. S, F, SH) and require you to produce a long stream of air. I call these “long air sounds.” Some sounds are called stops (ex. P, T), and when they are produced, you literally stop the air short, and I call them “short air sounds.” Stopping is a pattern where a child replaces a long air sound, like F, with a stop sound like P, such as “pish” for “fish.”
Because phonological processes can be typical up until a certain age, it can be hard to know whether or not your child will eventually grow out of it on their own, or whether they will need speech therapy. Here’s some more information to help you know when to contact a speech therapist.
What is Stopping?
With stopping, your child is taking a sound made with a long stream of air, such as F, and replacing it with a sound that is produced with a short stream of air, such as P. Say an F sound and feel how the air must move in a continuous stream to say the sound. Now say a P sound and feel how the air is short and kind of “explodes” from your lips. If your child is using a stopping pattern, they are replacing long air sounds with short air sounds, or as the name of the pattern suggests, they are “stopping” the flow of long air. For example, they may replace all F sounds with a P sound (ex. pish for fish, wapple for waffle, opp for off) or all S sounds with a T sound (ex. tat for sat, rating for racing, yet for yes). As a child gets older, the continued pattern of replacement of these sounds can make it difficult for others to understand their speech.
At What Age Should My Child Stop Using This Pattern?
By 3 years of age, a child should discontinue replacing F and S with a stop sound like P or T. By 4 years of age, a child should discontinue stopping the airflow for Z and V sounds, and by 5 years of age, your child should discontinue stopping the airflow for the SH, CH, J and TH sounds. Check out this helpful page from the American Speech and Hearing Association (ASHA) on phonological processes.
How Can I Notice if My Child Is Using Stopping?
Your child may be using the pattern at the beginning, middle, or ending or words or all of the above. Here are some examples:
Beginning: Berry for Very, Tat for Sat, Pish for Fish
Middle: Ebery for Every, Whittle for Whistle, Coppee for Coffee
End: Habb for Have, Hout for House, Opp for Off
How Do Speech Therapists Treat Phonological Processes?
Approaches to treating phonological processes include the use of the following:
Minimal Pairs: Research supports the use of minimal pairs to treat the continued use of phonological processes. The minimal pairs approach compares two words that differ in only one sound. The use of each of the sounds changes the word meaning. One way to use minimal pairs is to show the child two pictures to see if they can identify the one you are saying. For example, your child may say “tell” for “sell.” Using the minimal pairs strategy, we show them one picture of someone “telling” and someone “selling” and see if they can hear the difference between the two words. This helps increase your child’s awareness that if they use a T sound for S, it can actually change the meaning of the word that they are saying. After the child becomes familiar with listening and identifying the differences between the two sounds and how sounds change the meaning of the words, you can have the child tell you which one they mean. You can say, do you want to “sell lemonade” at your lemonade stand or “tell lemonade” at your lemonade stand? Then the child would choose between the two words and produce “sell” to use the correct sound to clarify what they meant. I love using these materials for this! They work so well for teletherapy!
Teach How the Sounds Are Made: If your child has difficulty making fricative sounds like S or F, speech therapy can help your child learn how to make “long” and “short” air and what the difference is between them. One idea is to use visuals for long and short. You can use pieces of string, rolling play doh into a long or short snake, or use a picture of a long and short worm to show how some sounds are long and some are short. For the long sounds, you can drag your finger along the long string as you say “sssssss” or “ffffff.” For short sounds, you can use the short string to show how other sounds are short, like “p” or “t.” Then we can see if your child can identify when they hear a long or short sounds so we can see if they are really hearing the difference between the two. Then your child can practice making an F sound by using long air, or an S sound by using long air with the mouth and tongue in the correct positions.
Give Positive, Specific Feedback: Giving positive feedback when your child uses the right sound goes a long way to raise awareness. Instead of just saying “good job,” tell your child exactly what they did to communicate their message successfully. Sometimes I say, I heard your “long air sound!” You said “see,” (instead of “tea”) and I understand that you’d like to “see” that! Or if there is an error, I may say, '“Did you mean you’d like some ‘tea’ or you want to ‘see’ that?” Oh, “see,” now I understand. Thanks for using your long air sound to tell me!
I hope you learned a little bit more about one of the many speech patterns that can persist past the typical age of disappearance and how it can be treated. If your child is struggling with speech or language skills, contact me for a free consultation.