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View Full Version : Tricks to teach the "K" sound?



Hallie_D
02-23-2004, 01:10 PM
DS is 21 months old and is going through a language spurt. Now that he is trying to say words more clearly, we've discovered this weekend that he says "T" for "K"--that is, "duck" is pronounced "duT" and "book" is "booT" (rhymes with "put"), and he emphasizes the "T" so I know he is trying to get it right.

I know it is WAY too early to be concerned about speech problems. I just wonder if anyone has a trick for helping a little one get that "K" sound or if I should just keep repeating the words correctly and when he's ready, he'll get it.

I felt like such a dunce yesterday morning when we were lounging in bed and he kept saying "BooT! BooT!" (again, rhyming with "put") and I couldn't figure out what he wanted--he says "boot" (the shoe) already and this clearly was something else...after a while he looked at me with the saddest eyes and said "booT" and SIGNED "book" and finally the light dawned--he had never said or signed the word before, but luckily for me he seemed to get them simultaneously. I said, "Oh, do you want a BOOK?" and he was so happy that I finally understood he clapped his hands. Hooray, mommy isn't as dumb as you thought, honey!

TIA,

egoldber
02-23-2004, 01:59 PM
My DD has expressive language delay, and we drill intensively to get her to use the final consonants in words. The speech pathologist we work with taught us to use "visual cues" to help her do this. The visual cue for K is pointing to the top of your throat, since the K sound is made at the back of the mouth, in the throat.

So say the word: booK, putting a lot of emphasis on the K and pointing to your throat at the same time. And have a dialogue something like: "Oh, you want a booK. booK. booK. Can you say booK? Say it again? booK. Great job!" Do that a few times a day.

You also might want to find a book that has a lot of K sounds in it and read that book a lot. We are mainly working on final P, so we read a lot of "Hop on Pop" and "A Great Day for Up!".

But really at this age, he's doing really, really well. He'll get it on his own soon!

HTH,

Hallie_D
02-23-2004, 02:55 PM
Thank you so much! I will definitely start doing that. It is so exciting to hear him trying to say new words--I just feel like such a moron when I can't understand him! I'm trying to think of books with lots of K words...I'll spend some time browsing his bookshelves tonight. Both our cat and dog have names beginning with K and DS has been very creative in calling their names (starting this past weekend). Khumbuh (pronounced "koomboo") our cat is "Boomboo" or "Moomboo" (or "ditty") and Kaiyuh (kai-yoo) our dog is "Dye-oh." Thank DH for those crazy names.

If you are working on final P, have you tried "Sheep in a Jeep?" DS loves that book. BooK. BooK. :-)

egoldber
02-23-2004, 03:15 PM
LOL! I'll check that out. :)

raynjen
02-23-2004, 09:25 PM
DD learned K with cookie. When she has trouble with other words (like kite) we would always say "K, K, K like cookie!" Of course, we will have to retrain her when it comes time for reading...

On a side note my cousin was learning the 'K' sound of the letter 'C' at school and wrote my dad a letter, "Dear Uncle Mice, (Mike)". My dad has been 'Uncle Mice' since then.

Jen in Okinawa
Mom to Noelle (2 1/3)

Hallie_D
02-26-2004, 04:19 PM
LOL! Elijah also has an uncle named Mike--but I'm sure he would be called "Untle Mite."

I was joking with DH the other day that Elijah is becoming obsessed with old-fashioned names...two of his favorite things to say are "Milt" (milk) and "Monty" (monkey).

BTW, Jen-I got your email but my reply bounced back to me. Our servers didn't want to talk, I guess.

raynjen
02-26-2004, 08:25 PM
UGGH! In some ways I HATE being in Japan! American servers don't like my Japanese server - a lot of times people assume (PayPal, Toyota, Ebay, to name a few) that because I have a Japanese server I must be Japanese! I also can't email certain people in the states because some spam has come from this server and now they are blocking the entire thing. Everytime I want to send something to my aunt I have to revive my old Hotmail address...

Oh well, I guess this forum will work instead. And it's not really Japan's fault. I take it back, I do like living here, now if I could just get a Barnes and Noble...

Jen in Okinawa
Mom to Noelle (2 1/3)