Hot Harry’s Sound

About the Sound

This sound is soft and long. It uses no voice. It is a sound that doesn’t occur on the end of words in English. 

When it develops

This sound starts to appears early in a child’s words and is usually produced correctly in words by the age of 2 years and 11 months. 

How it is made

Open your mouth like Hot Harry and huff out a long soft sound. It’s easy! 

Sound Pair

A sound pair is another sound that is made in the same way – only one of the pairs is LOUD (uses voice) and the other is SOFT (uses no voice, is whispered).  Not all sounds have a pair.  When a sound is involved with a speech error, often (but not always) the Sound Pair will also be involved in the same speech error. 

The sound of Hot Harry (soft) does not have a Sound Pair. 

How to Help

If the sound is being left off, try and say the following word lists and feel Hot Harry’s blowy sound at the start of the second word.

• art-heart 
• eat-heat           
• ate-hate
• eel-heel     
• and-hand   

Common Errors

Remember, some speech sound errors are perfectly NORMAL as a child progresses in their speech development.   

1) One feature of Aboriginal English is to leave the /h/ sound off the start of words (“appy” for “happy”).  Then, there is an interesting feature of Aboriginal English, that the /h/ sound can be added!  “For hinstance…” 

2) You sometimes hear the /h/ being left off in some dialectal variations of  Standard Australian English too.  (E.g. “the ‘ammer’s on my tool bench”).   

About the Letter

The lower-case letter used in this set is the non-cursive letter h. Non-cursive is what is most often seen in text and in the world around a child, so we encourage all written text to be presented in non-cursive in the preschool setting.

The letter’s name is pronounced “aitch” – although some will swear it is pronounced “haitch”.  The latter is thought to have Catholic origins.  You can read more about the history here. 

Activities

Colour-In

1. Learners can be shown how to form the letter, starting at the star. If there are two possible ways the writer could head with their pencil (or crayon), they should head towards the smaller star next.  Try and give consistent instructions when you demonstrate letter formation.  E.g. “This is how you do the letter H …. Down and then over”.  2. Children can practise again and again within the outline. Using different colours can make it more fun. Encourage a child to say the sound as they trace the letter (not the letter name).  3. Together look at the pictures, name each and LISTEN for the first sound of each word. It will begin with the target sound. 4. You can point to the first letter in each word. Name the letter. 

Download Colour-In

Picture Cards

 Each picture begins with the target sound. You can print these out and make cards or just look at them on a device.

1) Cards can be used for  these for a range of games such as SNAP, BINGO or MEMORY.

2) Start a double-spread page in a scrapbook for each sound. Paste in the colour-in (above), practise writing the letter and cut out and paste the pictures on the pages.

3) Combine them with another set from a different sound and do a SORTING ACTIVITY.

4)Make a poster for each sound and paste on the corresponding pictures.

Find the Letter 

View the download on a digital device and point to the target letters or print out and circle/ underline the letters.  Try and encourage scanning of left to right of each line while looking for letters.