Babbling Barry’s Sound

Below you will find BONUS ACTIVITIES that come with your purchase of The Speech Sound Set Alphabet Cards.

Note that in this series, only lower-case non-cursive letters are included. Lower-case letters are certainly more difficult to write than capitals, but this resource is about exposing children to the look of the letters that they will be seeing in the sentences of their ‘readers’ (books) when they begin formal schooling.

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About the Sound

This is a loud sound that bursts out the lips. 

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 sounds of Babbling Barry (loud) and  Painting Pony (soft) are  Sound Pairs. 

When it develops

 This sound usually develops early in a baby’s babble. It is the sound at the beginning of SO MANY English words relating to a young child:  baby, bottle, bib, bed, big, ball.  This sound is one of the earliest to develop in the words of English speakers, around the age of 2 years. 

How it is made

 Press your lips together like Babbling Barry and let a loud sound pop out.

Tips to Help 

One little boy I worked with many years ago had severe verbal dyspraxia and couldn’t make many sounds. To help make this one,  he would push his bottom lip up to help get the right mouthshape and then  throw his hand forward to help get the sound to “burst” from his mouth. If he didn’t throw his hand forward he would let the sound come out his nose and this way he made the long /m/ sound (Munching Mama’s sound).  Gee, he was a clever young thing! 

Common Errors

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

1)  A young speaker might leave the /b/ sound off the start of the word “banana” and say “nana” instead. This is not actually a difficulty in saying Babbling Barry’s sound /b/. Instead, it is a normal developmental error that preschoolers sometimes exhibit. The error is in the child leaving off the quick syllable (beat) of a word and it can happen across lots of words. For this reason the child says “nana” for “banana” (leaving off the unstressed “ba” syllable). The same child would probably  say “hind” for “behind” and “tween” for “between” – but of course, they’d probably say “puter” for “computer” and “mote” for “remote.” They might even leave out the quick syllable in the middle of words, saying “elphant” for “elephant.” This error is called WEAK SYLLABLE DELETION.  It is often demonstrated as part of normal speech development and naturally “disappears” by the age 4 years. 

2) If this sound comes out more like a /m/ sound (“med” for “bed” and “mig” for “big”) it means that air is escaping through nose as the sound is made. This is not common and is not part of normal speech development.  If it is happening consistently with all /b/ words, a speech pathologist should be contacted. 

About the Letter

The lower-case letter used in this set is the non-cursive letter b. 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.

This letter is the SAME as the lower-case letter d – only reversed – thus the two are often confused in the initial stages of learning – and this is perfectly normal. 

The letter b starts with a down stroke. 

The letter’s name is pronounced “bee”. This letter is acrophonic meaning the letter name starts with the sound it represents. Acrophonic letter-sound links are generally easier to learn. 

Activities

Colour-In

1. Learners can be shown how to form the letter, starting at the star. If there are two possible ways that the writer could head with their pencil (or crayon), they should head towards the smaller star next.  Try and give consistent instructions for the letter formation.  E.g. “Down, back up and then round”.  2. Children can practise again and again within the outline. Using different colours can make it more fun.  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. 

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. 

References

Crowe, K. and McLeod, S. (2020). Children’s English Consonant Acquisition In the United States: A Review. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 4(29), 2155-2169. https://doi.org/10.1044/2020_ajslp-19-00168

McLeod, S., & Singh, S. (2009). Speech sounds: A pictorial guide to typical and atypical speech. Plural Publishing.

Peña-Brooks, A., & Hegde, M. N. (2015). Assessment and Treatment of Speech Sound Disorders in Children: A Dual-Level Text. Austin, TX: PRO-ED.

Shipley, K. G., & McAfee, J. G. (2016). Assessment in speech-language pathology: A resource manual. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.