Painting Pony’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 sound is soft and it pops out of 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 sound of Painting Pony  (soft) and the sound of Babbling Barry  are  Sound Pairs. 

When it develops

This sound usually develops in a child’s speech between 2 years and 2 years, 11 months. 

How it is made

Press your lips together like Painting Pony and let a softsound pop out. Don’t use your voice!  

Common Errors

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

1)  Sometimes young children may make a /b/ sound in place of a /p/ sound. For example, “a biggy” for “a piggy.” This is seen in normal speech development of a young child.  This error is called VOICING (meaning a soft sound is produced as its loud pair sound). A child who is VOICING will also produce other soft sounds as their loud pair. (The sound /k/ becomes  /g/,  as in “gum here” and the sound /t/ becomes /d/, “gup of dea”).   In normal speech development, this error pattern naturally “disappears” by the age 3 years. 

About the Letter

The lower-case letter used in this set is the non-cursive letter p.  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 b – only upside-down.  It is also the same as the letter q, but reversed.  These letters are often confused in the initial stages of learning – and this is perfectly normal. 

The letter p starts with a down stroke. 

The letter’s name is pronounced “pee”. 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 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.