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ELR Software Pty Ltd | ||
eLr - What's New 2014 | |||
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Twenty six new tasks have been added to "Phonology Skills and Early Sounds - Vowel sounds - Diphthong Vowel Sounds". This is one of the sections in the Directory of eLr tasks. The two Phonology sections of the Directory provide a range of games and activities that aim to increase accuracy of production of the sounds of English. The activities this month target production of diphthong vowel sound section. There are seven diphthongs: /oa/ as in boat, /oy/ as in boy, /ow/ as in loud, /ay/ as in day, /ie/ as in kite, /eer/ as in deer, and /air/ as in pair.
Two models are used in these new activities, SpinPics and LadderPics. SpinPics is like a board game with a board on the screen, and moveable icons and spinner. A different board is used for each activity. Some examples of boards are space, frogs, sea critters etc. The learner touches the spinner (on the iPad - or clicks on a computer), which displays a number between one and five. The learner moves their icon along the board to match the number, and then touches the "Chance" button to see a picture that contains the target sound. The learner is encouraged to verbally produce the word and is provided with corrective feedback to ensure accurate production of the vowel sound. The LadderPics model is like the game of Snakes and Ladders. Its operation is similar to that of SpinPics with a "Start" and "Chance" button. The learner is encouraged to produce the word and received corrective feedback from the clinician or helper.
Prior to use of these materials, an assessment by a speech pathologist is advised. This enables a diagnosis of the nature of the speech production disorder, and also the formulation of appropriate goals and strategies.
Consistent with the design of eLr activities, these models allow for modifications that enable the clinician/helper to provide extension activities. For example, the learner may be encouraged to use each word in a sentence, depending on the level of skill they have achieved. Or, the stimulus pictures may be used as the basis of a language expansion activity where a discussion about the item occurs (eg use, features, where it is found). Additionally, the boards may be printed and used as paper based activities. To print the boards, go to the "Activity Toolbox" section in the Directory. The subsection called "Scene Library" contains a range of scene, which may be used as boards for a variety of speech and language games. Click the "?" on the top right corner of the screen for instructions about how to use any of the eLr activities.
As with all eLr activities, we invite feedback and suggestions regarding these activities and any aspect of eLr.
Twenty four new tasks have been added to "Phonology Skills and Early Sounds" - Vowel sounds - Short Vowel Sounds" (which is one of the sections in the Directory). Over the last few editions we have been adding material to this section to provide a range of activities that aim to strengthen production of short vowel sounds in words. There is a subsection for each of the six short vowel sounds in English: /a/ as in hat, /e/ as in bed, /i/ as in pig, /o/ as in hot, /u/ as in bus, and /oo/ as in book.
The model used in the activities is called SpinPics, which is like a board game. A "board" appears on the screen, with icons and a spinner. A different board is used for each activity. Some examples of board themes are space, frogs, sea critters etc. The learner touches the spinner (on the iPad - or clicks on a computer), which displays a number between one and five. The learner moves their icon along the board to match the number, and then touches the "Chance" button to see a picture that contains the target sound. The learner is encouraged to verbally produce the word and is provided with corrective feedback to ensure accurate production of the vowel sound.
Prior to use of these materials, an assessment by a speech pathologist is advised. This enables a diagnosis of the nature of the speech production disorder, and also the formulation of appropriate goals and strategies.
Consistent with the design of eLr activities, these models allow for modifications that enable the clinician/helper to provide extension activities. For example, the learner may be encouraged to use each word in a sentence, depending on the level of skill they have achieved. Or, the stimulus pictures may be used as the basis of a language expansion activity where a discussion about the item occurs (eg features, where it is found, where the item is used etc). Additionally, the boards may be printed and used as paper based activities. To print the boards, go to the "Activity Toolbox" section in the Directory. The subsection called "Scene Library" contains a range of scenes, which may be used as boards for a variety of speech and language games. Select the "?" on the top right corner of the screen for instructions about how to use any of the eLr activities.
As with all eLr activities, we invite feedback and suggestions regarding these activities and any aspect of eLr.
We've made a slight modification to the eLr Directory (on the website and eLr-Offline iPad App) to provide a wider space on the left margin to allow left hands to touch/flick the page up and down on touchscreens without accidentally touching task-opening hotspots. Thanks very much to the eLr user who alerted us to this issue.
Twenty-four new tasks have been added to "Phonology - Skills and Early Sounds - Vowel sounds - Short Vowel Sounds". This subsection was opened in the last edition and these current tasks provide additional material and games to strengthen production of short vowel sounds in words. There are six short vowel sounds: /a/ as in hat, /e/ as in bed, /i/ as in pig, /o/ as in hot, /u/ as in bus, and /oo/ as in book. These tasks may be useful for children with delayed or disordered speech sound development who often have difficulty producing vowel sounds accurately, and/or some adults with an acquired brain injury that has affected clarity of speech production. Prior to use of these materials, an assessment by a speech pathologist is advised. This enables a diagnosis of the nature of the speech production disorder, and also the formulation of appropriate goals and strategies for that person.
Two models have been used. The first one is called PicCards. This is a simple model where four, six or nine "cards" appear on the screen. The learner is encouraged to click a card to reveal a picture, and is supported by the clinician or helper to say the name of the picture using an accurate production of the vowel sound. The second model is a memory game and is called MemoryPics. A number of "cards" appear on the screen. The aim is to uncover matching pairs. It may be used as a game with two people, or the learner may continue to click cards until they have uncovered all of the pairs. As the goal of this task is to provide practice at producing words with short vowel sounds, each player says the word after they have uncovered a picture. As with the previous model the clinician or helper provides corrective feedback to ensure accurate production of the vowel sound.
Consistent with the design of eLr activities, these models allow for modifications that enable the clinician/helper to provide extension activities. For example, in both models the learner may be encouraged to use each word in a sentence, depending on the level of skill they have achieved. Or, the stimulus pictures may be used as the basis of a language expansion activity where a discussion about the item occurs (eg encouraging sentence production describing how the item is used, its features, where it is found etc). Additionally, the cards may be printed and used as paper based activities.
As with all eLr activities, we invite feedback and suggestions regarding these activities and any aspect of eLr.
Twenty-two new tasks have been added to "Phonology - Skills and Early Sounds - Vowel sounds", in a new subsection called "Short vowel sounds". These tasks provide material to strengthen production of short vowel sounds in words. This section may be useful for children with delayed or disordered speech sound development who often have difficulty producing vowel sounds accurately, and/or adults with an acquired brain injury affecting clarity of speech. Prior to use of these materials, an assessment by a speech pathologist is advised. This enables a diagnosis of the nature of the speech production disorder, and also the formulation of appropriate goals and strategies for that person.
Two models have been used in these tasks. The first one is called Slide show. This is a very simple model that displays one picture on the screen. The clinician or helper supports the learner to verbally produce the name of the picture, and provides corrective feedback and strategies to support accuracy of production. The second model is called TicTacPics and is based on the Noughts and Crosses (or Tic-Tac-Toe) game that usually involves two people. Nine pictures are displayed on the screen, and players take turns in touching the pictures aiming to get three in a row. As the goal of this task is to provide practice at producing words with short vowel sounds, each player says the word before touching the picture. As with the previous model the clinician or helper provides corrective feedback to ensure accurate production of the vowel sound.
Consistent with the design of eLr activities, these models allow for modifications that enable the clinician/helper to provide extension activities. For example, in both models the learner may be encouraged to use each word in a sentence, depending on the level of skill they have achieved. Or, the stimulus pictures may be used as the basis of a language expansion activity where a discussion about the item occurs (eg encouraging sentence production describing how the item is used, its features, where it is found etc).
As with all eLr activities, we invite feedback and suggestions regarding these activities and any aspect of eLr.
Seventeen new tasks have been added to "Phonological Awareness - Vowels - Diphthongs". The aim of the tasks in this whole section is to increase the learner's ability to accurately identify vowel sounds in words so that they may learn the spelling patterns that match vowels, as the reading and spelling of vowel sounds is often difficult for some learners.
In English there are about 19 vowel sounds (depending on accent) which are classified into three groups. There are six short vowel sounds: /a/ as in cat, /e/ as in bed, /i/ as in pig, /o/ as in hot, and /oo/ as in book. This group is often taught first and is the easiest to master because the sound-letter correspondence is reasonably consistent. The next group is the long vowel sounds of which there are five: /ee/ as in feet, /oo/ as in pool, /ar/ as in card, /er/ as in bird, and /or/ as in corn. You'll notice that when you say each of these sounds, your mouth stays in the same position. For example, when you say /ee/, your lips remain pulled back, and when you say /oo/ your lips remain pursed.
The last group of vowel sounds is called diphthong vowels. The word "di-phthong" literally means "two sounds" or "two tones". These sounds are also known as "gliding vowels" - when two adjacent vowel sounds occur within the same syllable. There are seven diphthong vowels in English: /ay/ as in day, /ie/ as in lie, /oa/ as in boat, /oy/ as in boy, /ow/ and in owl, /air/ as in hair, and /ear/ as in hear. Unlike the long vowel sounds, when you say a diphthong vowel your mouth changes shape. For example, when you say /oy/ (as in "boy"), your mouth changes from the /or/ sound to the /ee/ sound.
Learning to spell the long vowels and the diphthong vowels is difficult for many learners because each of these vowel sounds can be spelt in a number of ways (eg the /er/ sound can be spelled with "er", "ir", "ur", "or", "ear"), and conversely many of the spelling patterns can be pronounced in different ways (eg "ow" is pronounced differently in cow and blow). There is one more vowel sound in English, called the neutral vowel (or the schwa vowel). It occurs in the unstressed syllable of multi-syllabic words and therefore can be spelled with a range of spelling patterns. Examples of the neutral vowel occur in words like the /a/ in "a-bout", and the /er/ in "butter". Given that learning to read and spell vowels is a challenging process, it is important that learners are able to accurately identify vowel sounds in words, as this enables them to form well specified matches of spelling pattern to vowel sound.
All of the new tasks this month use the PicTextMatch model. In this model a picture is displayed on the screen along with a choice of letters and the matching mouth sounds (icons that shows the mouth shape for each sound). The learner is instructed to listen to the word, say the word, and then decide which letter/mouth sound occurs in that word. A choice of two or three possible vowel sounds is displayed and this simplifies the task of identifying and naming the vowel. In the easier tasks, the learner is presented with a choice of two, and in later tasks, three options. The activities are graded with the easier tasks presenting a choice of vowel sounds with a high contrast, that is, they look and sound very different (eg /ay/ and /oy/). Once this level has been mastered they may progress on to activities where the choice is between vowel sounds that are often confused, such as /ay/, and /ie/.
As with most eLr activities, the role of the teacher or support person is central in providing feedback about accuracy of response, and ensuring that the learner has accurately pronounced the vowel. Accurate production of the sound combined with linking of the spelling of that sound enables the learner to develop well specified mental images of spellings of vowel sounds.
Eighteen new tasks have been added to "Phonological Awareness - Vowels - Long Vowels". All tasks use the PicTextMatch model, and provide materials to teach accurate identification of vowel sounds in words, and knowledge of letter-sound correspondence for long vowel sounds. In this model a picture is displayed on the screen along with a choice of letters and the matching mouth sounds (an icon that shows the mouth shape for each sound). The learner is instructed to listen to the word, say the word, and then decide which letter/mouth sound occurs in that word.
The materials this month are a continuation of work we began in the last edition. Many learners with reading and spelling delays have difficulty accurately spelling the vowel sound. An important first step in learning how to spell vowel sounds is to be able to accurately say the vowel, and then to consolidate their knowledge of the different spelling patterns that represent that vowel sound. However, for many students there are two difficulties. The first is they often do not accurately articulate the vowel sound. And secondly, they may not have mastered knowledge of the spelling patterns, especially for vowel sounds. These tasks provide a choice of two or three possible vowel sounds, which simplifies the task of identifying and naming the vowel. In the easier tasks, the learner is presented with a choice of two, and in later tasks, three options. The activities are graded with the easier tasks presenting a choice of two vowel sounds with a high contrast, that is, they look and sound very different (eg /ee/ and /ar/). Once this level has been mastered they may progress to activities where the choice is between vowel sounds that are often confused, such as /oo/ and /or/.
As with most eLr activities, the role of the teacher or support person is central in providing feedback about accuracy of response, and ensuring that the learner has accurately pronounced the vowel. Accurate production of the sound combined with linking of the spelling of that sound enables the learner to develop well specified mental images of spellings of vowel sounds.
Eighteen new tasks have been added to "Phonological Awareness - Vowels - Short Vowels - Pictorial activities". All tasks use the recently updated PicTextMatch model. They provide materials to teach accurate identification of vowel sounds in words, and knowledge of letter-sound correspondence for short vowel sounds. In this model a picture is displayed on the screen along with a choice of letters and the matching "mouthsounds" (an icon that shows the mouth shape and manner of production for each sound). The learner is instructed to listen to the word, say the word, and then decide which vowel "mouthsound" occurs in that word.
Many learners with reading and spelling delays have difficulty accurately spelling the vowel sound. An important first step in learning how to spell vowel sounds is to be able to accurately say the vowel. However, for many students this is difficult and they tend to guess. By providing a limited choice, these activities simplify the task of identifying and naming the vowel. The learner is presented with a choice of two, and then three options. The activities are graded with the easier tasks presenting a choice of two vowel sounds with a high contrast, that is, they look and sound very different (eg /a/ and /i/). Once this level has been mastered they may progress on to activities where the choice is between vowel sounds that are often confused, such as /e/ and /i/.
As with most eLr activities, the role of the teacher or support person is central in providing feedback about accuracy of response, and ensuring that the learner has accurately pronounced the vowel. Accurate production of the sound combined with linking of the spelling of that sound enables the learner to develop well specified mental images of the spellings of vowel sounds.
This month we have added new content outside of the eLr Directory structure - the eLr MouthSounds Spelling Chart which you can download as a PDF from the eLr support area, or contact us if you'd like to be emailed a copy. The aim of this chart is to depict the sounds of English in a structured and visual way that highlights the relationship between each sound and its most common spelling patterns. It may be used as an aid in therapy for phonological processing, articulation, reading and spelling. The concepts underlying the chart will be progressively integrated into appropriate existing and new eLr tasks over the coming months.
The primary division of the chart is into consonant and vowel sounds. Consonants are defined as speech sounds in which the manner of production requires a varying degree of constriction of the vocal tract. For example, the /p/ sound has total constriction in which the lips block and then release the sound in an abrupt way, while the /s/ sound is partially restricted by the teeth and flows continuously. Vowels on the other hand, are not restricted - the voice flows freely out of the mouth and the lips and tongue vary in shape to modify the sound.
The chart utilizes a new symbol set we've created called eLr Mouthsounds which depicts the three main production features of each sound (place, manner, and voice) as well as its phonetic symbol.
As you can see, any sound can be described according to each of the three features. For example, the /p/ sound is "bi-labial", "stopped", but "not voiced".
In our chart, the consonant sounds are grouped to reveal the three features of sound production: manner (short and long), place and voice. The vowel sounds are organised according to the type of vowel: short, long and diphthong vowels:
The eLr MouthSounds Spelling Chart is designed to assist the learner to accurately identify sounds in words, and further, to support their learning of the spelling of any particular sound. For example, when sounding out "pay", the learner needs to articulate the first sound /p/ as a short sound without voice, and so spelt with "p". And when articulating the vowel /ay/, accurate articulation enables the learner to identify the vowel as a diphthong and to choose from the spelling patterns that most commonly spell that sound (in this case "ay").
This is the first published version of this chart, though it has been presented at some of our workshops, and has been evolving in our clinical practice since 2002! The mouth symbols in the eLr Mouthsounds have been drawn to be instructive, rather than anatomically accurate, and to visually represent the place of sound production. This is tricky for some sounds, such as /k/, /g/, /ng/ (as these sounds involve the back of the tongue which is usually not visible). So, as with all of our new materials, we welcome feedback about the the chart and symbols.
One hundred and fifty-one tasks have been updated in "Phonological Awareness" (in "Initial/Final consonants - Sound/letter matching", and "Initial/Final Blends") to include the new eLr Mouthsounds. These tasks involve the PicTextMatch model and provide material to teach identification of sounds at the beginning and ends of words. This model displays a picture on the screen and encourages the learner to name the first or last sound(s).
For some children this task is difficult as they may not understand the concept of "first/last sound". These activities simplify the requirements of the task by providing the child with a choice of two to four options. For example, the child sees a picture of "pig" and is asked "what is the first sound". The child is presented with a choice of /p/, /t/ or /m/, thus reducing the demands and decreasing the likelihood of guessing. The addition of eLr Mouthsounds means the child can now "see" the mouth shapes, as well as the spelling of the sound. The linking of phonemic awareness and letter knowledge has been shown in research to support reading and spelling development.
Twenty-four new tasks have been added to "Phonology Skills & Early Sounds - Vowel sounds", in a recently added subsection: "Diphthong vowel sounds". The aim of these tasks is to provide material targeting production of the diphthong vowel sounds in English. These include the /ay/ sound as in "day", /ow/ as in "boat", /i/ as in "pie", /ou/ as in "house", /oy/ as in "boy", /eer/ as in "deer", and /air/ as in "bear". Two models have been used. The TicTacPics model is based on the Tic Tac Toe game which involves two people. Nine pictures are displayed in a grid on the screen, and each person takes turns clicking a picture (or touching in the case of an iPad), with the aim of achieving a horizontal, vertical or diagonal row. The version used in eLr aims to encourage practice of specific speech sounds, so in these tasks, each person says the name of the picture before touching or clicking. This enables repetition and practice of the targeted diphthong vowels sound and the opportunity for the clinician or helper to provide corrective feedback about accuracy of production. The second model is called Memory Pics, also based on the well-loved Memory/Concentration games. As with the previous model, this game is also interactive and enables the clinician or helper to provide feedback and reinforce strategies about accurate production of sounds.
All models in eLr are designed to allow modification to suit the needs of the client. The default for the Memory Pics tasks is for the cards to be already shuffled, and each time you launch a game, the pictures will be shuffled and arranged in a different order. If your client needs a more predictable presentation (for example, if you are teaching the concept of "same" and "matching"), you can click "shuffle" off (top of the screen), so that the matching cards are easier to find (the diagonally opposite cards match).
In these tasks, the role of a speech pathologist is central in providing initial assessment and guiding practice where a support person may provide prompts and feedback about accurate production of these vowel sounds in words. This section may be useful for children or adults who have difficulty in the verbal production of speech sounds.
Twenty-three new tasks have been added to "Phonology - Skills & Early Sounds" in a new subsection in "Vowel sounds" called "Diphthong vowel sounds". The aim of these tasks is to provide material targeting production of the diphthong vowel sounds in English. These include the /ay/ sound as in "day", /ow/ as in "boat", /i/ as in "pie", /ou/ as in "house", /oy/ as in "boy", /eer/ as in "deer", and /air/ as in "bear". Two models have been used. The PicCards model displays "cards" on the screen, which when clicked (or touched on the iPad) turn over to reveal the target image/word. The Slide show model presents the target image/word one at a time, thus presenting an activity with minimal distraction.
Once an image is revealed the client may be encouraged to produce the single words containing the target vowel sound, or use the word in a phrase or sentence to encourage generalisation of skill to conversational speech. In these tasks, the role of a speech pathologist is central in providing initial assessment and guiding practice where a support person may provide prompts and feedback about accurate production of these vowel sounds in words. This section may be useful for children or adults who have difficulty in the verbal production of speech sounds.
Twenty-one new tasks have been added to "Reading and Spelling - Long Vowel sounds". All tasks are in the /oo/ (as in "moon") subsection, using the WordBreaker model. This model reinforces knowledge of how to break words into sounds, and provides visual support for the spelling patterns of each sound. These activities are useful for children learning to read and spell and for those students who have literacy delays who may need a specific focus on word reading and spelling skills.
Within the /oo/ sound subsection, there are activities focusing on the different spelling choices for that sound, eg "oo" as in moon, "ue" as in blue, "ew" as in knew, "u_e" as in flute, and "u" as in flu. Once each of the spelling patterns has been mastered, the "assorted spellings of this sound" subsection provides material to teach discrimination of those words that sound the same but have different spelling patterns, eg "blew blue", "flew flu". The model involves a sorting activity which helps the student consolidate knowledge of words that share a spelling pattern. For example, after the student has broken the word into sounds, the word is placed with words that share the same spelling pattern.
In these tasks, as with most eLr activities, the role of the clinician/helper is central in providing corrective feedback about accurate decoding and segmentation, which has been shown in research to play a central role in development of sight word knowledge. Extension activities are also encouraged, eg once the word has been broken into sounds and sorted, the student would benefit from writing the word and highlighting the sounds in the word.
For this particular vowel sound we would welcome feedback, as the /oo/ sound has variations in the way it is pronounced. For example, the /oo/ sound spelt "ue" is pronounced /oo/ in words like "blue" and "clue" but in words like "cue", "due" and "argue", it is pronounced /yoo/. Similarly, the /oo/ sound spelt "ew" is pronounced /oo/ in "blew, grew", but as /yoo/ in "stew" and "knew". Some other examples of the /yoo/ pronunciation are "cute, tube" (but not in words like "rule" or "rude"), and "mural, cubic" (but not "lucid" or "sushi"). This model allows for identification of words in English where we pronounce a sound that is not represented by a letter. This also happens in words like "one", which we pronounce as /won/, ie with an extra unspelled /w/ sound at the beginning of the word. We'd left this sound until the end of this body of work to let us further research these variations on pronunciation. In a very few references it is referred to as a diphthong: a blend of two vowels sounds (in this case a blend of a semi-vowel /y/ and a vowel /oo/), but the most common description is that the /oo/ sound is a long vowel sound which is "sometimes pronounced with a /y/ at the beginning", ie /yoo/. As we have said, feel free to email, as we'd love a discussion about this.
This month we have continued to add materials to the "Reading and Spelling" section using our most recent model WordBreaker which is designed to consolidate knowledge of the spelling patterns of English (orthographic knowledge). Thirty-eight new tasks have been added to "Diphthong Vowel Sounds", in three sub-sections: /ie/ sound (as in "night" and "bite"), /ear/ sound (as in "pear" and "pair"), and /eer/ sound (as in "near" and "deer").
The WordBreaker model provides material to teach segmentation of words into syllables and sounds, and to highlight more specific information about those two features, such as the stressed syllable in a multisyllabic word, and the vowel sound/s. The tasks reinforce knowledge of how to break words into sounds, and provide visual support for the spelling patterns of each sound.
Within each sound there are activities focusing on the different spelling choices for that sound. For example, this month, the tasks within the "/ie/ sound" sub-section cover the spelling patterns of "ie" as in die, "i" as in find, "i_e" as in kite, "y" as in fly, and "igh" as in night. Once each of the spelling patterns has been mastered the "assorted spellings of this sound" sub-section provides material to teach discrimination of those words that sound the same but have different spelling patterns, eg "write right", "stair stare". The model involves a sorting activity which helps to reinforce knowledge of words that share a spelling pattern. Once the student has broken the word into sounds, it may be placed with others that share the same spelling pattern.
In these tasks, as is usual with eLr activities, the role of the clinician/helper is central in providing corrective feedback about accurate decoding and segmentation, which has been shown in research to play a central role in development of sight word knowledge. Extension activities are also encouraged, eg once the word has been broken into sounds and sorted, the student would benefit from writing the word and highlighting the sounds in the word.
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