SSP Newsletter 2

We don't 'teach' the clouds, we explore them. Sometimes the words at the top- to show examples- aren't correct, because of the child's accent.

Which cloud would you use for the first sound in 'after'? a/f/t/er

If you say the first sound like the sound at the beginning of 'ant' then you look at the 'a' cloud for the first sound. Is 'a' there? Yes !

If you say it like 'ar' - then look in the 'ar' cloud- is the 'a' there? Yes.

It doesn't matter - as we only use a certain number of speech sounds, regardless of accent. My ‘a’ cloud also has an ‘au’ because I say ‘laugh’ to rhyme with ‘gaff.’

You might also split the end - it might sound like the 'u' in umbrella, or you might pronounce the 'rrrr' in which case you split it a/f/t/e/r.

SSP is the only program that takes accent into account. Whoop, whoop! The Speech Sound King also helps to explain in the early stages, as he pronounces sounds in a very proper English accent. So he says 'a/n/t' with the first sound as the middle sound in 'cat'. This is important! If you ask an Aussie child to give you the sounds THEY use when saying 'ant' the first sound would NOT be the same as in the middle of when they say 'cat'. It would actually fit in the 'air' cloud! But that concept is too difficult for most brains, so we start off by teaching the Green and Purple Code Levels as the King would say them.

So at first we explain that the code was created by the King for his accent. But we need to explore how OUR speech sounds map with the sound pics in words- which is why we use the clouds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OCSgiho5o0

'Coding' is mapping the speech sounds used by students, regardless of accent, with the

representation recorded on paper from left to right- the speech sound pics. This is also why we use the Speech Sound Piano concept from the

beginning. The sounds are played left to right to build / play the whole word – regardless of the accent used!

Writing is just 'talking on paper'. Em