Chatter 26 July 2012: Unleash Three... talk the correct talk

Unleash Three…

Have you ever really focussed on correcting a few words the kids mispronounce, only to realise that's how their parents or workers speak? I then slowly sank through the floor with embarrassment :)

Happens to us all LOL, a good boss will help get over the embarrassment.

I've been told you're better off not correcting their speech as such but rather making sure you are modelling the right pronunciation. I can see the limitation when after school hours they're still exposed to an alternate way of speaking. I would try making those words the spelling words, sometimes all it takes is knowing a word ends in "ing" not "en" or similar to see an improvement! And wider reading, I'm constantly amazed at how much reading for uni adds to my vocab!

Yes I have even tho the parents grandparent etc speak like that. The kid thought I was always telling her she was wrong, so pick your battles, be kind, and one word at a time. Also as we learn the particular phonic that would be used to make the word correct, I bring it in then, eg th pronounced as f. Now that we are learning the th sound at school, I can correct fursday to Thursday FINALLY

Haha I did the same! I ended up trying to correct all of them:p just as a joke. "I might have somethink to eat" .... "something!!"

Me and the boys had the rascism talk and my boss walked in for smoko and dropped a ripper of a rascist comment the boys snigger and secretly look at me. I then went on to clarify this how I feel so no need for rascist comments in the schoolroom.

i wage a constantly losing battle against the gots and the dones - because everyone here speaks like that. Now I try and correct the kids even in front of their parents - "Do I got my lesson next? I done my spelling". Argh!

Haha, it might sound silly, but in speech pathology we typically don't worry about those sorts of things. They aren't speech errors, they are a speech difference- a cultural and social difference! Unless it is interfering with their school work or parents express concern, it's not really an issue. All we can do is model correct mainstream language use, so the child has exposure to a wide range of ways of speaking! So when a child says "Do I got my lesson next?", you could simply say "Yes, you have your lesson next." :)