A "sense-able" approach to sounds

Building the windy part of the "f" sound

One of the opportunities we have when teaching children about sounds is to help them visualize what their mouths should do to produce them. The front of the Teddy Talker board allows us to construct lip positions for 38 phonemes. Children actually physically build the sounds with manipulatives!










 

Our biggest challenge, however, is often that so much of speech, (estimates range from 60-70%) is not readily visible on the lips.  So we have to be creative, and that's where Teddy comes in!
   

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The puppet tongue and the BACK of Teddy's Bear Board is designed to help children see tongue movements as
they hear the sound.  Moreover, by wearing the puppet tongue (shown below), they are able to touch and feel 
the movements we describe. 

This auditory, visual, tactile and kinesthetic experience can support a unique understanding and production of sounds.   We hope you will find that this multi-sensory learning experience makes good sense!

The puppet tongue lifts to show what happens inside Teddy's mouth for "l"!