[Next]
From: Pete Smith
Date: 10/23/00
Time: 7:36:19 AM
Remote Name: 204.38.22.131
Hi Pam: First grade (or the start of many early grades) is somewhat difficult for many children (i.e., new teacher, new friends, new routines, etc.) and it is not unusual for fluency to decrease. Reading may be another factor depending upon how it is taught or the perceived pressure by the child. If a child is having a little trouble with reading already, then reading may add to the pressure. I used reading as a way of helping one boy with his fluency by focusing on sound blending, showing him how to blend sounds to make real words and non-words (e.g., f+u+p = fup; if this is "fup" what is f + a + p ?). The object was to focus on blending and not on fluency. For this boy the blending exercises helped him reading, helped his mother with reducing her rate of speech, and helped them both enjoy words games that tended to increase his fluency. Every child is different but these activities seemed to help this boy. His speech is now fairly fluent and he speaks in class without hesitation which was not the case last year. I hope this is helpful to you. I would be glad to respond to other questions or comments you might have. You can find my email address in Marquette, MI. I'm not sure about putting it on the web. Pete