Thank you for the tips. My four year old really struggles with the k-sound, so I think this will help a lot. Another tip I read was to cheat them into making the k-sound, by making them say a fake word, by inserting an L: Like: Clat. That way, 'tat' can become cat or clat. In any case, it provoke a k-sound. Still, can't wait to try out those tips. Again, thank you :)
Having just graduated with my master's degree in speech-language pathology, I must say your channel is such a treasure trove of knowledge. Thank you for sharing your wisdom with us on RU-vid, Carrie! I hope you continue making a positive impact on your community and your clients for years to come. :)
Thanks for the clear examples of some great ideas. I also recently learned to check first if they can say /ng/ and will use that sound at the end of a word to facilitate the /k/ production. eg wingka. If they can do that for a while focusing on the /k/ sound they are able to get a feel for how to produce the sound.
I want to thank you so much for your video. I practiced this with my little and she was so excited when she realized she COULD do it. We will be practicing this every day. Thank you again!
My 5 yr old has been saying T istead of K for so long, and after 3 days of trying your techniques shes saying K 😱.. I'm amazed and also feel stupid then i didnt watch your video earlier 🙈
Im an SLP and discovered that some children learn these sounds more quickly at the end of the word, the same with the ch - otherwise I use the same cues that you do - great video tongue tip down
I have used this technique only three times and my client is producing /k/ in isolation with no lolli at 78% accuracy. Far better than the 3% she started at! I used a bubblegum pop the first time, to help keep the jaw open, and then Dum Dums for our last 2 sessions. She now begins with the sucker outside of her mouth and is treated and is treated after her trial. Thanks for posting...on to the /g/ sound soon!
Thank you so much. My 2y 10 months old daughter just said G and K. I watched your video 2 weeks ago and the lollipop method worked immediately. We practiced with the lollipop for a few days and then switched to finger and sometimes even pencil or whatever was near and usable. Just 2 weeks!!! I'm so happy and thankful. Wish I'd found your video sooner.
Carrie, bless you for taking the time and making the effort to put these online. Whenever I introduce letter sounds, I check to make sure students are making them correctly and I was completely stumped on how to teach these two sounds when I hit a speech roadblock. I have not run across the /c/k/g/ problem before. Very interesting! Thank you for such an informative video!!
OMG you taught me his to teach my 4 1/2 yr old the k sound! She's been working with a therapist for almost a year with no result! The growling sound we did produced a k sound!!!! Excited!!
My 4 year old grandson is having a terrible time with the c and k sounds. I am so happy to have found your video. I am going to try these techniques today. Thank you
Oh my goodness! I can't thank you enough for this video...After I watched your video and tried this with my daughter, she was saying the "c" sound and words that begin with c in less than 30 min.... Soooo proud of her!
I didn’t have any lollipops but I used a spoon to hold the tip of my son’s tongue down and got several good /g/ sounds in a row!!! 🤯 Thank you so much!
I'm trying to help my grandson who just turned 4. He has been taking speech therapy for a year and has improved the /g/ sounds seems to be difficult for him. Thank you for making these videos as they will be a great help!
My 95yr old mother suffered a stroke and was having difficulty in talking as well as swallowing. The Speech Therapists that have worked my Mom, say the weakness in the back of the tongue affect the ability to say the K and G sounds, as well as affecting the ability to swallow. We're going to practice these techniques to help my Mom swallow better.and talk more clearly.
Such a fantastic short and straight to the point video. I started using tongue depressors for the Guh sound and didn't know if it was the right or wrong thing to do, having failed on a couple of other options mentioned in this video. I'm so pleased I found this video as I was correct to use this technique and will keep using it until that Guh sound is there.
Thanks for such a clear explanation! My son was finally willing to try saying c and g all because of the lollipop! We got a few good sounds and I hope, with practice, he will get them consistently. Thanks again!
I have a student with a severe k/ g problem , Still only 4.5 years old thu. I figured out the monster noise, open mouth and finger on the tongue techniques on my own but I like the lying on the back technique too! Great affirmation watching this though because I didn't know if my techniques were going to actually hinder or worsen the condition! Yay!
thankyou so much, Im an SLT, but have not done speech work since graduation- and we didnt actually get taught this kind of thing, so its fantastic practical advice to have!
This was so helpful and my son has benefited greatly from this video. He is 4 years old. He even asked to watch the video a few times because he wanted to learn it. I am proud of him and thankful for you for providing this great resource.
Oh that's wonderful!! It helps so much when the child is invested and wants to learn! Great job, Buddy! Great job working hard on your /k/ and /g/ sounds!
Thanks for these great tips. I just started working with my 4 year old daughter on the /k/ and /g/ sounds. I like that there are so many tricks to work with. I'm hopeful.
These are great tips. For some children who so not achieve success with these - I always try to find a facilitating context. Often a child will have a correct production somewhere - often in the final position. So I may work on that production preceded by different vowels and then try to get the velar followed by a vowel. For example, a...k and then a...k...a.
That's a great idea, Montee! I'll try to make a video for That one soon. In the meantime, try telling the child that his tongue is a snake and he had to keep it inside the cage (his mouth). Have him smile and say the sound with his tongue behind his teeth. If the tongue slips forward, tell him the snake is peaking out and he has to put it back in the cage.
The lollipop is a great way to practice. Love what you're showing here. The most problematic consonant sounds to Israeli pupils are the /r/ and /w/ sound I'd love to see the R sound demonstrated.
Aww, this is great. Thanks to this virus we've had to stop speech so thank you for posting these so we can keep working with our kids, even if years later!
Currently have an ESOL student who is having the hardest time produce these sounds. I'm glad to see/hear that my intuition was correct about where the sound is produced and some of the tricks to use. I will try your other tricks and let you know how it goes in a couple weeks.
I am not a therapist at all, but at school an 8 year old. Quite deaf. I tried a lot of exercises so far but she only make h sounds. Thus, air coming out without obstruction. No throat sounds. Also, her T comes out like a s... No exploding sounds. She knows she's doing it wrong, but simply don't understand how to change. We also starting signing, me and her learning together from a deaf teaching assistant. She's getting excited about linking at least something to the letters. But sounds will help so much. Her voles is fairly good
Loved your video. Maybe introduce auditory bombardment along with your techniques too? My student was fronting everything and we worked a great deal with minimal pairs and he finally became stimulable with k/g by the end of the year and quickly learned to use it in all positions:)
I am watching this video so that I can help my 13-year-old cousin with pronouncing /k/ and /G/. She speaks "T" instead of K and "D" instead of G. I fear that she might get teased by her classmates or people around her. As she speaks so less and doesn't share or I don't know how to ask her and fear that she might lie to me about it, I don't want anything bad to happen to her. She is like a little angel to me. I have seen her crying quietly at night when the room lights turn off. Doesn't participate in any activity. I was teased in school for this by the term "totli" that's the Hindi word for "misarticulation" which destroyed my self-confidence and took me time to build it back. I don't want this to happen to her. I hope she can speak properly.
OMG! These are some fantastic ideas that I can't wait to try. My kid does exactly the /t/ sound or /d/ sound for /c or k/ and the /g/ sounds. I get frustrated, and I know he does too because he looks at me like I'm a goof, thinks I'm being funny, and continues to say words incorrectly. I'm wanting to do this myself for him before a final step of a speech therapist. Thanks again for this video, I can't wait to see some others and learn!
Wonderful! I hope this helps you! If your son doesn't seem to realize he's doing it differently than you, you could also try some listening activities. Try finding pairs of words that are exactly the same except for the /k/ and /t/ sound or the /d/ and /g/ sound. For example, you could use key and tea (you're going for same sounds, not same spelling) or coat and goat. Show him pictures of the two words and say "point to goat" or "point to coat". See if he can hear the difference to point to the correct picture. There is more info on this webpage: www.speechandlanguagekids.com/teaching-long-sounds/ Good luck!
Wow... I wish I had seen this back in 2014 when you posted it. Fabulous video and really clear explanation and tips. My support teachers are now loving your vids and really getting lots out of your support. We know that we will get our students to nail the k and g sounds. Thans heaps #fan.
Thank you so much for sharing! I just started with my very first client as a graduate student clinician and he's fronting. I am definitely going to try out some of these elicitation strategies during our next session!
I really appreciated all of the steps you list from ways to elicit the sound. Thank you for the variety of options to try. I will definitely give some of these a go with my students. :)
I usually skip right to tactile cues for the back sounds and have the child feel under my chin where my neck meets my jaw. And then I have him or her do it to themselves. I then practice the sound in isolation five times each with a break between each set!
Thank you for this, we are shielding at home and haven't been able to get to SLT for 10 weeks now and looks like we won't until September. So this is massively helpful!
Hi Carrie, I am 27 years old now but I have never figured how to say the K or G sound at all. It's so embarrassing and sometimes depressing. I tried practicing saying it everyday for the last decades but nothing work. After watching your video, I see a little glimpse of hope. I'm gonna give a few try for the next few weeks and see if it works. It's sad cause I see little three year old do it with ease and here I am 27 years later not knowing how to say it at all. When I tried to say Glory at work, my boss was asking who Lori was 😩! I prayed to God everyday that if he had the chance to make me a millionaire, that he will give me the ability to say the k and g sound instead. That's all I want more than anything in this world. Please help me?
Working with the hearing impaired population, /k/ and /g/ (as well as /ng/) are difficult sounds for them to acquire as it isn't very visual. Great hierarchy of tips to establish sounds in isolation. As well as a nice review of speech acquisition hierarchy (isolation --> sentences).
This is really informative. I'm 25 and I just recently found out that my way of pronouncing k and g is completely wrong. I've always, since I 'learnt' k and g, pronounced them with the tip of the tongue up on the palate, quite similarly to t, but further back. I can't tell the difference in the sound unless I listen to my voice recorded. I've also asked some people if they find my k weird and the answer varies. Some haven't noticed anything and some hear it occasionally as t. It has become quite a trauma that people hear my k and g as t and d, when I don't notice anything myself. I used to even attend speech therapy but the therapist never told me how I should pronounce k - she only gave me some exercises.
Hope you are doing well now. I watched this video so that I can help my 13-year-old cousin with pronouncing /k/ and /G/. She speaks "T" instead of K and "D" instead of G. I fear that she might get teased by her classmates or people around her. As she speaks so less, I don't want anything bad to happen to her. She is like a little angel to me. I have seen her crying quietly at night when the room lights turn off. Doesn't participate in any activity. I was teased in school for this by the term "totli" that's the Hindi word for "misarticulation" which destroyed my self-confidence and took me time to build it back. I don't want this to happen to her. I hope she can speak properly. All the best to you too.
Thank you for this video. I am an english estudent and It is relly hard for me to pronounce correctly words in english. So this kind of videos Are really helpfull for me.
Great ideas, everyone! I love the cheerio one! Sue, what you're describing is a phonological approach instead of an articulation approach. That one is great, too, just not the one I've highlighted here. For the rest of you, you can see an example of a phonological approach on my website. The phonological approach will help teach a child an entire class of sounds at once: www.speechandlanguagekids.com/teaching-long-sounds/
Great tips! Thank you so much!!! Still working with my son, who is still struggling, but I feel hopeful with at least having some ideas for how I can help him!
My 3 yr old just started being able the g and k sounds on their own. He can also say the g sound with words that start with gl like glass but has a hard time with other words. He will say words that end in the letters such as shark or bug, putting extra emphasis on the g or k.
I have a patient that is having trouble with /k/ and /g/. I had tried some of the methods presented but got some new ideas to try and elicit the phonemes in isolation .
