March Slice of Life No. 22.
It was a nondescript day. EM and EN were playing within earshot of the discussion going on at the kitchen table, a discussion between their three older brothers and Mommy, a life science discussion, a discussion about taste buds.
Suddenly, EM wrinkles her nose and very loudly announces to EN and anyone else who might be listening: “Ewwww! Eat bugs! Ewwww!”
EN, in the even voice of one who knows all things, who knows more than his sister, corrects her, “EM, it’s not buGs. It’s buDs. Taste buDs.”
EM, in her thinking-voice, “Oh.h..h…h.”
It is doubtful that EM understands what taste buds are. But whatever taste buds might be, she’s figuring it has to be much better than taste bugs.
__________
What if … ?
What if EM’s misunderstanding had not been corrected by EN?
What if EM had connected that misunderstanding with a recent video of her uncle eating crickets in Mexico?
a platter of crunchy crickets
Some phonetics back knowledge
Notice similarities and differences of the two sounds.
buDs
/d/ — the phoneme spelled d in dot
Description of /d/ –voiced* alveolar* stop*
Sound is formed by tapping the tip of tongue to bony ridge behind top front teeth.
Quiet brother is /t/ articulated in same manner except without vibration (voice).
buGs
/g/ — the phoneme spelled g in gap
Description of /g/ — voiced* velar* stop*
Sound is formed by pulling tongue back and pushing the back of it up toward soft palate
Quiet brother is /k/, articulated in same manner except without vibration (voice)
* voiced = vocal cords are vibrated
* alveolar = pronounced with the tip of the tongue on the bony ridge behind upper front teeth
* velar = pronounced with the back of the tongue near the soft palate
* stop = a complete closure of the vocal tract to produce sound
More stories about words of my daughter’s children
Bugs don’t see in the dark . . .
Head over to
http://twowritingteachers.org
for more slice of life stories.
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This made me smile because I attended a lecture today where bug eating was discussed. The speaker, however, said she didn’t try them.
Imagine the timing of that! I always passed up on eating bugs in any stage of their life cycle… at least if I know that’s what I am being served.
Loved your explanation! You didn’t just stop at d and g sound. You went into depth. You sound like a speech pathologist.
I loved your post, both entertaining and educational. Perfection!
This slice rings very true for me. My youngest has dyslexia and every day I more fully understand that it is a difference in phonemic awareness – we get regaled with misheard and mispronounced words on a regular basis. I like how you add the phonetics, and I really like the “What if…?”
Dr. Sally Shaywitz is my one of go-to resources for dyslexia. Her book “Overcoming Dyslexia” is a must! Check out the center at Yale that she co-founded with her husband: http://dyslexia.yale.edu/
That’s the book I’m reading! It’s like a bible for me. I cannot believe how much I am learning from her. Thanks for the suggestion.
So much to love. Love the speech production explanation. Brilliant addition. Always love glimpses of children constructing thought and especially those when you can actually see the construction of thought between kiddos. Thanks for that glimpse.
I love the little word inquiry lesson you have embedded in this. It’s a write up I could imagine in a modeled balanced literacy lesson containing word work, word inquiry, grammar, sentence structure and oral language development components.
Cute slice. I actually learned all that stuff when I was in grad school to become an ESL teacher. Knowing it did help me a lot with teaching pronunciation to kids…but until now I’ve forgotten much of it. Thanks for the memories.