Whisper & Buzz: What Your Voice Does

By Rabia Anne Sandage

What's the buzz? We hear sounds, not letters."A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I J, K, elemeno pea, cue, are ess, tea, you, vee, double you, ex, why, and zee."Developing the endurance to attend to the itsy-bitsy parts of oral language delights children and readies them for later matching their spoken sounds to written sounds.Whisper & Buzz encourages speech sound awareness by revealing how individual sounds feel. Speech sounds have anatomical structures, so even young children (long before using the alphabet) can tune in to what their lips, tongue, jaw, and voice box are doing for each speech sound. Whisper refers to a voiceless sound; Buzz refers to a voiced sound. Before children can understand the ABCs, they need opportunities to experience their listening and speaking skills in more in-depth ways. Along with word play through song and rhyme, children require speech sound awareness/phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness includes the ability to hear the tiny sounds within words and begin perceiving where one speech sound ends and another begins. Such speech sound awareness is the foundational literacy skill that leads to later making sense of the alphabet.English includes forty-four speech sounds represented by twenty-six letters of the alphabet. Whisper & Buzz introduces thirty-four speech sounds, emphasizing oral language sound by sound instead of letters. Because letters are code for speech sounds, children first develop self-talk and later learn how to represent the sounds they hear and feel with letter symbols.Undeveloped phonemic awareness limits literacy potential, defines dyslexia/ literacy deficits, and creates unnecessary language learning challenges. However, learners can extend their phonemic awareness at any age and boost their understanding of how speech becomes print.Early exposure, support, and play cultivating speech sound awareness establishes the foundation for literacy growth.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0692085297
• ISBN13: 9780692085295
• Release Date: May 2018
• Publisher: Jabberwell
• Length: 46 Pages
• Weight: 0.29 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.1" x 8.5" x 8.5"