Section 2 Saying s. Includes pictures and listening and speaking games to help children say the speech sound s, tips and a progress sheet to record progress and areas to work on.

Children often say t instead of s. For example, they may say tea instead of sea. Developmentally, children say t before they say s. The speech sound t is a short speech sound whereas the speech sound s is a long speech sound. Help the child hear the difference between long and short sounds by playing listening games. For example:

• Photocopy a set of long and short pictures (pp51-53), eg long and short dog, or long and short hair, or long and short snake, and show the child. Think of at least two other examples of long and short: a giraffe has long legs and a sausage dog has short legs; you can wear a short skirt or a long skirt; a snake is long and a worm is short. Play a long sound on a shaker or bells. Then play a short sound. Repeat a few times and then say ‘Listen to the shaker. If you hear a long sound, point to the long hair. If you hear a short sound, point to the short hair.’ If the child points to the correct picture, he could colour in part of the picture.