Teaching B in Isolation & Syllables

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In this lesson, you will be learning how to teach your child the B sound in isolation and in syllables.

As you can see by the attached image, this chart puts ‘B’ at about age 3 for most children.  In other words, by age three, 90% of children can produce the ‘B’ sound correctly in speech.

The B sound is fairly easy to teach because it is visual – you can easily show your child what you do with your mouth.  Model the B sound for your child and tell him how to put his lips together and then burst them apart by blowing air through them.  It is just like the ‘P’ sound, except your voice is on, and not as much air comes out.

You can tell if your voice is on by putting your hand on your neck – if you feel it vibrate, your voice is on.  Your voice should be on for the ‘B’ sound.  Also, you can put your hand in front of your mouth – you shouldn’t feel much air coming out.  With the ‘P’ sound, much more air will come out.  Practice with your child every day until he gets the hang of it and can do it on his own.  Give lots of specific praise for the things he does right, like “Great job putting your lips together!”  or “I like how you remembered to turn on your voice for B!” 

When your child can produce ‘B’ in isolation with 80% accuracy, you can start on syllables, like ‘Bah, Bay, Bee, Bye, Bo, and Boo.’  

For instance, you can start with ‘Bah’. “Baaaaah,  Baaaaaaah, Baaaaah.   It might help to use a mirror in front of both of you, or to at least give your child a hand mirror to look at.  If he can’t do it, try separating the two sounds – first he says B and then aaaaaa.  Gradually practice producing the sounds closer and closer together.  B—aaaaah, B–aaaaaah until he can do the syllable together:  Baaaaah. 

You eventually go through all the vowel sounds:  Bay, Bee, Bi, Bo, Boo.   Some children might pick this up quickly, and others may take a long time.  Don’t give up!  Every child is different.  Be patient and make the sessions fun and rewarding. 

Once your child can produce B at the beginning of syllables, try it after the vowel.  ayB,  eeB, aiB, ohB,  ooB.  Use the same process of separating the vowel and the B until they can say them together.

It can also help to show him pictures of words that are ‘minimal pairs’.  That just means that these words rhyme and are pronounced the same way except for one letter.  So if your child is making ‘P’ instead of ‘B’, you could show him a picture of a ‘pea vs a ‘bee’.  Ask him if those pictures are the same thing, and then explain that unless he makes the ‘B’ sound correctly, people might think he’s talking about a ‘pea’.  You can have him try to say each word, and you can point to whatever comes out of his mouth.  If he wanted to say ‘bee’, but says ‘pea’ instead, you would point to the ‘pea’. 

You can also try this exercise with you saying the words ‘pea’ or ‘bee’, and see if your child points to the right word that you said.  This will let you know if he can actually hear the difference between the two sounds or not.  Point out that the ‘B’ sound has the voice turned on and uses less air, and the ‘P’ sound is voiceless and uses more air.

After the child can produce B in syllables correctly 80% of the time, you can move up to words.  From there, continue to work your way through all the ‘B’ levels, as outlined in the How to Teach Your Child Speech course. 

You’ve got this!