About this activity
Ten words starting with /v/: van, vine, vest, voice, vase, vote, veil, verb, vain, vast. All single syllables, which keeps the load on the sound. /v/ is a voiced fricative made with the top teeth on the bottom lip — the same placement as /f/, with the voice added.
How to use it in a session
Teach it from /f/ if the child has that sound. The placement is identical and only the voicing differs, so asking a child to make an /f/ and then turn their voice on is often faster than teaching /v/ from nothing. A mirror shows the lip and teeth, and a hand on the throat shows the voicing. Five minutes covers the ten.
What to listen for
Listen for /b/ or /f/ replacing it. Ban for van means the lips have closed completely, turning a fricative into a stop; fan for van means the placement is right and the voice is off. Those are different problems — the first needs the airflow, the second needs the voicing.
Carrying it home
Van, vest and voice are ordinary words. /v/ is visible, so a family can see whether the teeth touched the lip, which makes it one of the more checkable sounds at home.
Questions
- What ages is this for?
- Kindergarten through third grade.
- Do I need an account?
- No, all ten cards play free.
- My child says 'ban' for 'van'. What do I cue?
- The airflow. A /b/ means the lips have closed completely, so the air stops rather than flowing through — cueing the top teeth onto the bottom lip usually fixes it in one step.