Technical School
Auditory Discrimination and Feedback
Auditory Discrimination
This refers to a child’s ability to tell the difference between sounds, words, phrases, and sentences. Typically, when a child is able to discriminate single words, he should begin using single words. When he is able to discriminate sentences based on 2 critical elements, he should begin using two- and three-word utterances and so on. When he is able to discriminate sentences based on 4 critical elements, he should begin using complete sentences of at least four words.
A child needs to be able to tell the difference between individual vowels and consonants to differentiate words. This is called discrimination at the phonetic level. Initially, the child discriminates only patterns. Over time, he learns to discriminate words based on their vowel and consonant differences. For example, when a child discriminates only patterns, he might confuse the questions "Where are you?" and "How are you?", especially when they are said using the same intonation pattern. In order to correctly differentiate between the two questions, he needs to discriminate words based on vowel differences (in the words Where and How).
Children should be given opportunities to practice such discrimination from the very beginning. As a general rule, children identified late will require significantly more structured practice to develop these skills.
Auditory Feedback
This skill refers to a child’s ability to listen and imitate what he hears. The better a child’s ability to imitate what he hears accurately, the more intelligible his speech will be. This skill is closely related to discrimination; these two types of skills develop side by side. The most important thing to remember is that just because a child can imitate and discriminate sounds, words, and phrases, it doesn’t mean he understands them. This is why such skills must be developed in meaningful contexts, where the sounds, words, or sentences used in these tasks are closed tied to the child’s comprehension. A lesson that contains auditory feedback or discrimination should also ensure that the child is learning what the sentences mean.