Target Word "Bunny": Shaping the Jaw Opening

Full transcript

Nicole from the NYU Motor Speech Lab, bringing you a little bit of a Friday tidbit, I guess.

The target word for this kid is "bunny." He was saying "buddy," kind of segmented: "bu-ddy." I got him to say it with more fluidity. We did it in simultaneous, "bunny," and we were able to get that N in there, but then it became "bonnie."

So what am I working on now? I'm talking to him a lot about his mouth and how far it opens. I'm not saying, "You're not saying an 'uh.'" That's not what I'm saying to him. I'm saying, "Your mouth is going like this, big: 'bah.' We're not a sheep. We're not saying 'bah.' I want you to think about 'buh.'" For the beginning of this word, I'm showing him with my mouth that I'm not opening that big. Yes, I'm opening my mouth, but it really isn't that big. I'm opening it and holding it, and I'm having him get to that configuration with his mouth, and we're talking about how it feels.

Then we're doing it: "bunny, bunny." I'm having him move through it in slow simultaneous production. Eventually we're going to graduate to a quicker movement and varying prosody, but that's where we are right now.