Pre-phonemic listening skills

Before they begin to speak, and certainly before they develop literacy, children demonstrate the ability to distinguish among non-speech environmental sounds (e.g., a beanbag falling on a wooden floor versus a plastic ball falling on a wooden floor), and to identify objects by the sound they make (e.g., a horn, a bell, a helicopter, etc.). 

Below are a few speech therapy activities for exercising these early listening skills. These are not just for kids who can't talk yet. Think of these as warm-up or introductory activities to do before practicing more advanced skills. I have used them with kids as old as fourth and fifth grade. The goal for most children is to become more conscious of differences in sounds, and in their ability to hear and process those sounds.

1. Sound screen
Gather 6-10 things that make noise (more if you are extra inspired). These may include:
Musical instruments, such as a kazoo, harmonica, whistle, tambourine, or castinets.

A pair of wooden sticks for tapping together.

A set of keys for rattling

A bottle, either for tapping or to blow across the top to produce a musical note; may be plastic or glass, or one of each.

Stand or sit across from your child with some sort of visual barrier between you so you can make noises without your child seeing what you're doing. One by one, make a noise with each object and ask your child to practice listening skills by identifing the object that made the noise. After your child guesses, show the object you used.
Give your child a turn to be the one who makes the noises for you, and you practice your listening skills.
When done, place the noisemakers in an open box or on an accessible shelf or table for a few days, and encourage your child to play with them independently.


2. Sound shake


For this activity, you'll need about an even number (a dozen or so) of small plastic containers that are not see-through. Old 35mm film canisters are ideal, but the digital age has made it less likely that you'll have a bunch of them lying around. Those colored plastic eggs that people put candy in at Easter also work well. The drawback is that they don't close as securely, so there is the possibility of them coming open and spilling their contents.
Put small objects like beads, paper clips, rubber bands, rice, dry beans, salt, etc., into pairs of containers.
Place all the containers on a table or on the floor between you and your child.
Pick up two of the containers; shake first one, then the other. Ask your child if they sound the same or different.
If they sound the same, open both to see what made the sound. If different, put one down and pick up another container and repeat the test. Continue until you find a match, then open them to verify that they really are the same.
When done, leave the containers in a place where they are available for your child to practice listening skills independently. Safety first, though--don't leave the containers where they can be reached by infants, toddlers, or others who are likely to put small objects in their mouths, since the items in the containers could present a choking hazard.


3. Sound scan


Stand outside in the yard, on a porch, in a park, or on a sidewalk with your child. Close your eyes together for about a minute (it does not have to be exact) and listen quietly. Then open your eyes and discuss what you heard while you were listening.

• What did you hear that was far away?
• What did you hear that was near by?
• What did you hear that was loud?
• What did you hear that was quiet?
• What did you hear that made a high sound?
• What did you hear that made a low sound?
• What did you hear that sounded big?
• What did you hear that sounded small?

4. Percussion in the kitchen

The name for this activity comes from Kitchen Band, a fun song by my friend Kent Dutchersmith, who has recorded several CDs under the name of Kentucky T. Dutchersmith and the Rubber Band. Gather up a bunch of non-breakable kitchen utensils like pots and pans, plastic or metal pitchers, whisks, wooden spoons, and so on. Glass or ceramic items are nice, too, as they have their own sound characteristics; you'll have to be the judge of what your are comforable including. In any case, I don't recommend using your fine crystal, your best china, or any irreplaceable treasures. Speech-Language-Development.com accepts no responsibility for broken items!
Experiment with tapping different items together and talk about the different sounds you get. See if you can play a simple tune like Hot Crossed Buns, Three Blind Mice, or Mary Had a Little Lamb.
You'll probably also want to talk about how to make quieter sounds by tapping instead of banging, since loud sounds can hurt our ears.

5. Sound localization


Have your child stand in the middle of a room wearing a blindfold or with hands over eyes (no peeking!). Toss a beanbag onto the floor a meter or so from where your child is standing, and have your child turn toward where the beanbag landed. Remove the blindfold so your child can see how accurate s/he was.
As a variation on this activity, you can have your child hold a beanbag and try to hit yours after you toss it

Subject-Verb Agreement

Basic Principle: Singular subjects need singular verbs; plural subjects need plural verbs. My brotheris a nutritionist. My sisters are mathematicians.

See the section on Plurals for additional help with subject-verb agreement.

The indefinite pronouns anyone, everyone, someone, no one, nobody are always singular and, therefore, require singular verbs.

• Everyone has done his or her homework.
• Somebody has left her purse.

Some indefinite pronouns — such as all, some — are singular or plural depending on what they're referring to. (Is the thing referred to countable or not?) Be careful choosing a verb to accompany such pronouns.

• Some of the beads are missing.
• Some of the water is gone.

On the other hand, there is one indefinite pronoun, none, that can be either singular or plural; it often doesn't matter whether you use a singular or a plural verb — unless something else in the sentence determines its number. (Writers generally think of none as meaning not any and will choose a plural verb, as in "None of the engines are working," but when something else makes us regard none as meaning not one, we want a singular verb, as in "None of the food is fresh.")

• None of you claims responsibility for this incident?
• None of you claim responsibility for this incident?
• None of the students have done their homework. (In this last example, the word their precludes the use of the singular verb.

Some indefinite pronouns are particularly troublesome Everyone and everybody (listed above, also) certainly feel like more than one person and, therefore, students are sometimes tempted to use a plural verb with them. They are always singular, though. Each is often followed by a prepositional phrase ending in a plural word (Each of the cars), thus confusing the verb choice. Each, too, is always singular and requires a singular verb.

Everyone has finished his or her homework.

You would always say, "Everybody is here." This means that the word is singular and nothing will change that.

Each of the students is responsible for doing his or her work in the library.

Don't let the word "students" confuse you; the subject is each and each is always singular — Each isresponsible.

Phrases such as together with, as well as, and along with are not the same as and. The phrase introduced by as well as or along with will modify the earlier word (mayor in this case), but it does not compound the subjects (as the word and would do).

• The mayor as well as his brothers is going to prison.
• The mayor and his brothers are going to jail.

The pronouns neither and either are singular and require singular verbs even though they seem to be referring, in a sense, to two things.

• Neither of the two traffic lights is working.
• Which shirt do you want for Christmas?
  Either is fine with me.

In informal writing, neither and either sometimes take a plural verb when these pronouns are followed by a prepositional phrase beginning with of. This is particularly true of interrogative constructions: "Have either of you two clowns read the assignment?" "Are either of you taking this seriously?" Burchfield calls this "a clash between notional and actual agreement."*

The conjunction or does not conjoin (as and does): when nor or or is used the subject closer to the verb determines the number of the verb. Whether the subject comes before or after the verb doesn't matter; the proximity determines the number.

• Either my father or my brothers are going to sell the house.
• Neither my brothers nor my father is going to sell the house.
• Are either my brothers or my father responsible?
• Is either my father or my brothers responsible?

Because a sentence like "Neither my brothers nor my father is going to sell the house" sounds peculiar, it is probably a good idea to put the plural subject closer to the verb whenever that is possible.

The words there and here are never subjects.

• There are two reasons [plural subject] for this.
• There is no reason for this.
• Here are two apples.

With these constructions (called expletive constructions), the subject follows the verb but still determines the number of the verb.

Verbs in the present tense for third-person, singular subjects (he, she, it and anything those words can stand for) have s-endings. Other verbs do not add s-endings.

He loves and she loves and they love_ and . . . .

Sometimes modifiers will get betwen a subject and its verb, but these modifiers must not confuse the agreement between the subject and its verb.

The mayor, who has been convicted along with his four brothers on four counts of various crimes but who also seems, like a cat, to have several political lives, is finally going to jail.

Sometimes nouns take weird forms and can fool us into thinking they're plural when they're really singular and vice-versa. Consult the section on the Plural Forms of Nouns and the section onCollective Nouns for additional help. Words such as glasses, pants, pliers, and scissors are regarded as plural (and require plural verbs) unless they're preceded the phrase pair of (in which case the word pair becomes the subject).

• My glasses were on the bed.
• My pants were torn.
• A pair of plaid trousers is in the closet.

Some words end in -s and appear to be plural but are really singular and require singular verbs.

• The news from the front is bad.
• Measles is a dangerous disease for pregnant women.

On the other hand, some words ending in -s refer to a single thing but are nonetheless plural and require a plural verb.

• My assets were wiped out in the depression.
• The average worker's earnings have gone up dramatically.
• Our thanks go to the workers who supported the union.

The names of sports teams that do not end in "s" will take a plural verb: the Miami Heat have been looking … , The Connecticut Sun are hoping that new talent … . See the section on plurals for help with this problem.

Fractional expressions such as half of, a part of, a percentage of, a majority of are sometimes singular and sometimes plural, depending on the meaning. (The same is true, of course, when all, any, more, most and some act as subjects.) Sums and products of mathematical processes are expressed as singular and require singular verbs. The expression "more than one" (oddly enough) takes a singular verb: "More than one student has tried this."

• Some of the voters are still angry.
• A large percentage of the older population is voting against her.
• Two-fifths of the troops were lost in the battle.
• Two-fifths of the vineyard was destroyed by fire.
• Forty percent of the students are in favor of changing the policy.
• Forty percent of the student body is in favor of changing the policy.
• Two and two is four.
• Four times four divided by two is eight.

If your sentence compounds a positive and a negative subject and one is plural, the other singular, the verb should agree with the positive subject.

• The department members but not the chair have decided not to teach on Valentine's Day.
• It is not the faculty members but the president who decides this issue.
• It was the speaker, not his ideas, that has provoked the students to riot.

English Language skills

When we think of English language skills, the 'four skills' of listening, speaking, reading, and writing readily come to mind. Of course other skills such as pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and spelling all play a role in effective English communication. The amount of attention you give to each skill area will depend both the level of your learners as well as their situational needs. Generally beginners, especially those who are nonliterate, benefit most from listening and speaking instruction with relatively little work on reading and writing. As fluency increases, the amount of reading and writing in your lessons may also increase. With advanced learners, up to half of your lesson time can be spent on written skills, although your learners may wish to keep their focus weighted toward oral communication if that is a greater need.


But its quite clear that the language skills are paired up in two pairs which compliments each other in learning the language. As listening skill affects communication and language acquisition which creates the speaking skill and reading creates writing skills.

The image above show the exact working of the four skills.The four areas are important, they are connected, one leads to another. Just think in our daily life, we read newspaper, talk on the phone, listen to a song and write a mail. We can be more or less skillful in any of them, but all of the areas are important in language learning