Over years, Dr Ruchi Gupta has seen a large number of children with speech issues at her hospital. Surprisingly, most of them are addicted to gadgets! Tired of this, the psychiatrist from Bengaluru decided to do her bit.
Wonder what? She came up with a kit, which she believes can help kids learn speech better. Having joined hands with special educators, this psychiatrist has designed a Phonetics kit that comprises both books and audio materials.
Dr Ruchi Gupta believes that with gadgets producing a mechanical sound, the children learn very less of language and do not develop the ability to produce sounds
“The idea of providing the kits to children is to help them learn English in a playful manner. Unlike the local languages where we pronounce the letters as we write, English has 26 letters but 40 plus sounds originating from these,” she explained.
She said that the vowel sounds which could be either short or long have been explained with the help of Flash cards. Besides, Flash cards also teach children the sounds of animals and combination sounds. These help learn combination sounds such as Dh, CH or Sh through flashcards.
“For instance, a child is taught that “Ba” is pronounced the way it is with rhymes,” she said.
The kit comes with a set of 19 rhymes that help children learn English better. These have been compiled with the help of special educators based on what stimulates the child or what important according to Dr Ruchi.
These, are not conventional Rymes that students learn in schools. “There are some on mango, school vans etc which is unconventional and tradition based,” she said.
There is also a Flip over rhyme book with activity in the Phonetics kit that parents and their kids can work together on. These help the child learn fundamental sounds or consonants.“It employs a Traditional way of learning. There is a multi sensory approach and has Parent manual on activities,” she added.
The kit could benefit children from the age of six months to six years. It also comes with a guide to animal sounds.