Mouthabet materials are designed to show how parts of the mouth form the individual sounds that the letters of the alphabet make when Standard Australian English is spoken. These individual letter sounds, called phonemes, can be grouped together according to particular characteristics (linguistic features) that involve the actions of parts of the mouth and breath when saying them. The Mouthabet materials comprise of photos of mouths representing the phonemes made by the letters of the alphabet as well as consonant digraphs (double letter but single phoneme). Each photo is accompanied by engaging illustrations and phrases to practice saying the phonemes in sentences.​

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Mouthabet materials assist learners to:

• Make strong associations between hearing and feeling how speech sounds are made focusing on the lips, tongue, teeth, lips voice box, and air expulsion.

• Articulate each of the basic phonemes for the letters of the alphabet

• Draw ‘meaning links’ around sounds to assist with storage and retrieval.

• Group sounds together according to a formation characteristic.

• Read the letter shapes for these sounds.

• Accurately and fluently recall phonemes

• Discriminate between consonants and vowels.

• Blend sounds to form words and segmenting words into sounds.

• Write or type letter letter shapes (graphemes) for the sounds

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Features

• Supports articulation, language and literacy programs used by speech-language pathologists and teachers of reading, spelling and language.

• Instructions have been written in easy to understand language allowing for use by those without specialist knowledge

• Clear, various-sized colour photos suitable for classroom, small group, and clinical use

• Colour coding to group phonemes according to a linguistic feature

• Multi-sensory approach (look, feel, hear, write)

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Mouthabet materials comprise the following components:

• Linguistically grouped teaching charts - downloadable PDF file

• Mouthabet alphabet sequence wall posters - downloadable PDF file

• Blending and activity cards - downloadable PDF file

• Consonant and short vowel phoneme summary chart - downloadable PDF file

• ebooks (under development)

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How to use Mouthabet materials

Easy to  understand information is included in the downloadable files to provide an overview of the key concepts embedded in Mouthabet materials and provide some ideas on their use. These instructions 

 

While Mouthabet materials support a variety of concepts, programs and teaching sequences, it is important to understand that they do not form any specific program on their own. Combining evidence-based literacy instruction while using these materials is essential for successful learning. Detailed guidance and instructional advice are not part of these flexible resource materials, however, parents and children may still find enjoyment simply from viewing the materials for shared language experiences.