Using the correct vowels, diphthongs and number of syllables It’s time to listen to your child as he spontaneously • produces known performatives and short phrases. Gather pictures of ELTL sounds and phrases you have been teaching your child. Put the pictures in envelopes and hide the envelopes around the house. Hide at least ten, more if your child knows more. Take your child to the location of one of the hidden envelopes, open it, and model the performative and/or short phrase. Then tell your child it is his turn to find an envelope. When he opens it, stand back a little and ask him to tell you what he found in his envelope. If you are standing beside your child and looking, there isn’t a pragmatic reason for your child to tell you spontaneously what is inside the envelope. If he doesn’t speak spontaneously, prompt him with the direction, “Tell me what you found in your envelope” or “I found ________ in my envelope, what did you find in yours?” Continue until you find all the envelopes.Writing down what your child says There are two different methods to write down what your child says. One will track his language development and the other will track his speech development. Writing down the words he says/means is noting the language. • Writing down the sounds he says is noting the speech (phonetics) in the language • he uses. EXAMPLE: Your child opens an envelope with a picture of a baby sleeping and spontaneously blows and says two syllables the same (ai ai), and means “Sh! Night, night.”