How to Pronounce ‘p’ Sound | Language Lesson

This pronunciation lesson is designed for 3-6-year-old children to help them pronounce the letter ‘p’ using its phonic sound.

Learning phonic sounds is important for children as this helps them read faster and more fluently. This is the first step in learning spelling and vocabulary.

In our previous video lesson, we learned about phonics, the importance of learning phonics, and the phonic sound of the letter ‘o’. This video lesson is the 16th in a row of learning the sound of letters.

Why is it Essential to Learn Sounds Through Phonics?

The capability to decipher words highly depends on children having strong phonological recognition skills that provide a gateway to the knowledge of letter sounds.

Phonetic knowledge enables children to understand the relationship between sounds and patterns of letters. Children understand how sounds represent the alphabets through Phonics. They learn to identify the letter sounds and symbols. And, this knowledge helps the children to sound-out the words.

The in-depth knowledge of phonics helps the learners to read, write, and spell words at an early age and they gain the confidence to read lessons at a later age.

How to Pronounce the Letter p?

A sound of letter p is a sound from the group of “consonant pairs” called “silent bilabial stops”. This means using both lips to cover your mouth.

The phoneme /p/ is orally pronounced and unvoiced. That is, it does not use the vocal cords to produce sound.

Mouth variations to pronounce/p/:

It is the stop sound; the sound produced by the increase in air pressure caused by stopping and then releasing the flow of air. Here, use both lips to create a stop and release. The sound is defined by lip shape and airflow movement in the mouth. To make a sound, put your lips together and press them apart in your mouth.

The aspiration for the /p/ sound is greater than the aspiration for the /b/ sound.

Letter ‘p’ used in words with /p/ sound:

The phoneme /p/ is usually written like a word with the letter “p” – pineapple, pumpkin, pot, pan, pig, parrot, penguin, part, performance, potato etc.

Here are some words with a p sound in the middle.

With a /p/ phoneme at the end: help, up, keep, group, etc.

How to Introduce the Pronunciation of the ‘p’ to the Child?

Invite the child to the table and tell them, today we are going to learn the sound of the letter ‘p’ produces.
Show the child what the letter ‘p’ looks like and the sound of the letter ‘p’.
Say it several times by producing the /p/ sound.
Ask the child to repeat the sound after you.
Show the child a picture or miniature of words starting with ‘p’ such as potato.
Repeat the sound of the letter p every time while showing the image of the potato.
Now show another picture and again produce the letter ‘p’ sound.
Ask the child to pronounce the letter ‘p’.

Other Ways to Introduce the Letter p to the Child

P for popcorn–pop some popcorn and while the corns are popping encourage the child to sound p –op. Later let the child glue some popcorn to the letter P and eat some while sounding p- popcorn
P for partner activity – Have the child print a P on a paper plate then look through magazines to find pictures that begin with P. Cut them out and glue them all around the P. This activity can be done with a “partner.”
Let the children explore the feel, outside & inside of a pumpkin or potato. Let them touch, smell, taste, and describe it.
P for pear and peel–Give a child-friendly peeler or a plastic knife to the child. Ask him to peel a pear and taste it. Eating fruit couldn’t be made easier for the child.
Bake a pizza and let the child enjoy the yummy pizza while sounding p–pizza.

This video allows the child to explore the short consonant sound of the English letter ‘P’ and learn words starting with it, such as pineapple, pumpkin, pot, pan, pig, parrot, and penguin. The sounds are repeated for each word so that the child can hear and pronounce the letter accurately.

How to Pronounce P