Free Simple Articulation Screening Tool

For those of you who are new, I'm a Speech-Language Pathologist. I also have a daughter with Childhood Apraxia of Speech who wasn't talking at the age of two. Look back in the archives for the full journey, but to simplify things a lot, she made a great deal of progress once we began intensive therapy. Several months later she had enough speech to attempt an articulation test. Hahahaha. I'm sure some of you have tried a GFTA with an apraxic two year old so you know where I'm coming from here. It took us three sessions. And it was a mess. Think about the stimuli on a GFTA. There are so many of them. They are multisyllablic. The problems with the instrument in the context of severe apraxia with a young child are purely practical.

I just needed a quick, simple, way to gather data about the phonemic inventory of a young child with a severe speech delay while maximizing their chances of success. That meant I needed simple stimuli (CVC words) and a short test (appropriate for short attention spans). So I made my own. And I used it and found it useful. Then it sat in a folder on my computer for two years.

Recently I decided I wanted to re-screen Ava's speech. Now, of course, she could participate in a standardized articulation assessment without a problem, but I don't own one, so I dug out the screening I made two years ago to use again. All of the reasons it worked then make it an extremely easy instrument to readminister now. I thought I would share the instrument with all of you.

If you like this free articulation screener, you might want to check out the premium speech therapy kits now available in the Testy Shop. Kits include expanded speech sound card sets, illustrated minimal pairs, homework sheets and more in a single download.

Simple Articulation Screening

Description

This is a tool designed to screen the phonetic inventory and articulation errors of young children with severe speech delays. The screening is comprised of picture stimuli of 22 CVC words. Prompts are provided on the back of each stimulus card. Results can be analyzed for individual articulation errors and for patterns of phonological processing errors.

Permissions

I give permission to copy, print, or distribute this articulation screening provided that:

1. Each copy makes clear that I am the document's author.
2. No copies are altered without my express consent.
3. No one makes a profit from these copies.
4. Electronic copies contain a live link back to my original and print copies not for merely personal use contain the URL of my original.

To download click on each image to open it full size. Then right click on the image, choose "save as" and save the page to your computer.

I recommend you print on cardstock or laminate for durability.

Looking for Feedback

I would love to hear back from anyone who uses this card set. Let me know if you find errors or there is anything you would change. Comment on this page, or send me an email at testyyettrying(at)gmail(dot)com.

Where can I find more?

Speech therapy picture card sets are on my Download/Print Free Speech Articulation Materials page. Other card sets include /p, b, t, d, m, n, h, f, v, k, g, w, j, s, z, l, r, th, ch, sh, ʤ, s-blends, and l-blends/. More sets are being added regularly.

Final G Printable Speech Game: Finish First Game Board

Practice /g/ in Final Position

Click on the image to open it to full size and then right click to save it to your computer.

Print the game board and gather a die and a small game piece for each player. Put the game pieces on the start box, decide who will go first, and let that person begin by rolling the die and moving that number of squares on the game board.

You can have the players practice the words in isolation, in pairs, in phrases, or in sentences. You can provide models and cues if necessary. Adapt the stimuli to the level your student needs to work at.

When you're done, review the words for additional simple drill practice. Then send the game board home or to the classroom for extra practice.

If you are a parent practicing at home, save the game board in a binder to play again another time. You could also have your child play with a younger or older sibling or send it to an aunt or grandparent's house for extra practice.

This worksheet was adapted from the medial /f/ version of the game board included in the /f/ Speech Kit that will be available soon in the Testy Shop.

Enjoy!

Mixed V Printable Speech Worksheet: Color a Position

Practice /v/ in Initial, Medial, and Final Position

Click on the image to open it to full size and then right click to save it to your computer. Print the sheet in color or black and white.

If the child you are working with doesn't have the fine motor control to color in the entire balloon you could color it for them. Another option is to have them put an "X" or check in the balloon in the appropriate color. (An X or checkmark also has the side benefit of speeding up the rate of practice and the consequential number of repetitions.)

You can practice the words in isolation, in pairs, in phrases, or in sentences. You can use the words with or without cues. Adapt the stimuli to the level your student needs to work at.

When you're done, review the words sorted by position for additional simple drill practice. Or, review the words in the order they appear in the balloons (the word positions mixed up) for harder drill practice. Then send the worksheet home for practice.

If you are a parent practicing at home, save the worksheet in a binder to review again another time. You could also hang it on the wall, pin it on the refrigerator, have your child "read" it to a younger or older sibling, or send it to an aunt or grandparent's house for extra practice.

This worksheet was inspired by this free sight word coloring worksheet.

Enjoy!

Mixed K Speech Song: Mucky Mucky Hockey Puck

Somewhere I came across an adorable book of word family songs. They were a collection of songs someone had written to the tune of familiar children's songs designed to work on word families. (Please don't ask me where I found the book. Or when. Or how. As I approach the grand old age of 40 I'm finding these sorts of details more and more difficult to hang on to.) Anyway, the point of this rather tangential story is that I was inspired to create a speech song. This is where you promise to not laugh!

Given that /k/ is apparently the target sound that will never go away in our household, I decided to make a mixed /k/ song my guinea pig. Here you go. It won't be winning a Grammy I suspect, but it should be amusing to little ones while providing a whole new way to work on the /k/ sound in initial, medial, and final position.

You sing the song to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. I've provided the printable with a cute blue background and with a more practical white background (below - to save printer ink). Choose whichever you prefer.

Let me know what you think of the idea. Do you like it? Would you enjoy using speech songs during articulation therapy? Would it be worth my time to make some more?

Mixed V Printable Speech Fishing Activity

Practice V in Initial and Final Position While Playing with Speech Fish

Click on the image to open it to full size and then right click to save it to your computer. Print the sheet with a program of your choice on cardstock for durability. You might even want to laminate these. Put a few heavy-duty staples in each fish or put paper clips on them to use them in a fishing game with a magnetic wand.

Children might also enjoy lining the fish up, pretending to feed the fish or feed the fish to another stuffed animal, sorting the fish by color, using the fish to make patterns, or tossing the fish into a pond (small bowl, bucket, or blue piece of paper).

You can practice the words in isolation, in pairs, in phrases, or in sentences. You can use the words with or without cues. Adapt the stimuli to the level your student needs to work at.

This worksheet is modeled after Speech Fish worksheets included in the Simple Vowels Speech Kit and the /S/- Blends Speech Kit.

Enjoy!

Initial H Speech Worksheet

Make classroom teachers happy, reinforce phonics and handwriting, and practice speech all at the same time.

This worksheet is pretty self-explanatory. You might enjoy sliding it into a sheet protector and using dry-erase markers during your session. Then you can use this same sheet all day long. Alternately, at the end of the session, slide it out and let the child take it home for homework.

Younger children will just enjoy identifying the pictures and working on clear initial /h/ sounds while letting you fill in the letter "h" for them. Slightly older students can work on their handwriting and fine motor skills by writing in the letter themselves.

As always, you can practice these words in isolation, in repetitions of two or three, with carrier phrases, or in short sentences. If you're sending the sheet home for homework, write in extra directions if you want the parents to practice at a particular level.

This worksheet is modeled after The Missing Vowel worksheets included in the Simple Vowels Speech Kit.

Enjoy!

Speech Card Set Activity: Simple Speech-Math Games

During my RightStart Math lesson with Michael yesterday I was inspired. I love thinking of new activities that combine speech practice with academic skills. It is even better when the activities are simple and quick to prepare and result in "play" that is heavy on productions.

Simple Speech Card Games - Math Versions

Prep

Print out 5-10 free or premium illustrated speech cards. Write the numbers 1 through 10 on the cards. Prep time if you already have some cards printed - 10 seconds. If you have cards you want to use that you do not want to write on, use removable stickers or small pieces of post-its. Write the numbers on those and stick them to your cards.

Ways to Play

Use 4 or 5 cards with younger children and 10 cards with older kids.

1. Up the stairs. (Or down the stairs.) Mix up the cards. The child must put the cards in order practicing the words as he goes. Then, mix them up again and have the child put the cards in descending order.
   
   
2. Find the swap. Once the cards are in order, ask the child to cover his eyes while you switch two cards around. He has to find the swapped cards. Once found, he says the pair of words that were swapped. He can simply practice a phrase (X and Y) or use the words in a sentence (X and Y were swapped).
   
   
3. Who's Hiding? Have the child close his eyes while you turn one card over. When the child opens his eyes ask which number is hiding. When he turns the card back over, he names the picture on that card.
   
   
4. Who's Missing? Have the child close his eyes while you remove a card and shift the others over so there is no gap. When the child opens his eyes, he must identify the missing card. You return the card to him and he practices the word on it.
   
   

Move It! - A Printable Final N Speech Game

The simple vowels speech kit is done except for final edits. Expect to see it in the Testy Shop Monday morning. This kit is a monstrosity. It is 168 pages with a section for each simple vowel. You are provided with a visual / gestural cue for each vowel. There is a discussion of the characteristics of vowels and consonants and why understanding those characteristics is so important to planning speech therapy from a motor-planing perspective. The vast majority of the kit is, as usual, printable resources to use in your therapy sessions. Each vowel has syllable level worksheets, an illustrated card deck, illustrated minimal pairs, homework sheets at three difficulty levels, a story booklet, and a unique game or activity.

Here is a sneak peek of the game I made for the /u/ section modified for Final /n/.

Final /n/ Speech game: Move It!

Setup

This game comes with four mini card decks (red, blue, green, and yellow). You only need two decks at a time. Choose two decks and place one deck face down on the table. Give a game card to each child. Distribute the other deck between two children and have them place those cards face up on the game board. Tell the children the first person who helps the movers move the cards into the house wins the game. (If you need to play with four children, print an extra copy of the game board page and then use the extra two card sets with another pair of children. After both pairs of children play, have them switch cards for another game with an entirely new set of words.)

Gameplay

The first child chooses a game card from the table and says the word out loud. They then say all the words on their game board looking for the rhyming word. If they find the rhyming pair they move both cards onto the house. If not, they return the card to the table. Then the other child takes a turn. Play continues in this manner until one child moves all their cards into the house.

Roll It!: Printable Initial M Speech Activity

Thanks to the generosity of my parents and my husband, who are doing extra childcare duty, I have been working pretty intensely on preparing a vowel speech kit. One of the activities I created for that kit is a set of printable speech dice. Roll multiple dice at the same time to work on simple phrases or one at a time to work on single words. Here is an Initial M version I modified for you guys to check out.

Initial M Printable Speech Activity: Roll-It!

(Click to open image to full-size then right-click to save to your computer. Then print using a program of your choice.)

Gather some glue and scissors and print this activity on cardstock. Cut out the two dice templates. Fold on the solid lines, glue where indicated, and assemble the dice.

Race to the Top Speech Game - Mixed /d/ Version

I was playing around with the Race to the Top game concept for the new /k/ therapy kit and came up with a picture version of the game. The /k/ therapy kit contains a version of this game that incorporates initial, medial, and final /k/ words.

Here is a free downloadable version of the Race to the Top game that incorporates both initial and final /d/ words. (Click to open image to full-size then right-click to save to your computer. Then print using a program of your choice.)

If you're playing with one child, use tokens or chips to cover words from the bottom up on the towers (as that tower's number is rolled on the die) until one tower reaches the top. Then the child can color that flag. Play again to see if they can color a different flag. When you run out of time, send it home so they can play at home until all the flags have been colored.

If you're playing with a group, give each child a small game piece to put at the bottom of the tower of their choice. They take turns rolling the die, moving their pieces, and practicing the words until one player reaches the top. Then you can clear the game board and play again. Happy Halloween!

Simple Communication With Teachers and Parents

Rebecca at Adventures in Speech Pathology designed simple reminder strips to communicate with classroom teachers and parents. Simply download the free template and print the strips in advance. Then, at the end of each session fill out the strips with the students and send them back to the classroom. Tell the child to either give the strip to their teacher or to put it in their cubby/school bag. Or, give the child two strips and have them do both. It is a great way to communicate what you're working on to other adults in the child's life and perhaps recruit some helpers for additional speech practice.

Another Simple DIY Speech Warm-up Teachers Will Thank You For

Here's another perfect blend of phonics and speech that is a great activity for working on final consonants and word families at the same time. (See the last one here.) This will only take you 5-10 minutes to make from materials you'll already have around.

Gather

1 piece of cardstock or construction paper
1 piece of regular copy/printer paper
marker or sharpie
stapler
craft tape (optional)

Assemble

Quarter-fold the cardstock and paper and cut into fourths. Decide if you want your mini flipbook to have six or eight pages. If you want six pages, put three pieces of paper on top of one piece of cardstock. If you want eight pages, put four pieces of paper on top of one piece of cardstock. Then fold that pile in half and put three staples in the fold line to hold it together. If you like, put a piece of craft tape over the outer fold to cover the staples and make your mini flipbook look "bound". Next, cut the inner pages once so that the right half is 2/3 of the book's length and the left half is 1/3 of the book's length.

Now you have a blank flipbook to fill out. Choose 6-8 word families that have your target sound as their final sound. For final /k/ I used: -ack, -ake, -ick, -ock, -oke, and -uck. Write these on the right-hand pages of your flipbook. Then write 6-8 beginning consonant sounds on the left-hand pages of your flipbook. I chose six early emerging sounds to keep the focus on the more difficult, targeted, final sound. My six initial consonants were: /p, b, t, d, m, n/. As you use the flipbook, some combinations will make real words and others will make nonsense words. That is fine. Now write your target sound on the cover and you're ready to go.

Inspiration found here. Follow the link for 10 different games to play with phonics flipbooks.

Simple DIY Speech Warm-up Teacher Will Thank You For

Grab a piece of cardstock, a sharpie, a few jumbo craft sticks, and some tape. In about five minutes you'll have a speech warm-up that classroom teachers will thank you for.

Fold the cardstock to make a sleeve for the craft stick and tape together. For your initial sound warm-ups, position the sleeve to the left and write your initial phoneme on the end of the sleeve that you'll insert the stick into. Then write several word endings on the stick. As the child moves the stick back and forth they'll create several target words to practice and at the same time they're getting some phonics practice in as well.

For the final phonemes, position the sleeve to the right. Feel free to use the back of the same stick you just used for an initial phoneme. Write a word ending that ends with your target sound on the edge of the sleeve closest to the end in which the stick is placed. Then write several initial sounds that work with that ending to make a word. Now the child is practicing several words that end with your target sound and practicing word families at the same time.

It took me less than five minutes to make these. You could easily make a small set of these for each group you work with by taking just a few minutes before your session. Alternately, make them as a group project and send them home for practice. Children would have a lot of fun making these if you gave them several colors of papers and pens to choose from when making them.

Searching "Phonics" to Find Free Printables for Speech

On a whim I decided to search online for phonics digraphs to see what free resources might be floating around out there that we could easily adapt for speech work on /sh/, /th/, and /ch/. I found a few sources with some really attractive free printables that would work very well during speech therapy.

1. KizPhonicshas at least one worksheet per initial consonant including lots of blends and digraphs. Most of the free printable worksheets have at least 6 pictures of words matching the target phoneme.
   
   
2. SparkleBox
has a lovely set of phonics resources. There are often six activities per initial phoneme including bingo, "my book", a phonics train, word worksheets, playdough mats, and flashcards.





3. Free Phonics Worksheets has worksheets available for a wide variety of sounds, but they are black and white and mostly text based. Therefore they would be suitable for working with older, but not younger students.
   
   
4. File Folder Fun has a Rain Showers File Folder game that focuses on the /sh/ and /ch/ consonant digraphs.
   
   

That's my list. I'm particularly excited to spend more time looking at the SparkleBox games/activities. If you guys know of any more please point us towards them in the comments.

Speech Rating Scale - Two Versions

You may or may not remember the Articulation Rating Scale I posted a few months back. I wanted a way to give children feedback on correcting distortions that showed progress even when they weren't getting the sound exactly correct. I came up with this:

Jenn (Crazy Speech World) came across that post and tried the rubric with the students in her school because the entire school was encouraging the use of self-assessment and rubrics with their students. She found the children really enjoyed using the scale, but her youngest students were overstimulated by the 5 point scale. So, she made a great simple version for her youngest kids. You can find the link to download it full-size in her post.

I really like the simple version and will be trying soon. Thanks Jenn!

Michael's Speech Therapy

A couple of weeks ago I asked you all for some input about "age appropriate" errors and whether, in your experience, they resolve on their own for a child with a history of speech problems that needed intervention. After reading all the comments and emails I received from you I decided to relax a little with Michael. His only remaining errors are with /th/ (and some slight gliding of /r/ and /l/ which doesn't concern me at this point).

Before I asked you all for your input I was planning a major push on /th/. I was going to work with Michael on /th/ for 45 minutes x2 a week in the waiting area while Ava was getting her Tu/Th speech therapy. I've decided he doesn't need that much. In fact, pushing too hard might be counter-productive.

Instead, I need to work from his strengths. Michael is an early reader. Letters have always spoken to him. He learned his alphabet really early. He learned letter-sound correspondences early. He was just interested. Reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom taught him the alphabet. Playing with the AlphaBlocks website taught him the correspondences. Bob books and the Usborne Early Readers taught him to decode CVC words. He likes it. So, I'm going to sneak in raising his awareness of the difference between /f/ and /th/ through reading. (I'm also going to do a little traditional artic work on it, but I'll get to that in a minute.) The reading work I've done with Michael so far hasn't dealt with any of the digraphs (th, ch, sh, etc.) so he hasn't had the opportunity to realize that "thumb", for example, is actually not spelled "fum." I'm going to do activities that focus on reading words with "th" and "f" and see if that does the trick.

I also came across the concept of 5-minute speech therapy at some point. I don't remember exactly where, why, or when, but it's been floating around in the back of my head ever since. I find the concept intriguing. It would allow an amazing amount of personalization in a school setting. Essentially, instead of grouping students into twice a week 30-60 minute sessions, you see all of the speech children on your caseload for 5-7 minute individual sessions heavily focused on drill in the hallway. Just pull them from their room for a few minutes several times a week and do heavy drill on their specific target phonemes at exactly the level they need to be working at. I find this idea tempting for straight artic kids. Done right, they could get as much practice in 5-7 individual minutes as they do in a 30-45 minute group session. They lose much less classroom time. Your schedule is more flexible and make-ups would be much easier to squeeze in. But I digress...

I thought I'd use that concept with Michael. Instead of working /th/ for 45 minutes twice a week I'll do an intense 5-7 minute drill twice a week. Then we'll move on to some other activity. Once a week, we do his weekly preschool homework. The other day we'll do some reading taking the time to highlight every example of "th" that occurs in that reading.

And that's my current speech plan for Michael. In large part, that's due to the input I got from those of you saying that it would probably be fine to relax a little about the /th/. So, thanks!

Thank You Volunteers (A Sneak Preview Thank You)

I wanted to sincerely thank everyone who commented or emailed me offering to help proofread my new book. I got far more offers than I needed. I've already contacted the people who sent in the first few offers and I don't need any more volunteers for now.

Here's a sneak preview of just a few of the 53 reproducible /s/ resources you'll find in the book.

Once I get some feedback, I'll make any corrections necessary and make the book available. I'll be sure to keep everyone updated.

Free Articulation and Phonological Process Screener Available Online

I was thinking about cobbling together a quick articulation screening tool to use with my kids. I don't have the extra cash to invest in a GFTA or Khan-Lewis although I would love to have them. Besides, all I need is an organized way to assess the kids' current production of the full range of consonants. I was doing a bit of research online and stumbled across a really nice free one already available online. I thought I'd post the link for anyone who doesn't already know about it.

You can find the Quick Screener: A Quick Test of Articulation and Phonology on Caroline Bowen's website. She's a Speech-Language Pathologist, PhD, and specialist in speech sound disorders. Look for the third section down on the page for the links to the screener and to the record forms. The screening consists of 44 (mostly) single syllable words prompted by pictures and verbal prompts. You can transcribe errors and use the record forms to look for patterns of phonological errors.

You should note that although all but one of the words are single syllable, many of the words contain consonant blends and vocalic /r/ sounds. Take that into consideration when deciding if this would be a useful tool with a particular student. Also, the record form does not have a summary section for clearly entering error sounds/positions, but that would be simple enough to add on your own.

It's a great tool freely available for download and use. You should definitely check it out.

Speech Card Set Activity: Speech Crowns

Preparation
Print a page or two of a free articulation card set of your choice. Make a paper crown in your child's (or student's) favorite color. Cut out the pictures from the picture cards.

Activity
Most little kids love crowns. Show them their crown and tell them that the crown needs to be decorated. Offer a choice of 10-15 small pictures featuring their target words. Have them say all the words and then choose 5-7 favorites. Staple / glue / tape those pictures to the crown. Voila! Speech crowns and happy children.

Review
Once the crown is complete, put it on their head and let them look at themselves in the mirror naming all of their picture choices one last time. Have them label all of the left-overs and offer to give them the extra pictures as a present. Send them home with the crown. As they proudly show it off to their parents they will have yet another opportunity to practice their words. (Or if you're doing this activity at home, have them show their new crown off to their grandparents, a friend, a sibling, or even a family pet. Another option is to take a video of them showing off their crown and telling about all the pictures and then to let them watch the video of themselves.)

(Note: I used my cricut machine to cut out our crowns and pictures because the children love watching the cricut machine work, but simple paper crowns from construction paper along with pictures cut from my card sets will work just as well.)

Speech Card Set Activity: Speech Art Collage

Preparation
Print a page or two of a free articulation card set of your choice. (Printing on cardstock will make the cutting a little more difficult, but the gluing easier. Printing in draft mode will save a bunch of ink.) Either cut all the pictures out yourself (time consuming and only necessary if you need to be super time efficient during the therapy session) or just bring some child safety scissors and let the child cut the pictures out. Also grab some glue and a colorful piece of paper.

Activity
Explain the concept of a collage. Let the child cut and glue the pictures on their own, or provide them with the pre-cut pictures. Be sure to discuss and say the target words on each picture as they are chosen, cut out, and glued onto the collage.

Review and Choose
Once the page is complete, review all the words with the child. Then you can either have them hang their "picture" on the wall where you can review it later (great if you're a parent doing this at home) or if you're a therapist, send the completed worksheet home as homework.

Advantages
This activity is great for carryover because the words are used in a more natural setting (embedded in an art activity). The child gets to practice fine motor skills and strength (cutting/gluing). You get a built-in homework sheet / piece of artwork.