Initial P: Free Speech Therapy Articulation Picture Cards

The Initial /p/ set is finished and it is a significant upgrade over the previous sets (I will be updating those to the new format soon.) Here are the features of the new card sets. For those of you who read this blog regularly, I apologize in advance for the fact that this introductory section will be exactly the same for each new set posted. It is the only way to be sure that someone who finds this website by searching for a specific set gets the full set of information. In the future feel free to skip down to the actual pictures and skip the introduction.

Description

These articulation picture card sets are designed to be more comprehensive than the typical sets you might find elsewhere. The target audience for these sets are young children or children with more severe speech delays that need intensive practice with sounds at a one-syllable level or simple two-syllable level. No blends or vocalic /r/ sounds are included in these sets.

Key Features

• Initial and Final sets include 30 one-syllable words that begin or end with the target sound.
• The words are simple and are easily understood by or easily taught to young children.
• Combines the target sound with all possible vowel sounds at least once.
• Words are sorted by difficulty level for an easy progression from easy to hard.
• Describes the progression from most intense prompts to least intense.
• Provides a simple carrier phrase for every word.
• A gestural prompt for the target sound is explained.
• A list of therapy activities is included.
• Includes 30 therapy cards with the target word and a picture on the front,
  and the difficulty level and the carrier phrase printed on the back.

Permissions

I give permission to copy, print, or distribute these card sets 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.

Looking for Feedback

I would love to hear back from anyone who uses the word sets. Let me know if there is anything you would change.

Where can I find more?

More sets are on my Free Speech Therapy Articulation Cards page.

Card Sets

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

Instructions for printing and using the cards are included in the set.

The Weekly Review: Week Fifteen

Best Blog Posts of the Week

• Linda at All and Sundry makes the list again because she's just so funny. Seriously, given the following quote, how can you skip this post?
  Before beginning to work from home, she thought perhaps... "while I periodically take a break to wave at my cherubic children, who have naturally occupied themselves with some peaceful and industrious activity such as polishing the stainless steel appliances while independently serving their developmental needs, Montessori-style."
• Amy at Amalah wrote a post to tempt fate about her new baby and sleep. The pictures are a nice bonus.

Website Resource of the Week:

Ok, you're probably only going to think this is the "coolest thing ever" if you're a Speech-Language Pathologist and a particularly geeky one at that. Learning Fundamentals is a company that makes software for SLPs (apparently, I haven't actually checked out any of their software). On their website they have a tool that lets you specify exactly what types of sounds you want in what order and then it spits out a list of words that meet your criteria. Very, very cool.

The Weekly Michael

Michael is all of a sudden extremely interested in spelling words. He'll sit at the computer and ask for help spelling random words. If I help him sound out the word he can pretty much spell it himself. He'll even make editorial decisions. For example, he decided that "mommy" needed to be spelled "momme" because that just made more sense. He made the same decision for "dadde" We've also spelled Michael and Ava. He made the observation that his name is bigger. I believe cat, dog, and monster were also spelled. It's fun watching him explore writing. Well, typing. He loves typing things out but isn't the slightest bit interested in writing on paper.

The Weekly Ava

Last night as I was putting Ava to bed we got into a tickling game. Then she stopped me by saying, "Be careful Mama! No want to make hole in Ava!" I understood every word. I wonder, if I had an audiotape and played it for someone else if they would have understood it. Not that it matters if someone else would understand. I knew exactly what she was saying and it was wonderful.

Speech-Language Pathology Topics: The Flap

As I was working on my one syllable word lists I was reminded of two things: one rather obvious and the other pretty obscure.

The obvious: If you are not using blends, medial consonants are not used in one syllable words. So, if I want a list of simple words that use a medial sound I'll need to use very simple two syllable words (CVCV, CVC, CVCVC).

The obscure: I completely forgot about a rather obscure sound. When a /t/ sound appears between two vowels in connected speech it is produced as a flap. When a /b/ sound appears between two vowels in connected speech it is often also produced as a flap. Say the following two sentences quickly and naturally.

1. Look at the bike pedal.
2. Look at the flower petal.

The /d/ in "pedal" and the /p/ in "petal" are produced in almost exactly the same manner - as a flap instead of as a clear /t/or /d/.

My conclusion: If you want to practice the /t/ sound, it is not useful to try to practice it in the medial position of a simple two-syllable word (bottle, button) because when those words are spoken in natural speech a flap is produced rather than a /t/. Once your child has mastered /t/ in the initial and final position of words it would be a better use of your time to practice it in connected speech with short phrases (on top).

You might also be interested in the following articles:

Voicing Pairs

Random Example of the Complexity of Motor Planning