Initial B Minimal Pairs: Free Speech Therapy Articulation Picture Cards

Description

This articulation card set is designed to be an extension of my single-syllable cards sets. The words are all still CV or CVC in syllable shape and include no blends or vocalic /r/ sounds. This is a comprehensive set of minimal pairs focusing on contrasting the initial /b/ sound with each of the other early emerging sounds. The initial /b/ is contrasted three times with each of the other early emerging sounds (p, t, d, m, n, h) using a different vowel each time. The target audience for these cards are children with severe speech delays who need exposure to a minimal pair technique to emphasize that they need to differentiate production of two different words. (Scroll down to preview set.)

Key Features

• This set includes 18 therapy cards pairs with the initial /b/ word on the left and the matching minimal pair on the right. The /b/ words are paired three times with /p, t, d, m, n, and h/ using a different vowel sound each time.
• The words are CV or CVC in syllable shape.
• The words feature early emerging consonants.
• The words are simple and are easily understood by or easily taught to young children.

Permissions

I give permission to copy, print, or distribute this card set 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 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?

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.

I recommend you print on cardstock and laminate for durability.

Good Sportsmanship?

Let's start with the good part of this story. I bought an UNO deck at the grocery store the other day and we sat down as a family to play. I always enjoyed UNO, so unlike certain other children's games (Candyland), I was looking forward to playing.

We had never played a card game before. I introduced the terms dealer, dealt, hand, deck, and shuffle. They loved watching me shuffle the cards and had a blast helping me count as the cards were dealt until we all had seven cards. Since it was their first time we just all played with our hands face up and focused on learning the mechanics of the game. Everyone had fun. They easily caught on to matching either color or number and enjoyed learning about reverse, skip, and wildcards. Michael and his dad even joked and laughed when Michael was skipped about three times in a row.

However, things ended on a sour note when I won the game. They seem so young to be upset that they didn't win. However, even at the ages of two and four, I got crossed arms, pouting faces, turned backs, and the complaint, "But I wanted to win!" All of this was followed by a refusal to play a second time.

Obviously this is something we need to address. I think I'm going to start playing games with them often. I'll play at least once with them during the day, and we'll play as an entire family a few times a week. Before we even begin I'll say that we're going to play at least twice no matter who wins. I'll discuss (briefly and age appropriately) that we play together because it is fun and model nice things to say to the winner and nice things for a winner to say.

Does anyone have any other ideas about how to teach good sportsmanship to preschoolers?

Research Article: Toddlers Don't Modify Speech Production Based on the Auditory Feedback of Their Own Voice

Research of the Week

I read this research summary and thought the findings were interesting. I got my hands on the original journal article and thought the research methodology and conclusions were well thought out and seemed sound.

Essentially, research shows that adults and preschoolers listen to the sound of their own voice and modify their speech based upon what they hear. If you put headphones on an adult or 4 year old child and feed a slightly modified version of their own voice back to them, the speech they produce changes as they try to "fix" the productions they are hearing.

If you do the same thing to a two year old, they do not modify their productions. Toddlers do not appear to monitor the sound of their own voices and adjust their speech production according to the auditory feedback provided by their own voice.

This has rather significant implications for therapy with toddlers. If you're expecting them to hear the difference between their own correct and incorrect productions that probably won't happen without some sort of additional feedback.

This study was done with typically developing two and four year old children and showed that adjusting speech due to auditory feedback develops between the ages of two and four. I wonder if you took a group of speech delayed children and conducted the same experiment, would you find that it takes even longer for self-monitoring to develop in these children? And further, would you find a difference between articulation, phonological, and apraxic children?