Have you ever worked on fronting (or backing) with minimal pairs like /k-t/ and /g-d/ at the beginning of words, but found that the use of your target sound hasn’t generalised to clusters? Perhaps your child can contrast “tool” vs. “cool”, but then still says “stool” when they mean “school”.
We sometimes see children naturally apply the phonological rule of “back vs front” sounds to medial and final positions, as well as clusters, without needing direct instruction after initial minimal pairs intervention. However, this isn’t always guaranteed.
How to Choose Minimal Pair Targets for Fronting
Choosing your targets — and the words you are going to use when you have a child in front of you who is fronting — can have a different type of impact depending on the child and the sounds you choose to target.
What I hope you get out of this really short clip is that you have a lot of different options and choices, and that these choices can affect how well the pattern carries across different sounds and word positions.
Want a better understanding of how to choose minimal pair targets for fronting? Watch my YouTube clip to better understand your options.
When Fronting Doesn’t Generalise to Clusters
Sometimes, you can pick one niche little area and the targets you choose can make changes throughout other sounds and contexts. Sometimes, though, it doesn’t happen that way.
You can also combine different sounds and different positions, depending on what your child needs and what they can handle in their sessions.
Download Free Fronting Minimal Pair Cards for Clusters
To help solidify this pattern, I’ve created a free set of minimal pair cards for /sk/ vs /st/ clusters.
These are available for download and can be a valuable addition to your toolkit. If you already own my Fronting Minimal Pairs Toolkit, you can easily store these new cards with your existing set. They might be useful for your therapy sessions.
Looking for more resources for the minimal pairs approach? Check out our helpful guide here.
