It’s been interesting straddling both sides of speech therapy: 

Being a speech pathologist who only treats speech sounds
AND being a parent of a child with speech difficulties.

It has sure changed how I speak to and train parents, has allowed me to adjust my expectations, and be more compassionate and understanding of how the challenges!

Are you someone on both sides?

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You learn bite-sized speech stuff from me EVERY DAY 🤗 Imagine how far you will grow clinically as an SLP when you learn for four hours with me!!!

I ♥️ minimal pairs - COMMENT “master” and let’s just go on this adventure where you finally nail at least one phonological intervention!

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Have you experienced this? A cue that works for one student won’t work for another?

Instead of trying to make a cue fit a child, I’m more about being flexible and guided by the child and how they learn!

This means I need to know lots of cues, and match the right ones to each of my kids. Agree… disagree…. Other thoughts??

#speechsounddisorders #speechsounds #articulation #speechdelay #speechdelaykids
Comment “master” because you at least need to know how in-depth this course is… and how much you really don’t know about minimal pairs!!!

So, make 2025 the year you really master a phonological intervention 👊🏽💪🏼👌

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If I can admit that there was a LOT I didn’t know about the minimal pairs approach… can you?

Combining the evidence with 18 years clinical experience, I want this to be the last PD you’ll ever have to take on this therapy approach.

Register now 👏🏼 link is in our bio or type this link: bit.ly/MMP_AISPCourse

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We have tips, tips, and more tips!!!! If this cue doesn’t work to encourage a clear “ch”, don’t forget we wrote the Ch Sound Handbook where you can find 100+ more ideas 💡 

#articulationtherapy #articulation #speechsounds #slpath #speechtherapy #speech #speechpath
All it takes is 5-10 minutes to screen for possible facilitative contexts (words that encourage a clear production of our target sound), but this can set you up for INSTANT success!

If you took my free SLP Summit talk, then you saw these screeners in action! Why waster weeks and months with no progress when it doesn’t have to be that way?

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If you watched by free SLP Summit presentation, then you’d know how quickly the students in my case studied progressed when we found words that encouraged clear sounds!!

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#speechsounddisorders #articulationtherapy #articulation #speech #Adventuresinspeechpathology

Minimal Pairs Therapy: are you missing this first step?

Are you forgetting the first step of minimal pairs therapy? Because I’m going to admit it… back in my early career days, I may have missed this step!

Familiarizing your students with the target words (usually picture cards) is a critical step of minimal pairs therapy. The whole point of the approach is that we are teaching the child that if they say the word differently, it means something completely different!

HOW DO YOU FAMILIARIZE MINIMAL PAIR WORDS?

I generally start by picking word pairs that I think the child would understand given their age and language skills. Let’s use ‘sn’ being replaced with an ‘n’ as example.

My first word pair is nail and snail.

Minimal Pair cards from Teach Phonology series.

I would pick up the nail card and say something like:

This a nail, it starts with the ‘n’ sound. Builders might bang a nail with a hammer when they’re building things. Have you ever seen anyone use a hammer and nail?

Look at this picture! This is a slow, slimy snail. Snail starts with ‘sn’. I get lots of snails in my garden, and I even find them in my mailbox. Have you ever found a snail in your garden?

I then put the cards on the table and ask the child to pick up the picture that I am saying. I like to alternate the order and see if I can ‘trick’ the child: “snail – snail – nail – snail – nail”.

If I miss these steps in minimal pairs therapy and don’t check to see that the child understands the words and can hear the difference, our progress might stall.

Are you a speech-language pathologist who is delivering therapy via distance learning or telehealth? Look into these digital and interactive sets of minimal pairs. Not only do they have the word targets, but because there is context, your child might find it easier to engage in, and understand the therapy.

Try making minimal pairs meaningful

Boom Cards have changed my SLP life! You can play anywhere where you have an internet browser such as on your desktop, laptop, iPad, tablet or smartphone. Read reviews and see what’s included in this S Cluster Reduction deck.

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One Comment

  • Hi, I am a new SLP- I have been struggling with how to improve the phonological error of backing. I have tried contrastive approaches such as minimal pairs and maximal pairs! However I not seeing the progress I would like… should I be using more of a multiple opp. Approach

    Reply

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