We’re giving you some clarity with the Multiple Oppositions Approach today!
Firstly, if you’re using the multiple oppositions approach, you often choose this approach to treat a phoneme collapse (e.g., when a child says /h/ for MANY sounds).This means that a sentence such as, “Can we buy a stamp?” could sound like, “Han he hi a hamp.”
When a child has a sound they favour and use for many other sounds, it can be really hard for people to understand them.
how can multiple oppositions help?
Multiple oppositions uses sets of words that generally rhyme. By using pictures and having the child copy, “hip-tip, hip-ship, hip-slip, hip-drip,” children start to learn that in order for what they say to make sense (and be understood), they have to use the correct sound (otherwise all of the pictures will be said as “hip-hip”).
Use feedback such as, “Did you mean hip or ship?,” to encourage the child to think about their sounds and “fix them” to help clarify what they really mean.
By carefully choosing 2-4 different sounds the child substitutes with “h”, the goal is to stimulate change and increase their speech intelligibility across the child’s speech sound system (vs. targeting one sound or pattern at a time).
how can i find the words?
These are the steps you might take:
- Assess the child and map out how many sounds they are substituting with /h/
- Of these sounds, choose 2-4 sounds that are different in place, manner, and voicing to /h/
- Ensure the 2-4 sounds you have chosen are different to each other (e.g., you wouldn’t want to choose all fricatives, or all voiceless sounds). We usually consider a cluster and/or affricate, a mix of voiced and voiceless sounds, and sounds with different places of articulation.
we can help you with your word sets!
Our Multiple Oppositions printable packet is a streamlined process for creating treatment sets in minutes! Once you have chosen the sounds, all you need to do is print the x5 pages (e.g., for “h”, “t”, “sh”, “sl” and “dr”), choose the exact word pairs (there are 8 options) and you can begin therapy straight away!
For more information on Multiple Oppositions for ‘h’ including:
✅ — Evidence-based Rationales – discussion of who the approach is suitable for and intervention intensity, including links to references
✅ — Target Selection – tools to help you analyze the /h/ substitution you are seeing and how to select targets for therapy
✅ — Creating a Treatment Set – how many target sounds to contrast and information on treatment sets, including nonwords and why we might use them in this approach
✅ — Free Materials – links to phoneme collapse worksheets, a treatment paradigm that lays out the steps for therapy, and data collection sheets
