articulation / phonology / speech sound disorders therapy techniques

Recast

Script: Lisa is the child client.  The goal for Lisa is to get her to suppress velar fronting: 

Lisa says:  “I dot a tey tard!” [ɑɪ dɑt ə ti tɑrd] (Holds up a card picturing a “key”)

“Oh! You have a key card!

Check for stimulability by using direct imitation: Script: Lisa is the child client, and you are assessing, collecting a treatment baseline, or treatment progress indicators. The goal for Lisa is to learn if she is stimulable for /tʃ/: You hold up the Cheeky Chick card and say…

“Lisa, look at this silly bird! It’s a cheeky chick. Can you say it like me? Ch-ch-cheeky chick!”

Lisa attempts a response:
“Teeky tick.”

You state out loud:
“Lisa is not stimulable for /tʃ/ in the phrase cheeky chick on this trial.”

Check for stimulability by using indirect imitation: Script: Lisa is the child client, and you are assessing, collecting a treatment baseline, or treatment progress indicators. The goal for Lisa is to learn if she is stimulable for /r/:

You hold up the Rowdy Rooster card and say:
“Wow, look at this silly guy! That’s a rowdy rooster. He’s making so much noise!”

(You do not ask Lisa to repeat — this is indirect imitation. You're modeling the target in context and observing whether Lisa imitates spontaneously.)

Lisa attempts a response:
“Wowy wooster!”

You state out loud:
“Lisa is not stimulable for /r/ in the phrase rowdy rooster on this trial.”

Explain to an adult non-native speaker of English why they struggle with a particular minimal pair distinction (knowing that I may use some computerized tools such as Praat to teach the distinction): Script: Lisa is a non-native speaker of English. Lisa’s first language is Ukrainian. The Ukrainian language has six vowels, /i/, /u/, /ɪ/, /ɛ/, /ɔ/, /ɑ/. Lisa says: “At my job, I have to talk about our mission statement to prospective employees. It says ‘We at ABC company pull together when the going gets tough.’ Later, when I ask them to restate our mission, they say, ‘We pool together resources when the going gets tough,’ so I can tell that my pull word sounds like the pool word.” Why is it so hard for me to say pull?

“That’s a really good question, Lisa. The reason pull and pool are hard to say differently is because English has two vowel sounds here — /ʊ/ in pull and /uː/ in pool — but in Ukrainian, you only have one similar vowel, /u/.

So when you try to say pull, your brain uses the closest sound you know — and it ends up sounding like pool.

We can use a tool like Praat to show how these vowels are different in length and mouth position. That can help you hear and feel the difference more clearly.

It just takes practice — and it’s totally normal for speakers of Ukrainian.”

Elicit an approximation of one of the “late eight sounds” for which a child is non-stimulable, and explain to the parent:  Script:  You are at a private practice setting, where parent and child are in the therapy room together.  Lisa is the parent of a child, Tommy, age 5.  Tommy doesn’t answer, so we will nod to the air here

“We’re helping Tommy learn how to make the ‘th’ sound by first feeling where his tongue needs to go without using too much voice or air. It’s a way to break the sound down into smaller steps so it’s easier for him to practice and learn. This helps us know where he is and what to work on next.”

Elicit an approximation of one of the “late eight sounds” for which a child is non-stimulable. Script: Lisa is a 6-year-old, and she is not stimulable for /s/. She has all the vowels and /t/, /n/ and /f/ in her phonetic inventory. You are attempting to elicit /s/ as a sound approximation from sounds she already has

You say:
“Lisa, can you say ‘t’ like in ‘top’? Now try to slide your tongue a little bit so the air can hiss out like a snake—ssssss. Let’s try it together: tsss.”

Lisa attempts a response:
“tsss” (or a hissing sound close to /s/)

You state out loud:
“Great job, Lisa! You were successful in making a sound close to /s/!”

— OR —

If Lisa doesn’t produce a hiss-like sound:

“Thanks for trying, Lisa. That wasn’t quite close to /s/ yet, so we’ll keep working on it.”

Elicit an approximation of one of the “late eight sounds” for which a child is non-stimulable. Script: Lisa is a 6-year-old, and she is not stimulable for /z/. Elicit /z/ as a sound approximation from /s/.

You say:
“Lisa, let’s make the ssss sound like a snake. Now, pretend the snake is singing a little song — try to make the sound buzz in your throat like this: zzzz. Can you try it with me? Sss... zzz...”

Lisa attempts a response:
“sss...zzz” (or an attempt at a buzzing /z/ sound)

You state out loud:
“Good try, Lisa! You were successful (or not successful) at making a buzzing /z/ sound this time.”

Elicit an approximation of /ɚ/ for which a child is non-stimulable.  Script:  Lisa is a 4-year-old, she shows multiple age-inappropriate phonological processes/patterns including vocalization, and she is not stimulable for /r/ or /ɚ/.  You are using the Cycles approach and plan to target /ɚ/ as one of the cycles.  Elicit /ɚ/ as a sound approximation from /t/ and /d/, both of which Lisa has in her inventory.

You say:
“Lisa, can you say tuh like this? Now, try to make it sound like you’re saying ‘teacher’ but just the ending part — like tuh-er. Let’s say it together: tuh-er.”

(Or try with /d/:)
“Now let’s try duh-er like the end of ‘ladder.’ Say it with me: duh-er.”

Lisa attempts a response:
“tuh-er” (or some version trying to add the r-colored vowel sound)

You state out loud:
“Great try, Lisa! You were successful in making a sound close to /ɚ/.”
— or —
“Thanks for trying, Lisa. That wasn’t quite /ɚ/ yet, so we’ll keep working on it.”

Explain the concept of “shared sounds” to a parent: Script: You are at a private practice setting, where parent and child are in the therapy room together. Lisa is the mother of a child, Ollie, age 3;6. Ollie is highly unintelligible; he shows velar fronting among many other phonological processes/patterns. He has Nasals, Glides, and Bilabials in his phonetic inventory, some alveolars and no velars. Ollie and his mom are Spanish-English bilinguals. Ollie isn’t involved in the script.

“Great question, Lisa! The /k/ sound is important because it’s one of the ‘shared sounds’—that means it appears in both English and Spanish. Since Ollie is bilingual, working on sounds that are in both languages helps him improve his speech skills in both at the same time.

Differential specific, immediate feedback: Script: Lisa is an 8-yr-old client whose goal is 90% accuracy of /r/ at the CV level.

You say: /ri/

Lisa says: [ri]

You say ___________

You say: /ru/

Lisa says: [wu]

You say ___________

You say:
For /ri/ → [ri]:
“Great job, Lisa! That /r/ sound was clear and strong.”

You say:
For /ru/ → [wu]:
“Almost! I heard a /w/ sound instead of /r/ there. Let’s try again and focus on curling your tongue for /r/.”