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Class of Sounds Step One:
Auditory Discrimination
Description:
The first thing you will need to do is help your child hear the difference between the class of sounds
that she should be saying and the types of sounds that she is using instead. Choose one of the
classes mentioned before, like long sounds, back sounds, or blends, and go through all of these
steps using that sound class. Once your child masters it, you can go back and teach another class.
Activities:
To do this, you will need to come up with some pairs of words that are exactly the same except that
one has the correct sound and one has the sound that your child is saying instead. For example, if
your child is having trouble with long sounds and says /t/ for /s/, you would want to come up with
some pairs like “toe” and “sew”, or “tent” and “sent”. Notice how every sound in those pairs is the
same except for the target sound. Choose several different examples from the sound class you are
trying to target. For example, if you’re targeting long sounds, don’t just use pairs of words with /s/
and /t/, do some with the other long sounds as well. Once you have picked some of these pairs, you
will need to make cards for each word. You can either print out pictures you find on google image or
draw your own. Place two pictures in front of your child from the same pair. Tell your child what
each picture is called and then have him close his eyes. Hide a penny (or a piece of candy) under
one of the pictures. If it sticks up and is obvious to your child, use two paper cups and put the cards
on top of the cups and the candy/penny under one. Then, have your child uncover his eyes and tell
him which picture to look under. For example, if you had “two” and “shoe” out, you could say “look
under ‘shoe’”. Make sure you exaggerate the target sound when you say it. If she looks under the
wrong picture, say “Oh listen, that word has a long (or short) sound” and exaggerate the sound for
her again. Keep doing this until your child can correctly pick the right picture each time. Your child
may be able to do this right away or it may take several weeks. Keep at it!
While you’re doing this, point out the target sounds when you hear them, but your child doesn’t need
to say the sounds yet at this point.
When to Move On:
When your child can choose the right picture based on what you said at least 80% of the time, then
she can hear the difference and you’re ready to move on.
Data Collection:
Date: Date: Date: Date: Date: Date: Date:
Hear the Dif-
ference Be-
tween the two
sounds
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Class of Sounds Step Two:
Say the Class in Words
Description:
Once your child can hear the difference between the target class of sounds and the sounds he uses
instead, it’s time to start having your child say those sounds in single words.
Activities:
Put two words from a pair in front of your child again, but this time, inform your child that he will have
to tell you which picture to look under. Have your child close his eyes and then you hide the penny
(or candy) under the picture with the target sound, that’s the one you’re trying to teach him, not the
one he currently says instead. Have your child open his eyes and this time have him tell you where
to look. Your child will probably say the word with the error sound first so repeat the word back to
your child and look under that picture. (For example, if you’re doing long and short sounds with the
pair “two” and “shoe”, hide it under the “shoe”. When your child tells you to look under “two”, say
“Two. Ok, I’ll look under “two”. Oh, it’s not under two”). Then, have your child guess again. If he
says the error sound word again, repeat his error back to him, and then model the correct pronuncia-
tion of the word. In our example, you would say “you said ‘two’ but it’s not there. Do you mean,
ssshhhoe?” Then, help your child say the word with the correct sound so you can look under that
picture.
Once your child can do this, try having your child label a picture of a word with the target sound by
just showing him the picture and saying “what’s this?” Once he can do this consistently, you’re
ready to move on to the next step.
When to Move On:
When your child can say a variety of sounds from the class in single words about 80% of the time,
you’re ready to move on to the next step. If you’re working on back sounds, your child should be
able to say both /k/ and /g/ before moving on. If you’re working on long sounds, your child should be
able to say at least some of the long sounds and should attempt to make long sounds on some of
the harder ones. For example, “th” is a harder one, so if he says “f” or “s” in place of “th”, that’s ok
for now. We just want him to be making long sounds. For blends, he should be able to say two
sounds together, even if they’re not always the right ones. Again, some of those sounds (like /r/
and /l/) are harder. “Twee” for “tree” is perfectly acceptable at this point. However, “tee” or “wee” is
not. Get it?
Data Collection (Write if the child can say the target sound in a single word when you say
“what’s this?):
Date: Date: Date: Date: Date: Date: Date:
Say the class
in single
words
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Class of Sounds Step Three:
Say the Class in Sentences
Description:
Now that your child is able to produce the class of sounds in single words, you are ready to move on
to having your child say the class in single sentences.
Activities:
Take only the cards that have the target class of sounds in them (so, take all of the short sounds out
of your deck of pairs so that you just have the long sounds, or grab only the back sounds). Mix them
up. Show your child a card and have her tell you what it’s called. Make sure she uses the long
sound. Then, have her imitate a short sentence with that word in it. For example, if the word is
“shoe”, you could have her say “I put on my shoe”. Try not to put the word at the beginning of the
sentence because it will challenge her more to stick the sound in the middle. Keep doing this until
your child can imitate your short sentences. Keep in mind this may take a while, I usually do this
part with my kids for a minimum of 1-2 weeks, sometimes much longer. Once your child can do
that, have your child come up with sentences on her own. Have her create a sentence using the
word. Keep working on this and helping your child use the target class of sounds in the target word
as well as other words in the sentence. This part will probably take at least another several weeks
to master. It gets very tricky when you start expecting your child to use the class of sounds through-
out a sentence as opposed to just in the target word. Keep practicing and have patience. If your
child needs a little motivation to keep going, try tracking her percentage of correct pronunciations on
a graph so she can see the line going up. This helps my kiddos to see how far they’ve come and
how much farther they need to go before moving on or getting a fun reward (like going out to eat or
getting a week vacation from speech).
When to Move On:
When you can show your child a word and she can create a sentence using that word (and use the
class of sounds correctly in that target word and other words within the sentence) about 80% of the
time, you are ready to move on to the next step.
Data Collection (Mark if she says the sounds from that class correctly in all parts of a single
sentence):
Date: Date: Date: Date: Date: Date: Date:
Says all
sounds from
that class in
sentences
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Class of Sounds Step Four:
Catch Your Child in Conversation
Description:
Once your child can produce the sounds correctly in sentences, you will want to help him remember
to use it all of the time in conversational speech.
Activities:
Here are a couple of tips you can try to help encourage your child to use that class of sounds in con-
versational speech. At first, make sure you don’t correct your child all the time. You can either
choose a few errors here and there to target or you can choose just one time of the day that you tell
your child will be “speech time” and you will remind him during that time but not after that. As your
child gets better at this, you can start increasing the amount of time or the frequency with which you
correct your child. This will prevent you and your child from getting burnt out.
If you hear your child say a sound from that class incorrectly, repeat your child’s error back to him
as a question. For example, if your child says “where’s my two?” (instead of shoe) you can say
“your two?” See if your child can fix it back to shoe. If not, say “Oh, do you mean shoe?
Where’s your sssshhhhoe?” Then, have your child say the sentence again using the long sound
correctly.
Point out the class of sounds when you hear them in his own or someone else’s speech. Say
“Oh, I heard a long sound there! ‘Sssshhhhhoe’. Did you hear that?”.
Come up with a cue with your child that you can use to remind him to use that class of sounds.
This could be touching your mouth or something else. During “speech time”, use that cue to re-
mind your child.
When to Move On:
When your child is using the class of sounds correctly in conversation about 80% of the time, then
he’s mastered that class and now you just need to remind him if he ever forgets.
Modifications:
If your child is having trouble with a certain sound within this class but is getting the rest of them, you
can go back and try teaching your child that sound specifically using the guide for teaching a single
sound.
Data Collection (Mark if he uses sounds from that class correctly in conversation):
Date: Date: Date: Date: Date: Date: Date:
Says all
sounds from
that class in
conversation
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Class of Sounds, Step Four:
Conversational Speech
Your child has been learning a new class of sounds and now we want to increase his skills so that
he is using those sounds all the time. Choose a time with your child when you will work on saying
the new sounds in conversational speech. During your “speech times” (or whatever you choose to
call it), you will sit down with your child for a short time (start shorter and build your way up) and ei-
ther talk about whatever your child wants to talk about or play something that will promote communi-
cation during the activity. Let your child know that you will be listening for his good
______________ sounds during that time. If your child says those sounds incorrectly, give him a
gentle reminder and help him fix the error. Then, move on. Once your time is up, then you can stop
reminding your child about the sound until the next time you do “speech time”. Start off with short
sessions and build your way up to more sessions throughout the week that last longer. Pretty soon,
your child should start using this sounds on his own in conversation and you can get to the point
where you just need to remind him every once in a while during conversation and you don’t need to
make it a structured time frame. Having the shorter sessions at first will help make it less frustrating
for your child though when he’s in the beginning stages of generalizing the skill. You can use this
visual aid below to remind your child to think about his sounds. Put this on the table in front of him
during “speech time” and simply tap on the picture whenever he starts to forget about his sounds.
Tell him that this should be his reminder to start using the good sounds again.
I’m thinking about my
sound!
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