HOW TO TEACH MINIMAL PAIRS AT HOME: T, D, K Speech Therapy for Voicing, Devoicing, Fronting, Backing

Kelli Meyer Licensed and Certified Speech Language Pathologist (M.Ed., CCC-SLP)
Hi parents, therapists and early interventionists!
Here is a video of my favorite SIMPLE way to target Minimal Pairs (/T/ for /D/ and /D/ for /T/ and /T/ for /K/ and /K/ for /T/ Substitution sounds!)
Did you already download the FREE Speedy Speech Minimal Pairs worksheets at SpeedySLP.com?!
Why minimal pairs?!
Minimal pairs HELP children auditorily discriminate between sounds! (i.e. increasing their ability to recognize speech sound errors, which will encourage them to practice sounds!) By using these VISUAL images of the minimal pairs in conjunction with a PREFERRED game/reinforcer or activity... you will see your child's ability to understand speech sounds when they are linked to common objects and used in words!
Step 1:
Make sure your child understands the difference between the words by asking them to "TOUCH Key" and then "Touch Tea" to model distinguishing sounds!
Step 2: Then, ask the child to tell you and give you the picture of the "Tea" and "Key" and see if they hand you the correct one and model the correct sound in the word!
If not! No worries! Be silly! Tell them they said TEA! not KEY! silly goose! and then encourage them to try again! This techniques offers gentle corrections by drawing attention to the speech patters (phonological processes) that the child is using that ultimately cause them to say the wrong word!
Step 3: Practice! Practice! Practice! This is not a "one and done" therapy pattern! Often times kiddos have formed HABITS of these phonological processes and we all know that habits are HARD to break! Don't give up!
Additional Tips: REWARD your child for TRYING and OVERREWARD your child for correct productions to AMP UP their motivation for trying the sound - which will then encourage them and help them be successful with more attempts/trials/targets!
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****Need the speech sound hand cues?! Download them FOR FREE on teachers pay teachers at SpeedySLP or on the website at SPEEDYSLP.com!
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Find us on Instagram @ speedyspeech or on FB at Speedy Speech Path!
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Does your child need help correctly producing the /T/ or /D/ Sound?!
Click here! ---- • HOW TO SAY & TEACH "T"...
Does your child need help correctly producing the /G/ and /K/ Sound?!
Click here! ---- • HOW TO SAY AND TEACH T...
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What activity did you target these minimal pairs with?!
Play dough?! Magnets?! a Tunnel?!
Need more ideas of how to target speech sounds?! Check out my playlists!
Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS): • Apraxia of Speech (CAS...
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[@ItsJustHearsay]

Thanks, just started speech therapy for my son and was looking for fun ways to engage him on this at home :)

[@caitlin6324]

Just wanted to say that one of my twins (just turned 2) said "eeeeee-t" for eat! He said it! A word!! He combined the sounds!! AHHH. Your work is helping us SO much. Thank you!

[@TheSpeechScoop]

Looooove heart that!!! So happy! Soon they’ll be saying “Eeeaat, meeaat, seat, beat, Pete!” Love it! The sky’s the limit from here! Keep up the awesome job! ❤️☺️

[@snowdriftwood]

Thanks for another great video!

[@foreveralways74]

What do you suggest when the student has difficulty with the first step...such as "Touch key" versus "Touch tea"?

[@TheSpeechScoop]

I would back up to play and ensure he knows "key" from "tea" and if so, then possibly have his hearing checked (chronic ear infections can cause problems with speech intelligibility and understanding) and if he knows the difference between the two objects, SHOW him with you mouth and the object holding it next you the difference each time you say the word and then ask him to show you right after.

[@ceylanbarut1008]

My child has mastered the "sh" in sh/s minimal pairs but today when he was speaking there was the "sh" at the end of a word e.g mash, and he said it incorrectly. Do we now need to do minimal pairs for the ending sounds?

[@TheSpeechScoop]

you could, but also sometimes children just struggle with the sound in one place of the word (i.e. final "sh") so possibly just practicing some final "sh" words and sentences will help!

[@iremirem6275]

Hello, can you add Turkish to the subtitle language, please?

[@deedee9312]

at what age are you presenting these? your awesome!

[@TheSpeechScoop]

You could do this as early as age 1.5 years but I would making it more vocabulary based for receptive / expressive language skills BC typically we don’t recommend targeting speech sounds until age 3. I am working on a speech sound development chart to share! Usually all of these sounds (T, D, K, G) are fully developed between age 3 - 4 years

[@deedee9312]

@@TheSpeechScoop ok, perfect!! I am off to see the freebies on your site, among other things I may want! Looking forward to all the charts!! TY!!

[@deedee9312]

@@TheSpeechScoop cant seem to find your minimal pair cards ?

[@TheSpeechScoop]

@@deedee9312 speedyslp.com/speech-resources/ Under the resources section! They have a cover page on them that I didn’t show in the video! Hope this helps!

[@deedee9312]

never mind friend, just found and downloaded.. these are awesome! ty!