speech sound disorders

Focus on Speech Sound Disorders

By Judith Maginnis Kuster

Years ago when I was assigned my first "artic" case, I spent hours cutting pictures of /s/ words from magazines and My Little Golden Book Dictionary (now available in GoAntiques for $15!) and drawing crude pictures of sailboats, sun, soap, seven, and such. Now there are many commercial products focusing on speech-sound disorders, but the Internet also has wonderful free resources.

Clinical Resources

The richest site for speech-sound disorders is Caroline Bowen's "SLP Start Page" (www.speech-language-therapy.com/slp-eureka.htm). You can spend hours exploring, reading, downloading, and copying materials. Her "Freebies" page (www.speech-language-therapy.com/freebies.htm) includes these treasures:

Phonology and articulation resources (www.speech-language-therapy.com/txresources.html) worksheets, handouts, pictures, and word lists.
Therapy facts and tricks (www.speech-language-therapy.com/tx-facts-and-tricks.html) includes "evidence-based strategies to enhance outcomes" and information on "Target Selection."
Vowel Contrasts for Phonological Therapy (www.speech-language-therapy.com/txvowelcontrasts.html) vowel minimal pair pictures and word lists.
The Butterfly Procedure (www.speech-language-therapy.com/fsd-butterfly-procedure.htm) for lateral and palatal /s/ and /z/.
Minimal Pairs and Listening word lists (www.speech-language-therapy.com/wordlists.html).

Bowen also hosts a 6,200-member Yahoo forum, Phonological Therapy (PHONO-TX), for professional discussion of speech development and the assessment and management of speech-sound disorders. This resource includes valuable materials in the connected "files" and "links." To join, access http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/phonologicaltherapy/join. Because the forum exceeded space limits, Bowen created Speechfiles, an extensive collection of handouts, worksheets, and articles. To access, join http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/speechfiles/join.

Peter Flipsen (www.isu.edu/~flippete/Clinical_Resources.html) provides valuable materials including a decision tree to separate articulation problems from phonological problems; a speech perception test; and listening lists for auditory bombardment.

Materials

Special Education Technology of British Columbia (www.setbc.org/pictureset/resource.aspx?id=256) provides 25 pages of pictures of frequently misarticulated sounds (PDF or Boardmaker format).

Bossy R (www.wordway.us.com/BossyR.htm) has nearly 100 pages (in PDF files) of r-family sets (ar, ir, ore, ur).

Jennifer Mitchell's ClipArtic (www.speechtx.com/articulation.htm) has flash cards and quickpics minibooks for final deletions and all word positions of commonly misarticulated speech sounds, as well as articulation activities.

Search SpeechTeach for activities (www. speechteach.co.uk/p_general/downloads.htm).

Frieda Van Staden provides word lists and articulation games for l, r, s, and sh-ch-j (http://members.tripod.com/Freida_vanStaden/SLPresources.htm).

Interactive Treasures

Some of these sites have appeared in previous columns, but they deserve mention in a column on articulation:

John Higgins (from the UK, so check pronunciation differences) created a table of vowels and diphthongs and a table of consonants that generate The Sounds of English, German, and Spanish from the University of Iowa (www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics) animates production of each sound in isolation and in all word positions.
At QUIA (www.quia.com/topics.html) you'll find articulation games by Tracy Gefroh Boyd (www.quia.com/pages/havemorefun.html); phonological and phonemic awareness page by Pamela Bordas (www.quia.com/pages/pbordasphonemic.html); articulation and phonology games by Lonn Swanson (www.quia.com/pages/speechersclass.html); and an all-pictures articulation, language, and phonemic awareness site by Mrs. Ramsay (www.quia.com/pages/allpicturesfun.html).

Treatment Activity Ideas

The Targets and Activities Project (TAP) allows clinicians to post activity sheets for use by clinicians or speech-language pathology assistants under the direction of certified SLPs. Several focus on phonology and articulation (www.commtap.org/tap/nav/artic.html).

"Books, Stories, and Games That Reinforce Speech Sound Targets" (http://crokebeck.tripod.com/articbks.htm/homepage.html).

This Works for Me from speakingofspeech.com has a bulletin board where clinicians post questions and ideas for articulation therapy (http://members4.boardhost.com/speakingofspeec).

Creating Materials

The Story-Making Machine targets l, r, s, sh, ch, or th with stories that are ready-made or created by you or your client (www.communicationconnects.com/stories.asp).

The Word List Generator includes an option for creating a printer-friendly version for 3"x5" index cards (www.wordlistgenerator.net).

Enter target words to create word flashcards on Senteacher (www.senteacher.org/Worksheet/10/Literacy.xhtml).

Sound Sorting Pictures provides sets of pictures of speech sounds to copy and paste into clinician-created activities (www.rockingham.k12.va.us/sound_sorting/sound_sorting_menu.htm).

Copy game boards from Cherry Carl's "Board Games Grove" to use with flash cards created from the above materials (www.carlscorner.us.com/Games.htm).

School is open and intervention caseloads have been selected clinicians may be too busy to create materials. Consider enlisting an aide, a parent, or a service-learning high school student to supplement your intervention materials with something new and free!

Judith Maginnis Kuster, MS, CCC-SLP, is a professor emeritus in the Department of Speech, Hearing, and Rehabilitation Services at Minnesota State University, Mankato. Contact her at judith.kuster@mnsu.edu. An archive of all of Kuster's columns can be found at www.mnsu.edu/comdis/kuster4/leader.html. URLs change, however, and there is no guarantee that links from previous columns are still functional.

Kuster, JM, Focus on Speech Sound Disorders , The ASHA Leader, 2010.