minimal pairs cluster reduction, s blends and illustrated by helen rippon, highly specialist slt....

Devised and illustrated by Helen Rippon, Highly Specialist SLT.

PIP4SECOND EDITION

www.blacksheeppress.co.uk

MINIMAL PAIRS CLUSTER REDUCTION, S BLENDS

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IntroductionA minimal pair is a pair of words, such as ‘tea’ and ‘key’, or ‘four’ and ‘door’,

differing only by one sound in the same position in each word. Minimal

pair therapies are an essential and common method used by speech and

language therapists to correct error patterns in children with delayed or

disordered speech development.

Barlow and Geirut (Minimal Pair approaches to phonological remediation:

Seminars in Speech and Language 23(1) 57-67 2002) state that “all

phonological approaches focus on teaching children the function of sounds,

particularly that changing sounds, changes meaning, and that making

meaning is necessary to communication.”

Thus, this pack of minimal pairs can be used to develop games and activities

to directly confront the child with the consequences of his/her error pattern

in terms of meaning. For example, if a child says ‘That’s a funny nail’ (when

looking at a picture of a snail), the adult may respond ‘A funny nail?? I can’t

see a funny nail anywhere ... but I can see a funny snail!’

Caroline Bowen offers excellent information on her website (speech-

language-therapy.com) on minimal pair therapies which clearly describes the

varying approaches that can be used by therapists, and again, the picture

resources provided in our Pairs in Pictures series can be utilised to support

these approaches.

Each pack in our Pairs in Pictures (PIP) minimal pairs series focuses on a

particular phonological process and provides minimal pairs of that particular

process in initial, medial and final position:

PIP 1: Fronting/Backing, Gliding

PIP 2: Stopping

PIP 3: Consonant Deletion

PIP 4: Cluster Reduction /s/

PIP 5: Cluster Reduction /l/ and /r/

PIP 6: Voicing/devoicing

This pack focuses on Cluster Reduction /s/: sound clusters are where two or

three consonants combine at the front, middle or end of words. For example,

‘spoon’, ‘flower’, ‘string’, ‘basket’ and ‘last’. A child exhibiting cluster reduction

will omit one or two consonants from the cluster.

Examples: ‘spider’ = ‘bider’; ‘blue’ = ‘boo’; ‘school’ = ‘kool’; ‘first’ = ‘firt’:

Cluster reduction is very commonly noted as part of delayed speech

development.

4PIP4-2, Minimal Pairs, Cluster Reduction, s Blends, second edition © 2017 Helen Rippon, Black Sheep Press Ltd. Black Sheep Press, 67, Middleton, Cowling, Keighley, W. Yorks, BD22 0DQ, England. Tel. +44 (0)1535 631346; email: [email protected] ; web: www.blacksheeppress.co.uk

It is only permitted for the licensee shown below to print/photocopy these worksheets for use in their clinic/school. See page 3 for full details of the licence conditions.



ActivitiesBefore beginning, please note:For most of the activities it will be necessary to have two identical copies of

the pictures being used to enable you to provide immediate feedback to the

child on whether they have selected the correct word, or have said a word

correctly, thus highlighting the importance of meaning.

You will need to check that the child understands the words to be used

within the minimal pairs activity. Inevitably, in an effort to provide as many

pairs as possible, it is sometimes necessary to use words that may not be in

a young child’s vocabulary. Only use pairs of words that you know the child

understands.

All these games should be fun and all corrections carried out with good

humour. If the child appears uncomfortable, or distressed, stop the game

immediately.

Hunting and hiding

Have two identical sets of pictures. Place one set of pictures around the

room. Keep the other set in your hand so the child is unable to see which

pictures you are looking at. Now ask the child to, for example, ‘Find the …

stick.’

The child runs around the room until he/she finds the picture of ‘stick’ and

brings it back to the table. Show the child the picture you were looking at.

‘Good listening! You found the stick. It’s the same picture I was looking at!

Now find the stairs.’ Continue until the child has found all the pictures.

Now, and this is the most important part of the game, repeat the activity, but

the child now becomes the teacher. If the child is looking at the picture of the

‘stick’, but says ‘tick’, you MUST go and retrieve the picture of the ‘tick’ so that

when the child reveals the picture he/she was looking at you can say ‘Oh!

You told me to fetch the tick ... but you were looking at the STICK! We need

to say them differently don’t we.’ etc.

Where’s the sticker?

Place a set of pictures face up on the table. Ask the child to hide his/her eyes

while you place stickers under some of the pictures. (Keep the paper backing

on them so they don’t stick to the table!)





Extra pairs and sentences

Pairs: Cluster reduction /s/

Cluster reduction /s/ Cluster reduction /s/ Cluster reduction /s/

space pace scoop coop spy sigh

speak peak scared cared speak seek

spot pot smile mile spoon soon

spit pit sweat wet stir sir

stone tone swarm warm scales sails

start tart slime lime skunk sunk

scone cone slap lap sweep seep

skate Kate slide lied sweets seats

skid kid

Pairs in sentences: Cluster reduction /s/

• The baby has a spotty potty.

• Stop at the top of the stairs.

• The calf is wearing a scarf.

• There’s no snow left!

• The snail sat on a nail.

• I can only see one swan.







spill

spotty

spin

spoke

pill

potty

pin

poke





school

smash

smelt

sneeze

cool

mash

melt

knees



minimal pairs cluster reduction, s blends and illustrated by helen rippon, highly specialist slt....

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