/ch/ Medial Flashcards
Conventional medial ch targets at the single-word level.
Session summary (SOAP)
Stays on this screen. Nothing is saved or sent.
Mark a card Correct, Correct with cue or Incorrect and the summary writes itself here.
How to run it
Break the word at the sound to start: tea-cher, kit-chen. Splitting it gives the child a final /ch/ and an initial /ch/, both of which are usually easier, and then you rejoin them. Ketchup and catcher are the pair worth doing together because they differ only in the vowel and the ending, which makes the target part obvious. Six minutes covers the twelve at word level.
Cueing ladder
Start at the top. Add support one step at a time.
- IndependentShow the card and wait 3 seconds for the student to say it.Log as correct
- Visual cuePoint to your mouth, or show the mouth picture for /ch/, before the student tries again.Log as cued
- Verbal modelSay the word; the student says it right after you.Log as cued
- Placement cueLips rounded, tongue tip and front of the tongue up on the ridge behind your top teeth. Hold, then let go into a short /sh/.Log as cued
Adjust it
Drop to syllables ('cha' and 'chee'), or use fewer cards.
Put each word in a short carrier phrase with no /ch/ in it or mix in /ch/ words from another position.
Matching IEP goal
Given picture cards, Student will produce /ch/ in the word-medial position in single words in 8 of 10 opportunities across 3 consecutive sessions, given no more than a visual cue.
Send it home through the parent portal →About this activity
Twelve words with /ch/ in the middle: teacher, kitchen, ketchup, matches, peaches, catcher, pitcher, watching, hatching, lunches, benches, munching. Medial position is harder than it looks — the sound sits between two vowels with no pause around it, so it has to be produced inside the flow of a word rather than at a boundary.
What to listen for
Listen for the sound weakening rather than substituting. In medial position the commonest error is not a clean substitution but a softened, half-produced affricate — teasher rather than teacher — that is easy to accept as correct on a fast pass. Watch the unstressed syllable: matches and benches both put the /ch/ at the end of the stressed syllable, and that is generally easier than watching or munching, where it starts the unstressed one.
Carrying it home
Kitchen, teacher, lunches and ketchup come up in most days without arranging anything. Ask the family to listen at one predictable moment rather than continuously — the kitchen is a good place for a word that happens to be kitchen.
What's in this activity
- teacher
- kitchen
- ketchup
- matches
- peaches
- catcher
- pitcher
- watching
- hatching
- lunches
- benches
- munching
Questions
- What grades is this for?
- First through fourth, and it usually comes after initial /ch/ is stable.
- Is it free?
- Yes, all twelve cards play with no account.
- Why practise medial position separately?
- Because it is a different motor task. Position effects are real: a child can be accurate at the start of a word and inaccurate in the middle, and practising only initial words does not fix the middle.
Use this board with your caseload
With a free account, every correct, cued and incorrect mark is saved to the student and scored against their IEP goal, with the data written up for you. Assign it as home practice through the parent portal.
Track progress freeFree for SLPs. No card, no trial clock.