About this activity
Twelve words with /f/ in the middle: elephant, muffin, coffee, dolphin, waffle, sofa, office, laughing, safari, taffy, gopher, before. Several are spelled with ph or gh rather than f, which is a useful accident — elephant, dolphin, laughing and gopher all make the sound with different letters, and a child working on speech does not have to care while a child working on spelling does.
How to use it in a session
Split the word at the sound to start: e-le-phant, muf-fin. Splitting turns a medial /f/ into a final one and then an initial one, both of which are usually easier, and then you rejoin them. Ask for the word, then a short phrase. Six minutes covers the twelve at word level, which is the right amount for a young child.
What to listen for
Listen for the sound weakening rather than being replaced. In the middle of a word, /f/ often gets produced with insufficient contact and comes out sounding closer to a vowel — muh-in rather than muffin. Watch the unstressed syllable in elephant and safari, where the /f/ carries less emphasis and is the first thing to go.
Carrying it home
Sofa, coffee, muffin and waffle are house words that come up without planning. Asking a child to say one of them, rather than listening to everything they say, is a home task a family can actually keep up.
Questions
- What grades is this for?
- Kindergarten through third, usually after initial /f/ is stable.
- Do I need an account?
- No, all twelve cards play free.
- Why are some of these spelled with ph?
- Because English writes the /f/ sound several ways. For a speech target the spelling does not matter, but for a student also working on reading, elephant and dolphin are worth pointing out as the same sound with different letters.