About this activity
Ten words with /l/ in a cluster: blue, black, blanket, clock, clap, flag, flower, glue, plane, sled. Six different blends across ten words, which is a wide sample and a deliberate one — a child who has /l/ on its own often loses it when another consonant comes first, and which consonant makes a difference.
How to use it in a session
Say the two consonants separately and then close the gap. Buh-lue to blue is the movement being taught, and speeding the two up works better than repeating the whole word. Group by blend where the student needs it — three bl words together make the pattern clearer than six blends mixed. Eight minutes covers the ten with the contrast step.
What to listen for
Listen for insertion against reduction. Buh-lue has a vowel between the consonants; boo for blue has lost the /l/ entirely, and the two need different work — insertion is fixed by speeding up, reduction by adding the missing sound slowly. Watch sled and glue, where the first consonant is a fricative or a voiced stop and the transition is harder than in clap.
Carrying it home
Blue, black, clock and flower are common enough to notice on any walk. Asking the child to say the word rather than correcting how they said it keeps this from becoming a correction routine.
Questions
- What grades is this for?
- First through fourth, for students who have /l/ in isolation and lose it in clusters.
- Is it free?
- Yes, all ten cards play with no account.
- My child says 'boo' for 'blue'. Is that the same as saying 'buh-lue'?
- No — that is cluster reduction, where the /l/ is dropped, rather than vowel insertion, where the two consonants are separated. Reduction usually responds to adding the missing sound slowly; insertion to speeding the two up.