/l/ Medial Flashcards
Conventional medial /l/ 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
Split the word at the sound: ba-lloon, ye-llow. That gives the child a final /l/ and then an initial one, both usually easier, and rejoining them is the target. The doubled-letter words are the clearest ones to split, since the two halves of the sound are visible. 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 /l/, before the student tries again.Log as cued
- Verbal modelSay the word; the student says it right after you.Log as cued
- Placement cueTongue tip up on the bumpy ridge behind your top teeth, and keep it there while your voice flows out around the sides of your tongue.Log as cued
Adjust it
Drop to syllables ('la' and 'lee'), or use fewer cards.
Put each word in a short carrier phrase with no /l/ in it or mix in /l/ words from another position.
Matching IEP goal
Given picture cards, Student will produce /l/ 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 /l/ in the middle: balloon, yellow, pillow, gorilla, salad, melon, ruler, collar, silly, hello, olive, jelly. All two or three syllables, since a medial sound needs a word long enough to have a middle, and several of them double the letter — yellow, gorilla, collar, silly, jelly — which puts the sound right on the syllable break.
What to listen for
Listen for the sound weakening rather than being replaced. Between two vowels, /l/ often arrives with a light, incomplete tongue contact that sounds almost like a vowel — ye-ow rather than yellow. Watch gorilla and balloon, where the target sits in the stressed syllable of a three-syllable word and competes with the length of the word itself.
Carrying it home
Yellow, pillow, jelly and hello are frequent enough to notice without arranging anything. Asking a family to listen for one word at a predictable moment — hello at the door — gives them a task they can keep.
What's in this activity
- balloon
- yellow
- pillow
- gorilla
- salad
- melon
- ruler
- collar
- silly
- hello
- olive
- jelly
Questions
- What grades is this for?
- Kindergarten through third, usually after initial /l/ is stable.
- Do I need an account?
- No, all twelve cards play free.
- Why is medial position harder?
- Because the tongue has to reach the contact and leave it inside a running word, with no boundary to lean on. In several of these the target also sits in an unstressed syllable, where it carries less force.
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.