About this activity
Twelve pacing tasks alternating between words and syllables: touch one dot per word for I — want — juice and my — name — is — Sam; one dot per syllable for ba — na — na, com — pu — ter, el — e — phant and re — fri — ge — ra — tor. The last two cards fade it: say it with the board, then again without, and use the board for a whole sentence about your day.
How to use it in a session
Let the child do the touching. An adult moving the finger sets the pace externally, which produces a well-paced utterance and no learning — the point is the child controlling their own rate. Alternate between the word-level and syllable-level cards rather than doing all of one; they build different things, and the syllable ones are the harder. The fading card matters most and is the one most often skipped.
What to listen for
Watch whether the rate holds when the board goes away. A pacing board is a scaffold, and a student who is fluent with it and not without it has not yet internalised anything — which is normal early and is what the last two cards address. Notice whether the touching becomes rushed, since a fast finger produces fast speech and defeats the purpose.
Carrying it home
Any row of dots on paper works, or the fingers of one hand. The point is one touch per unit and the child doing the touching, both of which travel anywhere.
Questions
- What ages is this for?
- Kindergarten through fifth grade, for rate control in fluency work and for children with unintelligible fast speech.
- Is it free?
- Yes, all twelve tasks play with no account.
- Does the board have to be a physical object?
- No. Five fingers work, or five dots drawn on paper. What matters is one touch per word or syllable, and the child controlling the pace themselves.