Reducción de sílabas trabadas
Proceso fonológico frecuente en español: producir el grupo completo en vez de omitir la segunda consonante.
Drop here
Drop here
0/12 sorted
How to run it
Say both versions and let the student sort them. Hearing plato against pato is the whole lesson, and the reduced version being a real word — pato means duck — makes the consequence concrete. Then have the student produce both deliberately, since being able to reduce on purpose usually means the full cluster is under control. Ten minutes covers the twelve.
Cueing ladder
Start at the top. Add support one step at a time.
- IndependentThe student says the word on the card; you point to the one you heard. Wait 3 seconds.Log as correct
- Visual cuePoint to the part of the word that changes between the two cards.Log as cued
- Verbal modelSay both words slowly, stressing the difference; the student repeats the target word.Log as cued
- Placement cueSay the two consonants separately and slowly ('p… la'), then push them together with no vowel between: 'pla', not 'pala'.Log as cued
Adjust it
Listen first: you say one of the pair and the student points to it, before they say any.
Use each word of the pair in a sentence, so the difference has to survive at speed.
Matching IEP goal
Given minimal-pair picture cards, Student will produce both consonants of a Spanish cluster 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 items sorted into grupo completo and reducido: plato, blusa, flor, tren, grande and cruz are the full clusters; pato, busa, for, ten, gande and cuz are the reduced versions. Reducción de sílabas trabadas is one of the most common phonological processes in Spanish, and putting the two versions side by side makes the omitted consonant audible.
What to listen for
Listen for which consonant is dropped. In Spanish clusters the liquid — the l or the r — is the one usually lost, giving pato for plato and gande for grande, which matches the pattern in English. Watch tren and cruz, where the r follows a stop and the cluster is at the start of the word, since those are the ones that persist longest.
Carrying it home
Plato, flor and grande are everyday words in a Spanish-speaking home. Asking which one the child said, when plato comes out as pato, gives the same feedback the sorting is designed to produce.
What's in this activity
- grupo completo
- reducido
Questions
- Is this board in Spanish?
- Yes, all the words are Spanish. This page is in English so an English-speaking clinician can find and evaluate it.
- Do I need an account?
- No, it plays free in the browser.
- Is cluster reduction normal in Spanish?
- In young children, yes — it is a typical early pattern in Spanish as it is in English. It becomes a target when it persists past the age most children have outgrown it.
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.