About this activity
Twelve words with /s/ in the middle: dinosaur, baseball, eraser, lesson, pencil, castle, listen, muscle, icing, message, racing, bossy. Several of them spell the sound in surprising ways — castle, listen and muscle all have a silent t or c — which does not matter for speech and matters a great deal for a student who is also reading.
How to use it in a session
Split the word at the sound: din-o-saur, les-son. Splitting turns a medial /s/ into a final one and then an initial one, both usually easier, and rejoining them is the target. Lesson and message are the clearest examples because the doubled letter sits right on the syllable break. Six minutes covers the twelve at word level.
What to listen for
Listen for the sound weakening between two vowels rather than being replaced. A softened, half-made /s/ inside a word is easy to accept on a quick pass and is not the target. Watch pencil and castle, where the /s/ is followed by another consonant in the same word and the context is harder than a clean intervocalic one.
Carrying it home
Pencil, message, listen and baseball come up in ordinary days. Asking a family to listen for one word rather than a sound gives them something concrete they can report back.
Questions
- What grades is this for?
- First through fourth, usually after initial /s/ is stable.
- Do I need an account?
- No, all twelve cards play free.
- Why do 'castle' and 'listen' have silent letters?
- They are historical spellings — the t was once pronounced. It makes no difference to the speech target and is worth mentioning for a student who is also working on reading.