/sh/ All Positions Flashcards
Drill /sh/ in initial, medial, and final position.
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
Use the lip rounding, which is visible in a mirror. /sh/ rounds the lips and /s/ does not, and showing a child that difference is faster than describing the tongue position they cannot see. Ask for the word, then a two-word phrase — my shoe, the ship. Eight minutes covers the ten with the phrase 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 /sh/, before the student tries again.Log as cued
- Verbal modelSay the word; the student says it right after you.Log as cued
- Placement cueLips rounded and pushed forward, tongue pulled a little further back than for /s/ and raised. Blow a wide, quiet stream of air.Log as cued
Adjust it
Drop to syllables ('sha' and 'shee'), or use fewer cards.
Put each word in a short carrier phrase with no /sh/ in it.
Matching IEP goal
Given picture cards, Student will produce /sh/ in all word positions 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
Ten /sh/ words: shoe, ship, sheep, shop, shelf, shirt, shake, shine, shore, shed. All start with the target, and all are single syllables, which keeps the difficulty on the sound. /sh/ is made with the tongue further back than /s/ and with rounded lips, which gives you two visible cues to work with.
What to listen for
Listen for /s/ replacing /sh/, which is the standard substitution and means the tongue is too far forward. Watch shirt and shore, where the following vowel is r-coloured and pulls the tongue back — those two can be easier for a student who is fronting, which makes them a useful place to start rather than a harder one.
Carrying it home
Shoe, shop, shirt and sheep are ordinary words. Asking a family to notice one of them, rather than the sound in general, gives them something specific they can actually track.
What's in this activity
- shoe
- ship
- sheep
- shop
- shelf
- shirt
- shake
- shine
- shore
- shed
Questions
- What ages is this for?
- Kindergarten through third grade.
- Is it free?
- Yes, all ten cards play with no login.
- My child says 'soo' for 'shoe'. What do I cue?
- Lip rounding, which is visible. /sh/ rounds the lips and pulls the tongue back; showing the rounding in a mirror usually gets a closer production than any description of tongue position.
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.