About this activity
Ten pictures sorted by their first sound: shoe, ship, sheep, shop and shelf are /sh/; sun, sock, seed, soap and sail are /s/. Discrimination comes before production for a child who substitutes one sound for the other — if the two sound the same to them, no amount of practice will tell them when they have got it right.
How to use it in a session
Say the words yourself and let the child sort, before asking them to produce anything. Their own productions are unreliable evidence at this stage; yours are consistent. Once sorting your speech is accurate, have them say the word as they place it, which adds production without losing the listening task. Eight minutes covers the ten.
What to listen for
Watch whether the child can sort accurately at all. A child who cannot hear the difference in your speech has a perception issue, and that comes first — production work with no perceptual base produces a child who complies in the room and cannot self-correct anywhere else. Notice shoe against soap, where the rounded vowel makes the two sounds more similar.
Carrying it home
Asking which word an adult said — shoe or sue — is a game that takes seconds. Getting it wrong on purpose is even better, because children enjoy correcting an adult and it makes them listen closely.
Questions
- What ages is this for?
- Kindergarten through third grade, for students who substitute /s/ for /sh/.
- Do I need an account?
- No, all ten pictures play free.
- Why sort before practising production?
- Because production depends on hearing the difference. A child who cannot distinguish the two sounds has no way of knowing whether their own attempt was correct.