About this activity
Twenty probe cards, one per consonant, each testing three levels: isolation, syllable and word. /p/ at isolation, pa, and pig; /s/ at isolation, sa, and sun; /ʃ/ at isolation, sha, and shoe; /tʃ/ at isolation, cha, and chair. Stimulability — whether a child can produce a sound with a model and a cue — is the single most useful piece of information for planning what to target first.
How to use it in a session
Model each level and note the highest one the child reaches. A child who produces /s/ in isolation and not in a syllable is stimulable at one level; a child who cannot produce it at all is not, and that difference changes what you target. Work through the sounds the child is not producing spontaneously — probing sounds they already have wastes the session. Ten minutes covers the sounds in question.
What to listen for
Watch for stimulability without spontaneous use, which is the most encouraging finding available: the child has the motor capacity and needs practice rather than establishment. Notice which cue produced it — a visual model, a tactile cue, or a syllable context — because that cue is where therapy starts. Record the level rather than a right-wrong judgement.
Carrying it home
This is a clinician's tool rather than a home activity. What it produces is a target list, and that is what goes home in the form of the sounds a family is asked to notice.
Questions
- What is stimulability?
- Whether a child can produce a sound they do not use spontaneously, given a model and a cue. It is one of the strongest predictors of which sounds will respond quickly to work.
- Do I need an account?
- No, all twenty probe cards are free to use.
- How does stimulability change what I target?
- A stimulable sound often needs practice rather than establishment and can move fast. A non-stimulable sound needs its own establishment phase, which is slower and looks different.