/t/ and /d/ Early Sounds — Spelling
Articulation · Grades PreK–1 · 12 cards
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
Segment before building. Ten, top, tap, dot, duck and dig are all three sounds and three or four letters, so a child who hears the sounds can spell them. Two, toe, tea, day and door have vowel spellings that cannot be worked out and are better learned as wholes at this age. Keep asking for the production as the letters go down.
Cueing ladder
Start at the top. Add support one step at a time.
- IndependentAfter building each word, the student says it aloud. Wait 3 seconds.Log as correct
- Visual cuePoint to your mouth, or show the mouth picture for /t/ and /d/, before the student tries again.Log as cued
- Verbal modelSay the word; the student says it right after you.Log as cued
- Placement cueTongue tip up on the bumpy ridge behind your top teeth, then drop it: a quiet puff for /t/, voice on for /d/.Log as cued
Adjust it
Go back to /t/ and /d/ on their own or in syllables, and use fewer cards.
Put each word in a short carrier phrase with no /t/ or /d/ in it.
Matching IEP goal
Given word cards, Student will produce /t/ and /d/ 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
The twelve /t/ and /d/ words — toe, tea, ten, top, two, tap, day, door, dot, duck, dig, dad — as a spelling task. Derived from the flashcard deck. Most are three letters and entirely regular, which makes this a good early spelling set as well as a speech one; two is the exception and is worth naming as such.
What to listen for
Watch whether the first letter matches the sound the child is producing. A child who says dop and writes top has the letter knowledge and a production error; one who writes dop has the same error twice. That correspondence is worth showing them directly. Notice two, which is a genuine oddity and should be taught rather than sounded out.
Carrying it home
Spelling a three-letter word aloud takes seconds. Top, dot and dig all work in a car and put the target sound at the start where it is easiest to attend to.
What's in this activity
- toe
- tea
- ten
- top
- two
- tap
- day
- door
- dot
- duck
- dig
- dad
Questions
- How is this different from the flashcards?
- Same twelve words, built from letters rather than named. It suits a child working on early spelling as well as on the sounds.
- Do I need an account?
- No, it plays free in the browser.
- Why is 'two' spelled that way?
- It is a historical spelling with a silent w. There is no rule to work it out, so it is one to learn as a whole word rather than to sound out.
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.