3 Easy Final Consonant Deletion Activities for Speech Therapy
If you are a speech language pathologist working with children who have articulation disorders or phonological disorders, chances are you’re always on the lookout for engaging final consonant deletion speech therapy activities! Keep reading, because this article provides suggestions for final consonant deletion activities, as well as some tips and tricks to try out during speech therapy sessions while working on communication skills.
What is Final Consonant Deletion?
Final consonant deletion is a phonological process, which falls under the umbrella of a speech sound disorder (reference: american speech-language-hearing association). Phonological errors involve patterns of rule-based errors, versus a single sound error. Phonological disorders can impact speech intelligibility.
Speech language pathologists are trained to diagnose a phonological disorder.
Final consonant deletion occurs when a child omits the ending sound of a word. An example of final consonant deletion would be saying “kay” for “cake”. Final consonant deletion is a syllable structure process.
Additional examples of phonological processes include fronting and stopping. Read more about the different types of phonological processes.
When Should Final Consonant Deletion Be Eliminated?
Final consonant deletion can be common in young children; however, it should be eliminated by the age of 3.
Reference: Selected Phonological Processes. (2023). Retrieved 23 January 2023, from https://www.asha.org/practice-portal/clinical-topics/articulation-and-phonology/selected-phonological-processes/
How To Treat a Phonological Disorder
Speech language pathologists have several research-based intervention strategies available when treating a phonological disorder.
The Cycles Approach, created by Barbara Hodson, is one research-based approach for treating phonological disorders. Check out this CEU course to become trained in using this approach.
Many speech therapists also enjoy using The Complexity Approach. When using this approach, complex, later-developing sounds or clusters, are targeted. Learn more about The Complexity Approach.
One effective treatment idea involves using minimal pairs. Minimal pair targets are words that differ by only one sound or feature. An example might be contrasting “bye” with “bike”. Check out these suggested simple minimal pairs activities.
If you would like a deep dive into phonological approaches, you will love this article from The Informed SLP.
CAS versus a Phonological Disorder
Childhood Apraxia of Speech (also referred to as CAS) is a motor speech disorder. Childhood apraxia of speech involves difficulty with planning and programming the movement gestures required for speech.
A phonological disorder involves patterns of rule-based errors.
It is important to note that a speech sound disorder does not have to involve “one or the other”.
Speech-language pathologists are trained to diagnose CAS and phonological disorders and may decide which disorder, if both are present, has the greatest impact on speech intelligibility.
How To Incorporate Phonological Awareness Activities
When a child has a phonological disorder, it is important to consider addressing phonological awareness.
Some examples of phonological awareness tasks include:
- rhyming awareness: the speech pathologist could use targeted final consonant deletion words, and ask “Bite and Might. Do these words rhyme?”
- production of rhyming words: a child might be asked to “think of a word that rhymes with hop”
- phoneme blending: an SLP could say /k/…/ae/…/p/, and the child would blend the sounds together to say the word “cape”
- phoneme segmentation: when given a word by the speech therapist (“cape”), the student would break it down into the individual phonemes (/k/…/ae/…/p/)
- phoneme deletion: the SLP might say, “What new word would we have if we said ‘cat’ without the ‘k’ sound?”
Final Consonant Deletion Minimal Pairs
When phonological processes occur, minimal pairs can help young children discriminate between the correct sound and the incorrect sound. Try using the final consonant deletion minimal pairs in therapy. School SLPs will also enjoy using these ready-to-go minimal pairs pictures in speech therapy.
Final Consonant Deletion of P Minimal Pairs
- ma vs mop
- row vs rope
- bee vs beep
- key vs keep
T Final Consonant Deletion Minimal Pairs
- E vs eat
- me vs meet
- bye vs bite
- ha! vs hot
K Final Consonant Deletion Minimal Pairs
- bye vs bike
- hi vs hike
- may vs make
- K vs cake
N Final Consonant Deletion Minimal Pairs
- tea vs teen
- bee vs bean
- bow vs bone
- moo vs moon
M Final Consonant Deletion Minimal Pairs
- boo vs boom
- neigh vs name
- tea vs team
- tie vs time
3 Easy Final Consonant Deletion Activities
When working on new sounds and speech patterns in speech therapy, it is important to provide hands-on, motivating activities for young children! Try these 3 fun final consonant deletion activities in speech therapy.
Minimal Pair Worksheets- Final Consonant Deletion Speech Therapy Activities
Busy school speech pathologists will be excited to learn that these minimal pairs don’t involve any prep or planning! Several phonological patterns are targeted in this Minimal Pairs Bundle (the Final Consonant Deletion Minimal Pairs are included in the bundle).
Each page includes a simple, organized layout. This will make it easy to run a smooth speech therapy session!
Start off by reading the provided auditory bombardment word list to your student.
Next, your student can complete an auditory discrimination activity by pointing to the sound he heard- or did not hear- when you say the words on the page.
Finally, your student can practice saying each minimal pair presented on the page.
This activity pairs well with play dough or a magnetic wand and chips. Simply print out the desired page and laminate for repeated use.
The final consonant deletion minimal pairs included are: p, t, k, n, and m.
Minimal Pair Smash Mats and Activities
Your students will love these “magical” minimal pair activities! Target phonological processes, including final consonant deletion, using these ready-to-go worksheets and activities. Unicorns, dragons, frogs, wizards, and more decorate each page and make each phonology activity exciting!
Simply choose the target sound or page. Your students can smash play dough, spin sinners, and use magnetic wands and chips along with each page, if desired.
These final consonant deletion speech therapy activities are also available as part of a money-saving bundle.
Articulation Speech Sound Mouth Cards
These unique speech sound mouth cards can be used with students who have articulation or phonological disorders!
First, the speech language pathologist will select a target speech sound to work on.
Next, the school SLP can pair these articulation cards with any motivating game or activity.
The student will practice saying the target words. The speech-language pathologist can simply flip to the mouth picture when visual cues are needed.
There are several speech sounds included in this resource, such as k, g, f, v, sh, ch, s, z, voiceless th, and more.
These cards can be used repeatedly once they have been assembled. They also can function as speech room decor!
Simply print out the cards, laminate them, and cut them out. After that, hole punch the cards and attach them together using a binder ring.
More Information on Phonological Disorders for SLPs
Do you need a quick summary of this article? For final consonant deletion minimal pair word lists, simply scroll up.
Don’t miss these best-selling final consonant deletion speech therapy activities:
- Minimal Pairs Bundle
- “Magical” Themed Minimal Pairs Smash Mats
- Speech Sound Mouths Articulation Cards
Finally, here are more posts related to this topic area that SLPs will want to read:
