Which of the following strategies from Caroline speech uses abstract terminology?

315 Winners in 25 Years!

Every month since June 1998 Speechwoman has selected a speech-language pathology / speech and language therapy related site of the month. Sometimes it is not so much a site, as a page, blog entry or resource within a site that is worthwhile celebrating here.

If they wish, awardees may display the Speechwoman logo on their winning site, post, page or resource (scroll down for two versions of the logo).

Warm congratulations to all Speechwoman's winners, including those whose hard work has "gone" from the Internet!

2023 Sites of the Month

January
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2022 Sites of the Month

December
WORD GAMES FOR FUN (and frustration)!
Wordle (easy, but fun)
Waffle (a little harder)
Redactle (degree of difficulty varies; this is Speechwoman's favourite)
Semantle (usually difficult)

November
Fedifinder: Join the Fediverse in 5 easy steps
Disenchanted with Twitter? Join #SLP_SLT colleagues in Mastodon (in the Fediverse). Then find the people you know. Begin by exploring the hashtags #SLP_SLT, #slp, #slt, and these groups: @slpfedi, @slp_slt, @WeSpeechies. Don't just close your Twitter account and bale out in a hurry. To find out why it's a bad idea to do so, read this. Mastodon is free, open source microblogging SOFTWARE that allows you to join users of the same software, and users of other software (e.g., Misskey, GNU social, and Pleroma) in the Fediverse. The Fediverse (a portmanteau of federated (or federation) +universe) is is a group of independently hosted, interconnected servers that are used for web publishing (in the form of social networking, microblogging, blogging, or websites) and file hosting. Although the servers are independently hosted, people who use Mastodon can communicate with people on different servers. Ideally, it is unimportant which instance you join, provided that you join one that's well administered. Unsurprisingly, with thousands of Mastodon instances, there are a few duds. People who find their instance is unsatisfactory can switch to a different instance.

October
Open Access

Stansfield J. (2022). Talking points: Oral histories of Australian and British speech-language pathologists who qualified in the three decades after 1945. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 24(6), 573-584. //doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2022.2032345

September
Delivering language intervention at scale: promises and pitfalls
This important, openly accesible (free) article addresses the vexed question of implementation science—that is, the study of factors beyond the theoretical motivation for an intervention that ensure both take-up and sustainability—in language intervention. The authors write:

...after 100 years of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in education, there has been little consideration of how to ensure an educational intervention will be effective beyond the research trial. The early involvement of professionals and practitioners in the design of educational recommendations is critical to the development of interventions that can be successfully scaled-up.

Snowling, M.J., West, G., Fricke, S., Bowyer‐Crane, C., Dilnot, J., Cripps, D., Nash, M., & Hulme, C. (2022). Delivering language intervention at scale: promises and pitfalls. Journal of Research in Reading, 45(3), 342-366. //doi.org/10.1111/1467-9817.12391

August
Golden (FREE) oldie!
Rothman A. J. (2004). "Is there nothing more practical than a good theory?": Why innovations and advances in health behavior change will arise if interventions are used to test and refine theory. IJBNPA 1(1), 1-11, //doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-1-11

If critical advances in health behavior theory depend on an iterative process by which theoreticians and interventionists cooperate in the testing and evaluation of theoretical principles, individuals in both camps need to not only recognize the goals and values of each group, but also trust each other's ability to advance our understanding of both theory and practice.

July
Davis, & New (2004). The broth in my brother's brothel: morpho-orthographic segmentation in visual word recognition. Psychonomic bulletin & review, 11(6), 1090–1098. //doi.org/10.3758/bf03196742 ENJOY!

June—25th Anniversary of Speechwoman's Sites of the Month
A systematic review of the academic achievement of primary and secondary school-aged students with developmental language disorder
This important, openly accessible (FREE) article by Shaun Ziegenfusz, Jessica Paynter , Beverley Flückiger, and Marleen F Westerveld will be welcomed by educators, SLPs/SLTs, students, researchers from a range of disciplines, and parents. The authors report that they identified three key educational implications of DLD/#DevLangDis, which they discuss.

Most, but not all students with DLD struggle to achieve academically at school, highlighting the need for education systems to provide support so these students have equitable opportunities in education.
Students with DLD need support in schools. Educators and speech pathologists are experts in the curriculum and DLD, respectively, and can work together to support students’individual learning across the curriculum.
Given DLD's heterogeneity and variability over time, there is a need to understand the level of support required by school-aged students with DLD. Detailed assessments of language, cognition, and literacy will enable progress to be periodically monitored during primary and secondary schooling, and help inform individualised support for students with DLD. Further, viewing academic achievement at a singletime point may give a false impression of the student’s ability, given that DLD is a lifelong condition.Therefore, regular ipsative assessment (comparing a student's performance with their previous performance) may best inform educational practices.

May
Speech Pathology Australia's Member Hub
Launched May 31, 2022.
To gain MEMBERS ONLY access:
1) Download the Connected Community App from Google Play Store or the Apple App Store on your or tablet.
2) Enter: erhub.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au
3) Login to the App with your usual SPA credentials (username & password)
That's it!

April
DLD and Me
Spreading the word about Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), hashtag: #DevLangDis. The site boasts many excellent, highly readable articles.

March
Minimal, Maximal, or Multiple: Which Contrastive Intervention Approach to use with Children with Speech Sound Disorders?
Speechwoman was bowled over when she saw this immensely useful and readable tutorial by Holly L. Storkel. Clinical SLPs/SLTs will love it for it's practicality. SSD devotees, get over there, download, and save it to your clinical gold folder. Go on, it's open access (that means FREE!).

February
Panel 3 - SSD and CAS – How should motor planning disorders be classified in children? (WEBINAR)
This is a wonderful panel discussion with invited speakers Professor Susan Rvachew (BLOG) from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, Professor Tricia McCabe (ReST) from the University of Sydney, Australia and Dr Edwin Maas (slab lab) from Temple University in Philadelphia, USA, and Aileen Wright moderating. They carefully consider how motor planning (speech) disorders should be classified in children.

For years the profession has debated terminology for describing the needs of children with communication impairment, worldwide. Researchers, specialists, clinicians, parents and people with lived experience of the conditions have contributed to these exchanges. The IALP Child Speech Committee has organised a webinar serie, ‘What’s in a name? How should we describe and define speech sound disorder in children and why does it matter?’, to discuss the overlap and distinctions between the label ‘Speech Sound Disorder’ and other closely related terms.

2021 Sites of the Month

December
Race and Language: Where Perceptions and Justice Intersect
Speechwoman ends 2021 on a high note with this fascinating and important (video) interview with Professor Ben Munson and Dr. Alayo Tripp from the Department of Speech Language Hearing Sciences (SLHS) at the University of Minnesota. Find out how they are enlarging our understanding of how speech and race influence our interactions within communities, and impact our ability to create a civil society. Give yourselves a little under an hour to soak this up, and congratulations Ben and Alayo!

November
ESLA (formerly CPLOL)
The European Speech and Language Therapy Association (ESLA) is the umbrella organisation for Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) associations across Europe. It currently has 31 member associations to date, representing over 50,000 SLT professionals.
🇦🇹 🇧🇪 🇧🇬 🇭🇷 🇨🇾 🇩🇰 🇪🇪 🇫🇮 🇬🇷 🇭🇺 🇮🇪 🇮🇹 🇱🇻 🇱🇹 🇱🇺 🇲🇹 🇳🇴 🇵🇹 🇷🇴 🇸🇰 🇸🇮 🇸🇪 🇨🇭 🇳🇱 🇹🇷 🇬🇧

October
🆓 Transdisciplinary Collaborative Research (team science) in SLP/AUD
This research team found that team science is impeded by perceived and actual power structure ("status") differences in gender and position that impacts team members' psychological safety. They point to the need to address power imbalances and to provide relevant training.
Wood, C., Romano, M., Levites Strekalova, Y. A., Lugo, V. A., & McCormack, W. T.(2021). State of the Practice of Team Science in Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 64(9), 3549-3563. //doi.org/10.1044/2021_JSLHR-21-00072

September
🆓 Mahr, T. J., Soriano, J. U., Rathouz, P. J., & Katherine C. Hustad, K. C. (2021b). Speech Development Between 30 and 119 Months in Typical Children II: Articulation Rate Growth Curves. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 64(11), 4057-4070. //doi.org/10.1044/2021_JSLHR-21-00206
An exciting open access reseach article by Tristan J. Mahr, Jennifer U. Soriano, Paul J. Rathouz and Katherine C. Hustad who write, 'We aimed to develop normative growth curves for articulation rate during sentence repetition for typically developing children. Our primary goal was the development of quantile/percentile growth curves so that typical variation in articulation rate with age could be estimated. We also estimated when children became adultlike in their articulation rate, and we examined the contributions of age and utterance length to articulation rate'.

SEE ALSO:
🆓 Hustad, K. C., Mahr, T. J., Natzke, P., & Rathouz, P. J. (2021a). Speech Development Between 30 and 119 Months in Typical Children I: Intelligibility Growth Curves for Single-Word and Multiword Productions. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 64(10), 3707-3719. //doi.org/10.1044/2021_JSLHR-21-00142
In an equally exciting and timely open access article, the authors conclude that: "There was considerable variability in intelligibility development among typical children. For children in median and lower percentiles, intelligibility growth continues through 9 years. Children should be at least 50% intelligible by 48 months."

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Husted et al., 2021a
Using modelled results, for 'average' children, performing in the 50th percentile, Hustad et al. expected single-word intelligibility to have reached
50% by 2;7 (31 months)
75% by 4;1 (49 months)
90% by 6;11 (83 months)
while their multiword intelligibility was expected to have reached
50% by 2;10 (34 months)
75% by 3;10 (46 months)
90% by 5;2 (62 months)
Using modelled results, for lower performing children, in the 5th percentile, Hustad et al. expected single-word intelligibility to have reached
50% by 3;10 (46 months)
75% by 4;1 (87 months)
90% by 6;11 (120 months)
while their multiword intelligibility was expected to have reached
50% by 3;10 (46 months)
75% by 5;1 (61 months)
90% by 7;3 (87 months)

August
LibKey: access paywalled articles from your library
It is useful to know about LibKey LibKey, a service sponsored by libraries to help researchers and others access content and minimise encounters with paywalls. If you add //libkey.io/ at the beginning of a DOI (e.g., //libkey.io/10.1044/2021_JSLHR-21-00142 and press enter, you will be taken to the LibKey website. The first time you do so, you will have the option to browse and select, or search for a university, institutional or public library where you are a member. The software then stores your library and ‘remembers’ it each time you see whether an article is available to read and/or download. Read more about LibKey HERE.

July
Intelligibility, Articulation Rate, Fluency, and Communicative Efficiency in Typically Developing Children
The authors of this 2021 OPEN ACCESS research article, Theresa Schölderle, Elisabet Haas, Stefanie Baumeister, and Wolfram Ziegler, concluded that "while children speak intelligibly, in terms of the applied assessment, at a comparably young age, other communication-relevant parameters show a slower developmental progress. Knowledge on the typical development of communication-related parameters and on their complex relationships with functional speech variables is crucial for the clinical assessment of childhood dysarthria." //pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/2021_JSLHR-20-00640

June
Communities of Practices (CoPs)
An excellent resource kit for anyone wanting to start and 'run' a Community of Practice (CoP).

May
What’s peer review? 5 things JOURNALISTS should know before covering research
This very nicely put together summary by Denise-Marie Ordway is informative and thorough, and NOT JUST FOR JOURNALISTS!

April
A User's Guide for Understanding and Addressing Telepractice Technology Challenges via ZOOM
A timely and useful resource by Megann McGill and Kimberly Fiddler.

March
NSW Department of Education's Evidence-Based Reading Guides
#BraggingRights! #EvidenceBased Practice! Oh, no! As a long-time New South Wales resident (and voter) Speechwoman is going to be unbearable now that the NSW Government's Department of Education has published its Reading Guides! It's Effective reading Kindergarten to Year 2 : A guide to support conversations about evidence-based practice in reading (PDF 1.3MB) is world-leading. Grounded in the Science of Reading, the guide informs conversations about evidence-based reading instruction in all key learning areas across the K-2 school context. As it says on the site, "it is critical in the first three years of schooling that students develop the foundational skills in reading". It is followed, on the same page, by Improving reading comprehension Years 3 to 8 (PDF 1.9MB).

February
Facilitated Communication (FC) is a discredited, unethical technique that is used with people with disabilities (PWD) including children. It gives the illusion that PWD are communicating simple-through-to-sophisticated messages, independently via typing, and it requires the support of a facilitator who is present whenever, and wherever the "communication" takes place. In use for over 30 years, its proponents have failed to produce any scientific evidence to demonstrate their claims of the PWDs' independent communication through the use of FC. Indeed, numerous scientific trials have shown that it is facilitators, not PWD, who control FC-generated messages. The bona fide scientific community, internationally, has spoken out against it over the decades because, as a violation of human rights, it is deceptive, unethical, harmful, potentially dangerous, and associated with serious opportunity costs for PWD (who deserve to be availed of legitimate communication techniques) and for well-intentioned but deluded facilitators (who could be employed in delivering appropriate services that have been shown to be effective). Most major health, education, and autism advocacy organizations have developed well thought-out opposition statements and strongly urge their members not to use FC. The authoritative individuals who have contributed to this new website cover the history and effects of FC, explaining that PWD have the right to access the communication technologies and methods currently available for uses that promote independence and respectfully allow them to make their own voices heard without interference from facilitators.

January
Free journal articles - no (purse) strings attached
Speechwoman starts 2021 with a quiet celebration of high quality, openly accessible, peer reviewed journal articles in our field. "Open Access" is an arrangement between publishers and researchers. In it, the authors of an article, or their institution or other interested party pay the publisher a fee that allows anyone to download and read their article without paying a fee. Open access does not come cheaply; for example, ASHA requires a fee of US$2,000.00 per article so that it can cover its producion and distribution costs, while Elsevier charges between US$150. and US$6,000.00. Here are Speechwoman's picks:

🆓 Adolf and Hogan (2019) reminded Speechwoman of their earlier article, Adolf and Hogan (2018) which was featured here in October (see below). In the 2019 article, the authors point out that children with language impairment frequently go unidentified because schools do not systematically measure oral language development. Given that identification paves the way for treatment, schools should increase attention to oral language development, particularly within response to intervention (RTI) frameworks, which aim to prevent learning disabilities by identifying and intervening at early stages.
🆓 Jones and Westermann (2020) found that poor syntactic awareness—attributable, in part, to an underlying statistical learning deficit—is likely to impede syntax-based predictive processing in children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), conferring deficits in spoken sentence comprehension. As well, they considered that there may be a feedback cycle in which poor syntactic awareness impedes children's ability to anticipate upcoming percepts, and this, in turn, makes children unable to improve their syntactic awareness on the basis of prediction error signals. Their article offers a refocusing of theory on sentence processing and comprehension deficits in DLD, from a difficulty in processing and integrating perceived syntactic features to a difficulty in anticipating what is coming next.
🆓 Manning, Harpole, Harriott, Postolowicz and Norton (2020) demonstrate that child language samples collected via video chat are largely comparable to in-person samples in terms of key speech and language measures. They go on to provide practice guidelines for maximizing data quality for using video chat language samples.
🆓 McLeod, Ballard, Ahmed, McGill and Brown (2020) looked at three technology-based solutions to the challenge of delivering intervention to children with speech sound disorders via telepractice. Two of them yielded similar gains in speech production between a digital intervention group and a control group that received "typical" intervention. Excitingly, the third solution resulted in outcomes that were comparable with face-to-face intervention. They concluded by discussiong the wide-ranging implications for SLP/SLT practice.
🆓 Mogren, Sjögreen, Agholme and McAllister (2020) reveal that children with Speech Sound Disorders that persist past the age of six are at risk for orofacial dysfunction, general motor difficulties and other neurodevelopmental disorders and therefore should be screened for co-occurring disorders.
🆓 Smolak, McGregor, Arbisi-Kelm and Eden (2020) showed that children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) have domain-general deficits in sustained attention, and correlational results have implications for whether and how language abilities are supported by domain-general cognition in both typical and disordered development.
🆓 Snow (2020) explains how continuum from disrupted schooling to child protection and youth justice involvement unfortunately "works", outlining the expanding scope of practice for SLP/SLT at all stages of prevention, assessment, and intervention is outlined. She stresses the need for greater advocacy by SLPs/SLTs so that policy makers and practitioners in other service sectors have a better appreciation of the importance of language and literacy skills in early life.

2020 Sites of the Month

December
Theory and Practice of Couples and Family Counseling Book and Companion Website
The third edition of James Robert Bitter's book, Theory and Practice of Couples and Family Counseling, is now available. Published by the American Counseling Association, it features three new chapters on couples counseling, updates on all other chapters with an emphasis on multicultural approaches in the theory and practice couples and family counseling, a completely revised integration model, and actual counseling sessions with diverse populations. The companion website includes updates of two chapters that were in the former textbook; those chapters are the ones on Symbolic-Experiential Family Counseling (Carl Whitaker's approach) and a chapter on Parenting in the 21st Century. Speechwoman enjoyed the book itself and the website, and was particularly attracted to the videos with their accompanying transcripts, particularly the one on parenting.

November
Avoiding Working Memory Overload in Students with Learning Disabilities (LDs)
Theresa Pham and Lisa Archibald of the University of Western Ontario explain that students with LDs have an increased risk of having additional working memory (WM) deficits, and that many classroom activities draw on WM. So, students with poor WM skills face barriers to learning, every day. Pham and Archibald go on to advise what to do to improve these students' chances of success, providing helpful strategies based on published evidence. The strategies include ways of minimizing processing demands and minimizing storage demands. The authors note that in the pracrical application of these strategies in "real life" with "real students" there will be considerable overlap. They caution that the suggested strategies do not represent an exhaustive list, and that the strategies are not meant to be applied all at once. Rather, everyone concerned (educators, parents, and individual students) must:

(1) recognize when WM difficulties arise;
(2) evaluate the particular WM load to find strategies that work best.

Providing "tailored" learning support, geared to each student with WM difficulties, will optimize their ability to access and participate in rich classroom instruction and interactions, and grasp important opportunities to learn.

October is Developmental Language Disorder Month

October 16

is Developmental Language Disorder Day and Speechwoman is observing it by celebrating not one, not two, but three DLD-related websites. They are, The DLD Project, based in Australia; an open access journal article: Understanding Dyslexia in the Context of Developmental Language Disorders by Suzanne Adolf and Tiffany Hogan; and Britain's RADLD YouTube video channel. Follow the hashtags #DevLangDis and #DLDSeeMe in social media to find out more, and become a part of the vibrant international community that supports children and adults with DLD.

September

Kuppuraj Bishop Study Visit Grants
Professor Dorothy Bishop set up this grant scheme in 2020 in memory of Kuppuraj, a postdoc from India who worked with her on a study visit. It aims to help finance postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers from Global South countries who are working in experimental psychology. Successful applicants will complete a study visit in a lab hosted by an EPS member. The annual submission deadline is 1st December. Read more about this opportunity here, and let colleagies in these countries know:
LOW INCOME ECONOMIES
Afghanistan, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Benin, Haiti, Somalia, Burkina Faso, Korea: Dem. People's Rep., South Sudan, Burundi, Liberia, Syrian Arab Republic, Central African Republic, Madagascar, Tajikistan, Chad, Malawi, Tanzania, Congo, Dem. Rep Mali, Togo, Eritrea, Mozambique, Uganda, Ethiopia, Nepal, Yemen, Rep., The Gambia, Niger, Guinea, Rwanda, and
LOWER-MIDDLE INCOME ECONOMIES
Angola, India, Papua New Guinea, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Philippines, Bhutan, Kenya, S ão Tomé and Principe, Bolivia, Kiribati, Senegal, Cabo Verde, Kyrgyz Republic, Solomon Islands, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Sudan, Cameroon, Lesotho, Timor-Leste, Comoros, Mauritania, Tunisia, Congo, Rep., Micronesia, Fed. Sts., Ukraine, Côte d'Ivoire, Moldova, Uzbekistan, Djibouti, Mongolia, Vanuatu, Egypt, Morocco, Vietnam, El Salvador, Myanmar, West Bank and Gaza, Eswatini, Nicaragua, Zambia, Ghana, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Honduras and Pakistan.

"She became a champion for people with speech disorders and an adjunct professor in the speech pathology department at Ohio State University’s department of speech and hearing science. In 1987, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association created an award in her honor, known as the Annie, presented annually to someone who demonstrates, as the organization puts it, her 'invincible spirit in building awareness on behalf of those with communication disorders.'"

April
Adapted Literature
More than 400 "Adapted Literature" books, stories and lessons downloadable from the Sherlock CenterResource Library. These are for teachers and SLPs/SLTs who help students with severe disabilities participate in the general curriculum. Note that this is an http, not httpts destination so possibly not mobile friendly.

March
Choosing the Right Speech Sound Disorder Analysis Style
This is a basic tutorial, from Dr Lynn Williams, on relational and independent phonological analyses and deciding which one to use for children with speech sound disorders.

February
DLD Diagnostic Flowchart #DevLangDIs
This is for people interested in Developmental Language Disorder. Professor Dorothy Bishop has made a simplified version of the diagnostic flowchart from CATALISE2. It is posted on Figshare and freely available for anyone to use with CCBY licence. Sign in, or sign up (free) to see.

Retraction Watch provides as EXPLANATION as to why is Jeffrey Beall's list of questionable, scholarly open-access publishers was taken Down. Beall, a University of Colorado, Denver librarian developed and maintained the list from 2008 to 2016. An archived version is in the Wayback Machine. Beall recommended that scholars read the available reviews, assessments and descriptions provided on this helpful and increasingly necessary site, and then decide for themselves whether they want to submit articles, serve as editors, or accept invitations to join editorial boards.The list, with regular updates by an anonymous supporter/enthusiast is now available at //beallslist.net/. Entries by the new custodian that were not on the original list are at //beallslist.net/#update. Beall's Criteria for Determining Predatory Open Access Publishers are also available. SEE ALSO Stop Predatory Journals.

2019 Sites of the Month

December
Janyce Boynton Talks about Facilitated Communication and Similar "Methods"
"Dive into this insider-outsider look at the Facilitated Communication movement—how it works, who really benefits, why critical reviews have not stopped its progress, and what we can do about it. Facilitated communication attempts to aid communication by people with autism or other communication disabilities who are non-verbal. Janyce is an artist, educator, and advocate for evidence-based practices in the field of communication sciences and disorders. As a speech/language clinician in the early 1990s, she became involved with facilitated communication. An overview of her experiences with FC can be found in Stuart Vyse's "An Artist With a Science-Based Mission," published in Skeptical Inquirer (November 2018). Her 2012 article, "Facilitated Communication: What Harm it Can Do – Confessions of a Former Facilitator," published in the journal Evidence-Based Communication and Intervention, was the first of its kind. To date, she is one of the few facilitators world-wide to publicly acknowledge her role in producing FC messages and speak out against its use." Center for Inquiry

November
E3BPforSSD International Discussion Group for SLPs/SLTs
Evidence Based Practice for Speech Sound Disorders (E3BPforSSD) is a is a private Facebook group for Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs)/Speech and Language Therapists (SLTs), Linguists, students in those disciplines, and interested others to discuss evidence-based, theoretically sound, and evidence-informed assessment and intervention for Speech Sound Disorders in children and young people.

It was launched by Caroline Bowen on October 19, 2019, following Yahoo's announcement that the Yahoo! Groups will be discontinued in their present form. The Yahoo Group that E3BPforSSD replaces was the phonologicaltherapy (phono-tx) group. It ran from November 2001 to December 2019, and had 9,678 members. Its archive contained 25,648 messages ("posts") and a wealth of files and links.

If you are a member of E3BPforSSD, you can invite/add other members. This is the URL: www.facebook.com/groups/E3BPforSSD/

October
Compexity Approach to Target Selection in Treating Speech Sound Disorders
Wonderful! Dr Holly Storkel of the University of Kansas has made both her clearly written article, The complexity approach to phonological treatment: How to select treatment targets and a wealth of clinically useful resources (Supplemental materials) openly accessible: in a word, FREE. Storkel (2018) is in the form of a clinical tutorial that provides coaching on the implementation of the complexity approach in clinical practice, focusing on treatment target selection. The free resources are generously provided to aid clinicians in assessing preschoolers' accuracy in producing, and stimulability for, singletons and clusters. Incorporating the complexity approach into clinical practice expands the range of evidence-based treatment options that clinicians can use when treating preschool children with phonological disorders. Dr Stoekel is also developing a Facebook Page where she shares resources and information about children's speech.

Storkel, H. L. (2018). The complexity approach to phonological treatment: how to select treatment targets. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 49(3), 463–481.

September
At a Loss for Words: How a flawed idea is teaching millions of kids to be poor readers
More from APM Reports (see August 2019, below). Speechwoman thinks this is a MUST READ for speech-language pathologicst, teachers, and the academics who teach THEM to strut their stuff.

August
What teachers should know about the science of reading
Why do so many students struggle with reading? In a radio documentary for American Public Media (APM) Reports, Emily Hanford B.A., senior education correspondent at APM Reports, explained how clear the science of how to teach reading is, and yet it’s not applied in many schools. This is a superb 31-minute Facebook Live video conversation posted to YouTube in March, 2019. In it, Liana Loewus M.Ed., Assistant Managing Editor at Education Week, and Emily Hanford discuss what the reading research says, why there’s still debate about how to teach early reading, and what teachers may or may not be learning in their initial teacher education (ITE) programs.

July
A Brief History of Reading Instruction by Stephen Parker
Did you know that Edmond Huey's 1908 book, The Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading, was quickly adopted as the manifesto of a growing Whole Word (anti-phonics) movement? 1908! Eleventy-one years ago! And the battle continues. Stephen Parker describes himsalf as "Teacher / Author / Dad", and Speechwoman would add "blogger extrodinaire". His excellent history of how reading has been conceptualised and taught through the generations reflects hours and hours of work, and stretches from 1800 to the present day. Here is a quotation he includes from Whole-Language-Huey (p. 135):

"Even if the child substitutes words of his own for some that are on the page, provided that those express the meaning, it is an encouraging sign that the reading has been real… The shock that such a statement will give to many a practical teacher of reading is but an accurate measure of the hold that a false ideal has taken of us, viz., that to read is to say just what is upon the page, instead of to think, each in his own way, the meaning that the page suggests…It may even be necessary, if the reader is to really tell what the page suggests, to tell it in words that are somewhat variant; for reading is always in the nature of translation and, to be truthful, it must be free."

Enjoy this piece, and don't miss the little note below it linking to Stephen's three free-to-download, bottom-up Synthetic Phonics books for parents and teachers. Stephen tweets engagingly from his base in Boston, MA as @ParkerPhonics.

Huey, E. (1908). The Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading. Reprinted 1968, Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press, p.135.

June
Children’s reading difficulties, language, and reflections on the simple view of reading
Speechwoman's selection for June 2019 is an outstandingly helpful, openly accessible, article in the Australian Journal of Learning Difficulties. It is written by eminent University of Oxford language and literacy researcher Kate Nation. She concludes that, "The Simple View provides a useful framework for thinking about reading comprehension and its development. It positions decoding as central to learning to read and reminds us that no amount of oral language prowess can bring about successful reading, if a child has not learned the principles of how their writing system works. This is what learning to read is about, and what needs to be taught at the outset. Getting better at reading words, and developing all that is needed to serve reading comprehension in all its infinite varieties, obviously demands more than decent decoding: the knowledge and processing skills nested within linguistic comprehension are fundamental. There is no doubt that the Simple View explains variance in reading comprehension..." while cautioning that, "...we also need to look beyond the Simple View, if we are to understand more about how subcomponent processes work and develop, and how they can be optimised in the classroom and the clinic by well-designed reading and language instruction.

May
Right Hemispere Brain Damage
Peggy Blake and Melissa Johnsonhave developed an invaluable, clearly-written site, light on jargon, about the cognitive, communication, and emotion and empathy problems that are commonly experienced by people with right hemisphere damage (RHD).Among other aspects of the site, Speechwoman particularly likes their mythbusting page debunking popular furphies about right-brain-left-brain thinking. But then, she would, wouldn't she?

April
Paths to language development in at risk children: a qualitative comparative analysis (QCA)
This is a fascinating 2019 open access journal article by Kate Short, Patricia Eadie and Lynn Kemp. They found 13 distinct pathways that led to good language outcomes and 4 paths that led to poor language outcomes in five year old at-risk children. A variety of condition combinations resulted in these outcomes, with maternal responsivity, toddler development and number of children in the home being key. High and low maternal education influenced both good and poor language development.

March
Language and Literacy in Young People
It's early days for this nascent website, but with Drs Suze Leitão, Mary Claessen, Mark Boyes and Peta Dzidic, and Mandy Nayton OAM at the helm, Speechwoman recognizes promise when she sees it. Language and Literacy in Young People is the web presence of an energetic and productive group of researchers and Higher Degree Research (HDR) students, based at Curtin University in Western Australia. Their research focuses on informing understanding of oral language and literacy (speaking, understanding speech, reading and spelling) development and disorders in children and young people. It already boasts an impressive range of freely downloadable research reports, assessment and intervention resources, and Apps. If any or all of the hashtags, #DevLangDis, #SLCN, #HRQOL, #Dyslexia, #MentalHealth, #LaLYP and #YouthJustice pique your interest, set aside an hour or so to delve into this (already) content-rich site.

February
Marion Blank videos
Marion Blank, PhD is an international authority on literacy and language who developed and served as Co-Director of the Columbia University Developmental Neuropsychiatry Program for Autism and Related Disorders. Speechwoman's pick for Fabruary is a compilation of 32 short videos, uploaded to YouTube by ASD Reading, in which Dr Blank talks about literacy, and other intervention with individuals on the autism spectrum. So wise.

January
COOK BOOK: Beyond the Blender: Dysphagia Made Easy PDF
Conceptualised by speech pathologist and Griffith University researcher Simone Howells, this remarkable cook book was created by Master of Speech Pathology students in Griffith's School of Allied Health Sciences.The beautifully illustrated 75-page book with pictures and design by the talented Kirsty Gordom, is downloadable as a PDF (see above). It is bursting with a tempting array of recipes for people adhering to a soft diet, a minced and moist diet, or a pureed diet, and for those without special dietary requirments who like to experience something deliciously different. Speechwoman has her eye on the Spiced Pumpkin Curry with Creamy Polenta. An added bonus is links to other recipe treasures: Dining with Dysphagia: A Cookbook (click to download the e-book PDF), #D4DA Cookbook PDF, Swallow Study Nutritious Smoothie PDF, and Oak House Kitchen Recipies. Congratulations Simone and the 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017 student cohorts.

2018 Sites of the Month

December
Trust It or Trash It?
This is a wonderfully simple but helpful tool from Genetic Alliance. It is intended to guide critical thinking—you DO have to think—about the quality of the health information that is available on websites (including social media sites) and in books, handouts, journals, podcasts, and other sources. Click on Who said it? When did they say it? and How did they know? to guide you through the process.You can follow Genetic Alliance's Twitter handle.

November
WEBINAR 3: Decodable, Authentic, Predictable Texts
This is the third of five 2018 webinars delivered by Dr Tanya Serry B.App.Sc. (Sp. Path), M.A. (App.Linguistics), PhD, an academic at La Trobe University. Click on 1, 2, 4, and 5 to access the others in the series. These 45 minute presentations portray Dr Serry's deep knowledge of the particular skills required for literacy learning, and reveal her expertise in communicating science with clarity and grace. This excellent series, designed for teachers and everyone else interested in evidence-based education in general, and the Phonics Debate in particular, is in stark contrast to the unscientific misrepresentation of decodable texts by three Australian phonics-naysayer academics, ill-advisedly (or perhaps extremely courageously in the Sir Humphrey Appleby sense) showcased in The Conversation on November 1, 2018. Elsewhere in the blogosphere, Professor Pamela Snow provides excoriating discussion of the Adoniou, Cambourne, and Ewing (2018) outburst. As they say, you can lead an ideologue to data, but you can't make him think.

October
Raising Awareness of Developmental Language Disorder RADLD, and DLD and Me, and NAPLIC DLD Resources: Keeping you up to date
In a departure from normal practice, Speechwoman has bestowed the October 2018 Site of the Month award on three worthy recipients - no protests now, she makes the rules. Between them, these excellent resources provide a wealth of information about Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), still referred to in a diminishing number of places as Specific Language Impairment (SLI). Explore these pages and be informed, impressed, and inspired to dig further into the research around this prevalent disorder. Congratulations, people!

September
Children's Consonant Acquisition in 27 Languages: A Cross-Linguistic Review | Supplemental Material
This excellent free access article in ASHA's American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology represents a decade of work, which the researchers, Sharynne McLeod and Kathryn Crowe have pulled together beautifully here. This is one of those highly readable must-read-must-keep pieces for all SLPs/SLTs who work with children. Download it, print it out, and stash an electronic copy in your Documents. Speechwoman's advice? While you're at it, tell your colleagues it's there, and tell Sharynne and Kate what you think!

August
ASHA Position Papers on Facilitated Communication (FC) and the Rapid Prompting Method (RPM)
"ASHA Supports Effective Services Leading to Independent Communication
The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) is dedicated to making effective communication, a human right, accessible and achievable for all. ASHA’s Board of Directors approved [on August 8, 2018] new position statements that discourage use of two particular techniques, Facilitated Communication (FC) and the Rapid Prompting Method (RPM), because they lack scientific validity and do not foster independent communication. Both statements were open to peer review by all interested parties. ASHA stands firmly behind its members in support of effective services leading to independent communication for those they serve."

Press Release: ASHA Discourages Use of Facilitated Communication, Rapid Prompting Method
Blog Post: Stuart Vyse provides an account of FC and RPM in "Autism Wars: Science Strikes Back"

SAC-OAC, IASLT, and SPA
Official Statement from Speech-Language & Audiology Canada: Use of Facilitated Communication and Rapid Prompting Method (2018)
The Irish Association of Speech & Language Therapists Position Statement on the Rapid Prompting Method (2017) [PDF]
Speech Pathology Australia - Clinical Guideline: Augmentative and Alternative Communication (2012)

July
SLPs for Evidence Based Practice
For the third time in 20 years, Speechwoman has chosen a Facebook presence as Site of the Month. This time it is an evidence-friendly, effectively run closed group: SLPs for Evidence Based Practice. Founder, Tatyana Elleseff administers it with help from Maggie May, Shawna Pope-Jefferson, Kelly Ryan-Ibañez, and Louise Zingeser. Its almost 24,000 members are SLPs from around the world who profess an interest in and commitment to evidence based practice in SLP/SLT. Established on August 13, 2016, the group's central purposes are to promote critical thinking and independent inquiry among members through reasoned discussion and enquiry, information exchange, and resource sharing. The mood is collegial, welcoming, quietly scholarly, and pleasantly "professional". SLPs/SLTs with a range of clinical, academic and research backgrounds and interests contribute generously and informatively to discussion of a wide range of EBP/E3BP topics. SLPs/SLTs everywhere can ask to join. Expect to answer a handful of important questions about yourself before gaining admission.

June
Games with words
GamesWithWords.org is a Web-based research laboratory. The quizzes and projects are research studies probing the nature of language. Speechworman enjoyed the quizzes, including Which English?

May
Whatis tongue-tie?
Frequently asked questions about tongue-tie (ankyloglossia) answered on the Speech Pathology Australia website. "A speech pathologist is one professional who can identify tongue-tie along with doctors, lactation consultants, dentists, paediatricians, ear nose and throat specialists, and maxillo-facial surgeons..." Click on the pdf, on the page linked above, to download a clearly written, jargon-free account of the ins and outs of tongue-tie.

April
My non-verbal child: it doesn’t get any better than this
This blog post by Lyn Stone is compelling and essential reading for all SLPs/SLTs, particularly those working with clients with complex communication needs. Chloe, Lyn's eldest daughter of three, died peacefully in her sleep on the night of April 12, 2018.

March
Early Language Development: Needs, provision and intervention for preschool children from socio-economically disadvantage backgrounds
Law, Charlton, Dockrell, Gascoigne, McKean and Theakston - October 2017
"The review starts with an overview of the most recent findings associated with our understanding of early language and preliteracy development. It goes on to look at prevalence and at the proportion of children not attaining the appropriate levels of attainment in the early years. It then turns to interventions, their efficacy and effectiveness, and contextual factors that affect their implementation. Finally, we move on to the way that services are delivered on the ground in England and highlight the profile of five local authorities, the services they deliver, and factors affecting that delivery. The review ends with a summary of the main findings and recommendations for which interventions could usefully be taken forward. In the Appendices we provide summaries of the interventions identified and a table of interventions and their outcomes and then provide some additional details about the five case studies identified in Chapter 5."

February
Communication First Principles (Anderson, 2016)
This Research to Action Guide Communication: First Principles. Centre for Applied Disability Research, available at www.cadr.org.au) is a suite of resources, produced by the Centre for Applied Disability Research (CADR), that all relate to communication 'first principles'. The suite includes a rapid review of the evidence and practice guides for practitioners, practice leaders, and people with complex communication support needs, or CCSN (available at the CADR Clearing House). People with CCSN require additional strategies and/or specialised resources to support their expression or understanding. Such people include those:

who use formal Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) strategies, such as communication books/boards, picture cards, speech generating devices, and Key Word Sign;
with significant receptive or expressive language difficulties (for instance, as the result of a brain injury, stroke, or developmental disability);
with severe or profound intellectual disability.

The helpful Practice Leader Guide has been developed for practice leaders who seek to improve approaches to working with people with CCSN at their service.

Reference
Anderson, K L. (2016) Communication: First Principles. Centre for Applied Disability Research. Available at www.cadr.org.au.

January
2017 Special issue on Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) from the Canadian Journal of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology
"In this special issue of CJSLPA, Canadian clinicians/researchers share their front line challenges in trying to understand and treat children suspected of having childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). Several articles describe the challenges faced in identifying children with CAS from the much larger population of children with severe speech and expressive language delays. Other articles describe severe speech production delays, in addition to discussing ways to improve children’s speech production abilities through individual and group therapeutic approaches." Megan Hodge and Robin Gaines, Guest Editors

EDITORIAL
Clinical decision-making for young children with severe speech and expressive language delays and suspected motor planning difficulties
MEGAN HODGE, ROBIN GAINES

ARTICLE 1
A Proposed Model for Identification of Childhood Apraxia of Speech in Young Children
MARGIT PUKONEN, LISA GROVER, CINDY EARLE, ROBIN GAINES, CAROL THORET-DOUGLAS

ARTICLE 2
Pilot Implementation of an Alternate Service Delivery Model for Young Children with Severe Speech and Expressive Language Delay
MEGAN HODGE, ROBIN GAINES

ARTICLE 3
Wee Words: A Parent-Focused Group Program for Young Children with Suspected Motor Speech Difficulties
JENNIFER KIESEWALTER, VALÉRIE A VINCENT, PASCAL LEFEBVRE

ARTICLE 4
Shared Storybook Reading to Enhance Early Literacy Skills of Children with Speech Sound Disorders: A Feasibility Study
PASCAL LEFEBVRE, ALEXANDRA FIORINO, DANA JOHANNSEN, MADELEINE TAIT, ANDREA TKALEC, ANN SUTTON

ARTICLE 5
Reliability and Validity of TOCS-30 for Young Children with Severe Speech and Expressive Language Delay
ERICA DAVIS, MEGAN HODGE

ARTICLE 6
Using the Syllable Repetition Task to Reveal Underlying Speech Processes in Childhood Apraxia of Speech: A Tutorial
SUSAN RVACHEW, TANYA MATTHEWS

ARTICLE 7
Emergent Literacy Skills in English-Speaking Preschoolers with Suspected Childhood Apraxia of Speech: A Pilot Study
PASCAL LEFEBVRE, ROBIN GAINES, LAURIE-ANN STANIFORTH, VÉRONIQUE CHIASSON

2017 Sites of the Month

December
Australians Living with a Communication Disability
Using data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2015 Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers (SDAC), this important article presents an overview of communication disability in Australia, and the impact it has on the everyday lives of those who are affected by it. The SDAC is designed to measure the prevalence of disability in Australia and the need for support for people with disability. It collects detailed information from three target populations living in households as well as those in cared-accommodation: people with disability; older people (those aged 65 years and over); and people who care for those with disability, who have a long-term health condition, or who are aged 65 years and over. The article includes a link to Speech Pathology Australia's pdf Fact Sheets, which include Speech Pathologists Working with Older People, and an Easy English version of the same information.

November
Supporting New Word Learning in Secondary School Students: Adolescents' vocabulary
This small but perfectly formed wordpress blog is the work of Dr Sarah Spencer, who worked with her University of Sheffield colleages to design, develop and evaluate a short course for children aged 12-to-14 to learn words that might be useful across the curriculum in schools. The blog is designed for teachers and SLPs/SLTs who want to support new word learning in secondary school aged students. It includes information about the reserch team's rationale for supporting teenagers to learn new words; how secondary school students learn words; research in the area; and a project that aimed to aimed support small groups of teenagers to learn new words (encapsulated in this free access journal article). Speechwoman's verdict? A+

October
"Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) is identified when a child has problems with language development that continue into school age and beyond. The language problems have a significant impact on everyday social interactions or educational progress, and occur in the absence of autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disability or a known biomedical condition. The most obvious problems are difficulties in using words and sentences to express meanings, but for many children, understanding of language (receptive language) is also a challenge, although this may not be evident unless the child is given a formal assessment." This comprehensive Wikipedia page, developed by meticulous DLD experts/researchers in 2017, is a mine of accurate information about this prevalent but little-known neurodevelopmental disorder. Readers interested in the DLD page may also want to read an article by Maggie Snowling: Dyslexia and developmental language disorder: Same or different?

September 22 2017 - DLD Awareness Day
The inaugural Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) Awareness Day was on September 22, 2017. The occasion was marked by functions at University College London, the University of Sydney, and other locations worldwide, and coincided with the publication a special issue of the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry (JCPP), edited by Courtenay Norbury, devoted to DLD, a new video from the RADLD campaign, featuring the irrepressible Eddie and Dyls, and another by the equally irrepressible Dorothy Bishop. Readers can have free access to the entire JCPP issue until October 31, 2017, here, and can click here for a video about the special issue. To honour the occasion, and to show support for this important day, Speechwoman's site of the month for September 2017 is the RADLD Campaign in YouTube. The videos are here, and its Twitter handle is @RADLDcam.

August
Communication Access VIDEO
August 20-26 is Speech Pathology Week 2017 in Australia, mounted by Speech Pathology Australia and supported by its members. The theme of #SPweek this year is Communication Access, and this excellent vido/animation was produced as a plain English explanation, with relatable examples, of what Communication Access is. Watch, learn and enjoy!

July
The SAILS App by Susan Rvachew
The Speech Assessment and Interactive Learning System is an app-based tool for presenting children with recordings of other children's speech. The recordings represent children's efforts to perceive difficult sounds, some articulated correctly, some misarticulated. The child's task is to determine if each auditory stimulus is a correctly articulated variant of the target word. Four published studies have shown that a child's rate of progress in speech therapy will be double the usual rate if the program is included as part of a typical speech therapy program.

June
MUSEC Briefings Archive on FIGSHARE
This is an archive of the MUSEC Briefings on educational and clinical interventions for children with developmental disorders. Debunking pseudoscience, and pointing the way to evidence-based interventions. The files have been saved there because Macquarie University will close the Macquarie University Edication Centre soon, and the Briefings page will be taken down. The last two files, marked Text, in the series are identical and include the references for all the Briefings (two copies were made just in case). The Briefings are also available in the Wayback Machine (see the May entry below) e.g., February 2017 snapshot).

May
Internet Archive Wayback Machine: If a website, or web page, you value has disappeared from the Internet, you may be able to find it here by entering the URL (web address) and searching. It's a treasure trove!

April
How exciting! In April 2017 Speech-Language Pathologist Marleen Westerveld, PhD, CPSP launched her nicely designed site, which she describes as a work in progress. The resources it contains so far include spontaneous language elicitation tools and child language intervention programs. Speechwoman plans to keep an eye on it as it develops; you might want to, too.

March
Speechwoman is not the only one who eagerly awaited the ReST Rapid Syllable Transition Training (intervention for children and young people with Childhood Apraxia of Speech or CAS) website, launched this month under a creative commons licence. This outstanding site comprises (1) a self directed learning package for SLPs/SLTs and students to learn how to deliver ReST treatment to children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) with plenty of video-footage of real children involved in intervention; (2) information for parents and the general community; and (3) details of the research evidence that underpins ReST. The ReST treatment was developed via research studies that showed that when it is delivered as it was designed, the speech accuracy of children and young people with CAS can be improved. Details of the research can be found on the research tab. The "ReST Team" would love to hear from SLPs/SLTs and students who use the site, and families whose children have benefited from the therapy.

February
Anyone interested in Aphasia, difficulties with speaking, writing and understanding language, and a condition that many people experience after they have had a stroke, will want to see the excellent videos that British Speech and Language Therapist Abi Roper has posted to her informative and easily navigable website. Abi is conducting her doctoral research at City University of London in the Division of Language and Communication Science (Adult Assessment and Intervention of Language and Speech Disorders Group, here). Don't miss the audio and videos on the conferences and talks page, where there is actually some talking!

January
Speechwoman has caught the #DevLangDis PROMOTION BUG, and experts agree that it may take a long time for her to recover.

2016 Sites of the Month

December
Speechwoman's ends the year with three deeply personal and insightful blog posts by parents: Kathleen Wyant's How it feels to have a 3-year-old with speech delay, Melissa Lilly's The truth about being a mom with a speech delayed child, and Meriah Nichols's 10 Easy ways to show you are cool with special needs and disability on the Scary Mommy site. Thanks mommies.
November
The Canadian SLP
Established in 2010, "this blog is maintained by the Language and Working Memory Laboratory at the University of Western Ontario. The purpose of this blog is to review research articles and discuss clinical implications."
October
First Five Forever
"Did you know that that up to 90% of a child’s brain development happens in the first 5 years? ...When babies and children get what they need – it can have a lasting effect on their future. Sharing stories, rhymes, singing, talking and playing with your child from birth builds a foundation for your child’s future development that can last a lifetime." A resource-rich project of the State Library of Queensland that includes practical tips for parents.
September
Words of Wisdom: Cherished Advice from Academic Mentors
Free to download under a Creative Commons license, Words of Wisdom is a book by early-career researchers for early-career researchers. Edited by GYA members Rob Jenkins, Jan-Christoph Heilinger, and Anina Rich, the book contains advice of academic mentors to early-careeer scientists. Congratulations on this inspiring initiative, Global Young Academy!
August
Childhood Apraxia of Speech Videos with Dr Edythe Strand at the Mayo Clinic
Start here where Dr Strand talks about the excellent work of CASANA, and the other videos will follow automatically. They are: Other Resources, How can parents help with CAS?, Treatment of CAS, Diagnosis of CAS, Differential diagosis, Definitions and descriptions of CAS, Possible causes, Levels of severity, and CAS Information for Parents. This is a wonderful resource for families and clinicians.
July
Giving Voice and Speech Pathology Australia
This month, Speechwoman celebrates new, improved versions of websites that have been around for a while: the RCSLT's Giving Voice site, and Speech Pathology Australia's site.
- The Giving Voice campaign aims to "give voice" to people with speech, language and communication needs – to ensure their requirements, and those of their carers and families are met. Its focus is on demonstrating how speech and language therapy can make a difference to individuals, and the broader society, across the UK. Follow its Twitter handle: @GivingVoiceUK.
- Speech Pathology Australia is a national organisation with state and territory branches. Each branch has a hard-working executive that comprises volunteer speech pathologists from a range of settings: academic, disability, education, health, and private practice. Branches provide a forum for the discussion of issues relevant to the speech pathology profession, and peer support and networking opportunities. One of the great strengths of this small (approaching 7,000 members) but active organisation is its continuing professional development (CPD) program. Its Twitter account is @SpeechPathAus.
June
Five from Five Literacy Project
Consider these statements: "Children need explicit instruction in the five essential components of reading in every classroom, every day" and "This should begin in the foundation year of school, when most children turn five years old". Like a lot of proclamations that are underpinned by years of serious science, they are not going to catch-on as slogans, but Speechwoman hopes that the principles they represent will be embedded in education policy and practice, soon, if not sooner. Read about the five keys to reading (PA, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension), what you can do, as a teacher, principal, parent, or policy maker, and bookmark the publications listed on the site. Speechwoman recommends: "Read about it: Scientific evidence for effective teaching of reading" (68-page pdf).
May
Using Twitter and Blogs to Advance Your Research: Behind the Science with Susan Rvachew (scroll down, or view it here)
What a delight! Professor Susan Rvachew of the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders at McGill University in Montreal, speaks thoughtfully and enthusiastically, for just four minutes, about the rewards of blogging and Twitter for professional purposes. Follow her on Twitter here, and read her excellent Developmental Phonological Disorders blog (Speechwoman's pick in October 2012) here. It is good to know that the second edition of her 2012 book, with Françoise Brosseau-Lapré, is on its way.
April
Language is literacy is language
This month, Speechwoman's pick is an open access journal article by Professor Pamela C. Snow.
ABSTRACT
This paper is concerned with the fundamental and intrinsic links between early receptive and expressive oral language competence on the one hand and the transition to literacy in the early school years and achievement of academic (and life) success on the other. Consequently, it also concerns the professional knowledge base of two key disciplines whose work is central to children’s early language and literacy success: teachers and speech-language pathologists (SLPs). Oral language competence underpins the transition to literacy, which in turn underpins academic achievement. Academic achievement is significant in its own right, conferring opportunities for further education and training post-secondary school, contributing to psychological health and mitigating some of the mental health risks and adversities that can be associated with adolescence and early adulthood. The central thesis is that the linguistic basis of the transition to literacy makes early reading success core business for SLPs. Further, SLPs need a firm grasp of the political and ideological factors that have exerted historical and continuing influence on reading instruction in western nations such as Australia, the US and the UK. This will facilitate the establishment of meaningful working relationships with teaching colleagues, to achieve optimal education outcomes for all children.
REFERENCE
Snow, P. C. (2016). Language is literacy is language. Positioning Speech Language Pathology in education policy, practice, paradigms, and polemics. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 18(3), 216-228.
March
Phonetics: An interactive introduction, from the University of New England, NSW, Australia
This is an interactive tool to help (mainly Australian) students who are studying introductory phonetics. It provides a range of visual and aural resources to build on, irrespective of the textbook being used. Each section contains information and interactive displays. Authored primarily by Nick Reid, this is a web based version of an old 2004 favourite of Speechwoman's that originally called a CD-ROM home. Malcolm Abel did the Authorware programming, and Ross Hinkley produced the original graphics for the CD, while Dr Helen Fraser authored the section on Acoustic Analysis. The people involved in the 2014 web-based version were Raphael Roberts (web design and programming), Patricia Donald (graphics); and content contributors to included Patricia Penfold, John Rock, Sukhjinder Khunkhun, and Rosetta Khaebana. As they say in the helpful, no-nonsense phonetics exercises, "Nice, job!"
February
ResNetSLT - Research Support Network
The Research Support Network (ResNetSLT) supports research capacity building, as a key priority action for embedding evidence-based practice and helping experienced clinicians contribute to the professional evidence base. It holds Twitter chats on the #ResNetSLT hashtag, details of which are here.
January
Grounded Theory Institute
This isthe official site of Dr. Barney Glaser and Classic Grounded Theory. "All research is "grounded" in data, but few studies produce a "grounded theory." Grounded Theory is an inductive methodology. Although many call Grounded Theory a qualitative method, it is not. It is a general method. It is the systematic generation of theory from systematic research. It is a set of rigorous research procedures leading to the emergence of conceptual categories. These concepts/categories are related to each other as a theoretical explanation of the action(s) that continually resolves the main concern of the participants in a substantive area. Grounded Theory can be used with either qualitative or quantitative data."

2015 Sites of the Month

December
SIL International
"SIL International is a faith-based nonprofit organization committed to serving language communities worldwide as they build capacity for sustainable language development. SIL does this primarily through research, translation, training and materials development. SIL works alongside ethnolinguistic communities and their partners as they discover how language development addresses the challenging areas of their daily lives—social, cultural, political, economic and spiritual." Speechwoman's "most used" resources on this valuable site are the Doulos SIL fonts and the Language and Culture Archives. Highly commended.
November
(The Australian) National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)
The NDIS was launched in July 2013, following years of discussion about the need for a major reform of disability services in Australia (history). The NDIS is a new way of providing individualised support for eligible people with permanent and significant disability, their families and carers.
October
Advances in Clinical Neuroscience and Rehabilitation (ACNR)
ACNR is a UK-based, international, peer reviewed journal which aims to keep busy practicing specialists up-to-date with the latest advances in their fields, including areas of neurology and neuroscience outside their main area of sub-specialty interest.
September
ASHAWire: ASHA Scholarly Journals
A vast and carefully curated repository of groundbreaking research, news, views and ideas, in communication sciences and disorders. ASHAwire is an indispensable resource for scientists, clinicians, and students that includes the American Journal of Audiology AJA, the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology AJSLP, the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research JSLHR, Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools LSHSS, the Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders JSHD Archive, Perspectives (online periodicals exclusively sponsored by ASHA's 18 Special Interest Groups: SIGs) the CRed Library, and the ASHA Leader.
August
Steele & Watkins, 2010
Free Access August 23 2015 through December 31 2015
Learning word meanings during reading by children with language learning disability and typically-developing peers
July
8 Classic storytelling techniques for engaging presentations
Ffion Lindsay writes, 'A good public speaker takes their audience on a journey, leaving them feeling inspired and motivated. But structuring your speech to get your ideas across and keep your audience engaged all the way through is tricky. Try these eight storytelling techniques for a presentation that wows... Your talk – however dry the subject – can be brought alive if you find the story at the heart of it all.
June
IPA Character Picker v. 14, the work of Richard Ishida, is easy to use and ideal for newcomers to phonetic transcription because of the clarity with which the symbols are set out. The user clicks on the required symbol and it 'jumps' into a text box above. When the transcription is complete, it can be copied and pasted it into a document. Users can click on 'show notes' in tiny text below below the charts to read detailed instructions. IPA Character Pickers joins several other phonetic font pickers that have caught Speechwoman's eye in recent years: Sciweaver's i2speak Smart IPA Phonetics Keyboard whose symbols work fine in Tweets, IPA Palette for Mac by Brian S. ('Moses') Hall (where would Speechwoman be without it!) and the uncomplicated Type IPA Symbols - Phonetic Keyboard. Then there are IPAcharpick from Ruben Schachtenhaufen in Denmark, Portland, Oregon based Weston 'Thunderboy' Ruter's IPA Chart Keyboard, and Typelt from Tomasz P. Szynalski in Poland.
May
May is Better Hearing and Speech Month Each May, the US-and-ASHA-focused Better Hearing and Speech Month (with the Twitter hashtag, #BHSM) "provides an opportunity to raise awareness about communication disorders and role of ASHA members in providing life-altering treatment." The 2015 theme is "Early Intervention Counts." ASHA (@ASHAweb) is the national professional, scientific, and credentialing association for 182,000 members and affiliates who are audiologists; speech-language pathologists; speech, language, and hearing scientists; audiology and speech-language pathology support personnel; and students.
April
The Crosslinguistic Project Phonological Development features the work of B May Bernhardt and Joseph Stemberger at UBC in Vancouver, with fabulous contributions from phonologists and speech-language pathologists worldwide. Take time to view the Webinar videos; explore the (non-linear) phonological assessment and analysis procedures for children with typical or protracted phonological development; engage in some English and Spanish Funology; do tutorials in English and French; and flex your transcription muscles! Lots to see and do: Activities, Features, Tests, and ... well, get on over there and check it out for yourselves, keeping an eye out for the SECRET BONUS FOOTAGE!
March
YourHealthNet, subtitled "Navigating Effective Treatments With Systematic Reviews" is an online toolkit aimed to help site visitors understand and develop the skills to explore health research. Published under a Creative Commons license, it was developed by the Centre for Health Communication and Participation at La Trobe University, with support from the Australasian Cochrane Centre. Although the most recent update to YourHealthNet was as far back as March 2012, the whole site repays exploration.
February [LOOKING FOR BEALL'S LIST? SEE JANUARY 2020, ABOVE
Beall’s list of Potential, possible, or probable predatory scholarly open-access publishers
This is Jeffrey Beall's list of questionable, scholarly open-access publishers. He recommends that scholars read the available reviews, assessments and descriptions provided on this helpful and increasingly necessary site, and then decide for themselves whether they want to submit articles, serve as editors, or accept invitations to join editorial boards. The criteria for determining predatory publishers are here and this is the associated blog.
January
Science Writing Pet Peeves
'Science writing is best when it is concise and precise. Good science writing is full of explicit details, devoid of vagueness, and strictly adheres to a narrative. In fact, a good scientific paper has a lot in common with a short story,' writes Edward Davis. Yes!

2014 Sites of the Month

December
Bilingualism and raising bilingual children
This page on the Raising Children website is crammed with readable, sound advice for parents raising children to understand and speak two languages or more. You can follow Raising Children on Twitter at @RCN_AUS.
November
Ask for Evidence
"Understanding evidence matters for people to play a full and informed role in society. When an animal rights group claims milk causes autism, or a newspaper runs a double-spread on untested cures for cancer, people need to ask for evidence and they need a place to go for reliable and trustworthy information about evidence. Ask for Evidence is starting to light some fires under all sorts of organisations. Product claims have been withdrawn, politicians have apologised and vulnerable patients have been helped." Follow @senseaboutsci, the brains behind Ask for Evidence, on Twitter.
October
RALLI
The RALLI campaign was created to Raise Awareness of Language Learning Impairments. On its YouTube channel, are videos that explain what a language impairment is, the impact it can have and how to get help. You can follow @RALLIcam on Twitter.
September
The SLI Debate
Open access articles from the International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, on unexplained language problems in children.
August
The Snow Report
Australian academic Pam Snow describes her wordpress site as, "A blog on child and adolescent language, language competence and social disadvantage, early literacy instruction, youth offending, communication skills and the student doctor...and a few other bits and pieces." It is full of useful information, thoughtful opinion pieces and dry humour. Dually qualified as an SLP and a psychologist, Pam is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Monash University, and mostly lives and works in Bendigo, central Victoria. Her research passion is communication competence - primarily as this pertains to vulnerability in early life, but increasingly as it pertains to how student doctors learn to master the art and craft of interacting with patients in ways that optimise clinical outcomes. As a connoisseur of style with content, Speechwoman loves this blog.
July
The Cochrane Collaboration
Cochrane is a global initiative. The aim of the people behind it is to make the vast amounts of evidence, generated through research, useful for informing health decisions. It incorporates initiatives such as Cochrane producing summaries and translations of Cochrane content, partnering with Wikipedia to improve evidence in Wikipedia health pages, providing free access to Cochrane evidence in low- and middle-income countries, and developing a collection of Cochrane podcasts. Browse the library and enjoy the diverting, entertaining and informative EVIDENTLY COCHRANE blog.
June
Neuroscience: My life with Parkinson's
A neuroscientist reflects on his experience of studying the circuits that control neural activity while his own brain began slowly failing him. "I am still at the beginning of my fascinating, frightening and ultimately life-affirming journey as a brain scientist with a disabling disease of the brain. Already it has given me a new perspective on my work, it has made me appreciate life and it has allowed me to see myself as someone who can make a difference in ways that I never expected. But it took a bit of time to get here..."
May
MUSEC Briefings
Ever wondered about the science (or lack of) behind interventions, approaches, gizmos and 'methods' like 'Behavioural Optometry', 'BrainGym®', 'Cellfield Program', 'Facilitated Communication', 'Interactive Metronome Training', 'Irlen Tinted lenses and Overlays', 'Learning Styles', 'Picture Exchange Communication System PECS', 'Reading Recovery for Young Struggling Readers', 'The Listening Program®' and 'The Tomatis Method as a Treatment for Autism'? The Macquarie University Special Education Centre (MUSEC) provides a balanced and careful run-down on all of these and more. Good thinking, MUSEC!
April
Free Speech and Language Resources
Founded in 1987, the Bristol Speech and Language Therapy Research Unit provides copious information about, and useful resources related to speech and language development and communication disorders in young children. Pages that caught Speechwoman's eye on her most recent visit were the ones on Specific Language Impairment, and Apps. Nicely done, lots to see, and well done, team!
March
@WeSpeechies
@WeSpeechies (hashtag #WeSpeechies) was founded on March 5, 2014. It provides a curated meeting point, on Twitter, for Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs), Speech and Language Therapists (SLTs) and SLP/SLT students to promote international professional communication. Its purpose is to facilitate mutual support, helpful connections, sharing of peer reviewed articles and relevant links to websites and blog posts, and opportunities for professional encouragement colleague-to-colleague worldwide, across all areas of practice. In general it has a clinical emphasis with EBP, solid theory and exemplary client care at the forefront. Read more about it here.
February
IPA Online
Newcastle University has thought of everything, so to speak! They even warn the user that, due to the inconsistent display of IPA symbols online, it is advisable to have a printed copy of the charts to hand when using these resources. Once you have the printed copy, click the symbols in the chart of interest on the screen in order to to load videos of the corresponding sounds' production by both a male and a female adult speaker. Ghada Khattab and Gerry Docherty at the Centre for Research in Linguistics and Language Sciences (CRiLLS) have provide a range of materials to support students who are studying practical phonetics on programmes in Linguistics and Speech and Language Pathology. It's clever stuff! [HOME]
January
CCRE Aphasia
The Centre for Clinical Research Excellence (CCRE) in Aphasia Rehabilitation is an Australia wide project, funded for five years by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). The program seeks to develop the Australian Aphasia Rehabilitation Pathway, a set of guidelines for person-centred aphasia services. This excellent website includes information about the program, the people involved, PhD opportunities and publications.

2013 Sites of the Month

December

International Communication Project 2014 #ICP2014
The International Communication Project 2014 aims to spread the word about the vital importance of communication to all aspects of our lives and the critical difference that communication professionals can make – especially when they are involved early. The project will run worldwide for the whole of 2014 aiming:
- to raise the profile and status of communication disorders and disability with international health bodies and policy makers;
- to increase public awareness of communication disorders and disability and the severe impact they have on people’s lives;
- to encourage people around the world to join together to make a difference in the lives of people living with communication disorders and disability.

The project has a Twitter presence, with the handle @ICP2014 and the hashtag #ICP2014.

November
Speech Accent Archive
The speech accent archive uniformly presents a large set of speech samples from a variety of language backgrounds. Native and non-native speakers of English read the same paragraph and are carefully transcribed. The archive is used by people who wish to compare and analyze the accents of different English speakers. For Speechwoman, the most useful section when working with multilingual children with speech sound disorders is the native phonetic inventory. Wonderful work, Steven H. Weinberger!
October
ISAAC Australia
October is AAC Awareness Month, and Speechwoman's pick for October is ISAAC Australia. AAC? Augmentative and Alternative Communication. Explore this splendid array of free articles to find out more!
September
Ethnologue: Languages of the World
Ethnologue: Languages of the World is a comprehensive reference work cataloging all of the world’s known living languages. It contains information on 7,105 known living languages.
August
Therapy Ideas Blog by Rhiannan Walton
Ideas, events, and inspiration for speech and language therapists, and a presentation for parents.
July
APPropriate Apps - SPA Member Group
This is a closed Facebook Group where Speech Pathology Australia members share information on Apps, mobile devices and related information. Well-moderated by Sharon Crane, the Association's senior advisor on and manager of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and Professional Self Regulation (PSR), the group provides a useful member benefit.
June
Clinical Prosody
Drs Trish Hargrove and Nancy McGarr describe their Clinical Prosody blog as a work in progress. Their focus is the evidence-base around therapies concerned with improving prosody, and those that use prosody to improve other aspects of communication. Site visitors should be sure not to miss the continually updated anotated bibliography.
May
What Works
The Communication Trust's What Works database provides information for SLTs/SLPs on some 60 evivence-based intervention approaches to children's speech and language difficulties. Explore it in detail!
April
Elsevier for Reviewers
Elsevier provides a series of helpful webcasts and a view-on-demand podcast on how to review a manuscript.
March
i2speak Smart IPA Phonetics Keyboard with consonants, vowels, diphthongs, diacritics and tones...
...speaks for itself! For every Roman character you type, a popup menu displays a group of phonetic symbols to choose from. For example, if you type "a" one of the suggestions is /æ/ and if you type "t" the suggestions include /t/, /ð/ and /θ/. Use arrow keys to select the required symbol and press Enter. There are several keyboard options including a SAMPA (Speech Assessment Methods Phonetic Alphabet) keyboard. It lets you type phonetic symbols using Roman characters according to SAMPA rules.
February
How Phonics Got Framed
Alison Clarke, a Speech Pathologist in Melbourne, has produced this engaging, informative and important 15 minute video. She explains the science behind the best way to teach literacy, explains why it is not happening in many schools today, and why Australian children achieve remarkably poor test results when compared with children in the rest of the English-speaking world. But that's not all! Citing contemporary research, she suggests what can be done to help change this. Take half an hour to listen and watch twice! Here is the pdf of the Teaching Reading report, complete with recommendations, mentioned in this excellent presentation.
January
Phonetic and Phonological Systems Analysis (PPSA)
Dr Sally Bates (University College Marjon, Plymouth) and Dr Jocelynne Watson (Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh), have developed this new charting and analysis tool. It is free to download, under a creative commons license, from //sites.marjon.ac.uk/ppsa/.The PPSA incorporates elements from both process and contrastive analysis and is designed to provide the clinician with an easily interpretable, at-a-glance overview of a speaker's phonological strengths and weaknesses, so supporting principled clinical decision making and outcome measure. What a delightful way for Speechwoman to start her 16th year of selecting sites of the month!

2012 Sites of the Month

December
Multilingual Children's Speech
This is Speechwoman's final 'pick' for 2012, and what an amazing site it is! This freely accessible online resource is for SLPs/SLTs worldwide who have children who are learning to communicate in more than one language on their caseloads. The site includes The Multilingual Children with Speech Sound Disorders: Position Paper, information for over 40 languages, speech assessments, and a parent report measure entitled the Intelligibility in Context Scale. Developed by Sharynne McLeod and colleagues at Charles Sturt University, with contributions by fonoaudiólogas / logopedas / logopedists / logopédistes / orthophonistes / patóloga de habla y lenguaje / speech pathologists / speech-language pathologists / speech therapists / and speech and language therapists from around the world, the Multilingual Children's Speech site is a great credit to all concerned. Wonderful! Merveilleux! ص.رائع, مدهش, عجيب, بديع , Wunderbar! Admirável! Дивовижний! Portentoso! Asombroso! Harika! Fantastisk! Ka rawe! Adori! Rhyfeddol!
November
ASHAsphere
Speechwoman celebrates the official blog of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association on the occasion of its first birthday by choosing it as her site of the month for November 2012. Woohoo! The goal of ASHAsphere, also featured in Webwords 44, is to inspire discussion of issues pertinent to audiologists and speech-language pathologists. Usually interesting, always relevant, and never taking itself too seriously, it features posts from communication sciences and disorders professionals, ASHA staff and staffing and recruitment specialists. ASHAsphere welcomes applications from writers who aspire to be ASHAsphere bloggers.
October
Developmental Phonological Disorders
Susan Rvachew writes: 'Welcome to my blog which is intended to contain two kinds of posts: occasional postings on topics related to phonological development and disorders or any topics that seem of interest to me and relevance to the speech-language pathology community (these will appear on the front page; other pages will be specifically related to the book “Rvachew, S. & Brosseau-Lapre, F. (2012). Developmental Phonological Disorders: Foundations of Clinical Practice. Plural Publishing.” and will be a sort of diary of my experiences teaching from the book for the first time in the coming academic year ...'. Good reading!
September
Evidence Based Practice (accessible to SPA Members)
Speech Pathology Australia’s national advisor on Evidence Based Practice (EBP) and Research, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., has revised the relevant section of the association’s website, and the result is a selective, well considered resource for SPA members. Its comprehensive but not overwhelming links area comprises three sections: one, searching for and accessing evidence, two, sites that provide evaluations of evidence and, three, sites that assist SLPs to evaluate evidence. Good to see.
August
love2read2012 Wiki
This is a wiki for partners, groups and individuals who are aiming to make a positive difference during Australia's National Year of Reading, 2012. It is replete with literacy related factsheets and other resorces. Contributors follow the usual wiki guidelines - information, not advertising; idea-sharing, not propaganda; comments, not criticism. Exemplary! GONE
July
Spectronics (in Australia & NZ) May 22-25 2012 Inclusive Learning Technologies Conference Resources
Hosted by Spectronics, the conference once again focused specifically on technologies designed to advance independent achievement for people with disabilities and/or students with learning difficulties. The sessions were organised into three streams: Struggling Students, People with Complex Communication Needs, and People with Disabilities. The page contains many resources including slideshows and handouts. There is also a page devoted to the conference videos.
June
Elsevier: Reviewers' Home and Reviewers' Update
Reviewers play an essential part in science and in scholarly publishing. Scientists and scholars rely upon peer review to validate research, engage other specialists in the support of submitted work, and increase networking possibilities within specific specialist communities. Elsevier, like most scientific publishing companies, relies on effective peer review processes to uphold not only the quality and validity of individual articles, but also the overall integrity of the journals it publishes. Check out a growing accumulation of helpful resources for peer reviewers.
May
Firm Foundations: Early Literacy Teaching and Learning - VIDEOS GONE
April
CAYA Communication Assistance for Youth and Adults GONE
March
Speech Techie
Happy 2nd birthday and congratulations Speech Techie, Speechwoman's site of the month winner for March 2012. Blogger Sean J. Sweeney, CCC-SLP has developed a readable, interesting and useful resource. He is more than fulfilling his self-prescribed brief to post resource "through the language lens", or with an eye to how the particular website or program would be helpful in speech and language interventions. There is lots to discover on this site (and here) for SLPs, ESL/ELL teachers, language arts teachers, special education teachers, and anyone who loves words!
February
2010 Legacies Now: Talk Activity Cards
The Talk Activity Cards from LEAP BC are illustrated cards, downloadable as pdfs, with activities encouraging learning through play, and early literacy and language development. These activities are designed for families, caregivers or early learning practitioners to enjoy with children from birth to 5 years. Look in the side bar for activities for children 0-3 and more. GONE
January
LARSP Online GONE

2011 Sites of the Month

December
Integration of EBP into the University Clinic
Brian Goldstein's excellent article about Evidence Based Practice and the PECO Procedure.
November
speechBITE
speechBITE™ is a database that provides open access to a catalogue of Best Interventions and Treatment Efficacy across the scope of Speech Pathology practice. This is an evidence based practice initiative between The University of Sydney and Speech Pathology Australia.
October
Apps for speech therapy
SLP Mirla Raz writes, "I'm far from a tech geek or someone who has to have the latest electronic device, but when the iPad first came out I wanted one. Maybe I thought it would be a fun personal toy. Who knows? What I didn't expect was that it would have the potential to be a game changer for speech pathologists. A year later, I am convinced that this device will change the way we deliver services."
September
Speaking My Languages
Sharynne McLeod is Professor of Speech and Language Acquisition at Charles Sturt University. She was awarded an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (2010-2014) titled Speaking my Languages: International Speech Acquisition in Australia. This blog was designed to archive what she learned and accomplished during the Fellowship. The original post provides details about the Fellowship.
August
Clinical Linguistics GONE
July
Autism in Australia - Australian Bureau of Statistics
Very interesting and informative, thank you, Australian Bureau of Statistics.
June
What is coarticulation?
This ticks all the boxes! Thank you for Praat too, Sidney Wood!
May
Online phonetics resources
Still in a phonetics mood, Speechwoman has chosen May 2011 to celebrate Jennifer Smith's industry and thoroughness in putting together this comprehensive and nicely organised list.
April
John Wells's Phonetic Blog
Everything to do with phonetics...everything! So much so that even Speechwoman now knows that Jul'hoan, a language spoken in Namibia, has four tones, 30+ vowels and 89 consonants (including 48 clicks) in contrast to Hawaiian with eight consonants and just five vowels.
March
Master Clinician Network MOVED
February
The ASHA Leader February 15, 2011 Issue MOVED
January
Hooray for Aiden and Stuttering Stan takes a Stand
Speechwoman begins 2011 with two winning websites, both of which relate to children who stutter and how stuttering makes them feel.
Hooray for Aiden
This is a book for four to nine year olds by Karen Hollett, a person who stutters. When her family moves to a new town, second grader Aiden becomes worried about how her new classmates will react to her stutter. At first, Aiden tries to hide her stutter from the other children. This makes her very sad. But soon, with a teacher's help, Aiden learns that it’s OK to be herself, and OK to stutter.
Stuttering Stan takes a Stand
This title is available from Mighty Book as a free online flash-animation story for children on either side of the teasing equation. Ridiculed about his stuttering, Stanley the squirrel refuses to reveal that his feelings are being hurt, until he learns an important lesson from a thoughtful friend. Turn your computer's sound on so that you can listen to and read the story. Congratulations to January's joint winners!

2010 Sites of the Month

December
Contemporary Issues in Comm Science and Disorders
Contemporary Issues in Communication Sciences and Disorders (CICSD), the biannual, peer-reviewed journal of NSSLHA, became an online-only, open-access journal in spring 2010. Lucky readers!
November
Canadian Journal of SLP and Audiology
The Canadian Journal of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology is a scholarly journal published four times a year by the Canadian Association of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists. The purpose of the Journal is to disseminate contemporary knowledge pertaining to human communication and related disorders. CJSLPA covers both applied and basic research, reports of clinical and laboratory inquiry, as well as educational articles related to normal and disordered speech, language and hearing in all age groups. The archive contains every issue of CJSLPA and its predecessors from 1973 to date, all freely available to download (as individual articles or as entire journal issues). Speechwoman can't stop reading, and is very impressed!
October
National SLH Assoc Pubs and EdFind
Founded in 1972, NSSLHA is the national organization for graduate and undergraduate students interested in the study of normal and disordered human communication. It has a range of publications and its journal, Contemporary Issues in Communication Science and Disorders, provides many well written, interesting and informative articles by up-and-coming "new" researchers. While on the NSSLHA site, check out the EdFind search engine for students seeking an appropriate academic program in Communication Sciences and Disorders at the master's or doctoral level, and the survival guide for CSD students!
September
PhonoComp Publishing
PhonoComp is your source for the Hodson Computerized Analysis of Phonological Patterns (HCAPP) and the book, Evaluating and Enhancing Children's Phonological Systems, both by Barbara Williams Hodson, PhD.
August
Type IPA phonetic symbols - online keyboard
This IPA keyboard allows you to type pronunciations of English words. There are keyboards on this site for ten other languages.
July
Word List Generator GONE
June
The Edmonton Narrative Norms Instrument
The ENNI is an assessment tool for collecting language information from children aged 4 to 9 through storytelling. Pictures that portray a story are presented to a child, who then tells the story to the examiner. Picture sets were drawn for the ENNI by a professional cartoonist; they range from a simple story with 2 characters to a complex story with 4 characters. Local normative information was collected from 377 children in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Norms from this sample are included for a number of analyses.
May
NIDCD
Established in 1988, The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) is one of the Institutes that comprise the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). The goal of NIH research is to acquire new knowledge to help prevent, detect, diagnose, and treat disease and disability.
April
WordNet: A lexical database for English
WordNet® is a free downloadable lexical database of English whose development has been directed by George A Miller, celebrated as one of the instigators of modern cognitive psychology. Words are grouped into 'synsets' that express distinct concepts, and these synsets are interlinked according to conceptual-semantic and lexical relations. The interlinked network can be navigated with WordNet's browser. It is a valuable tool for computational linguistics and natural language processing. Learn about the Global WordNet Association too. It's all very, very interesting.
March
J&R Publishing Services | J&R Press
Without doubt, Speechwoman knows promise when she sees it! So she's keeping a close eye on J&R Publishing Services who offer researchers and academics in human communication science a platform for publishing their works. Her tip is that this new company is going to be a winner in the skilled, experienced hands of Jim and Rachael Wilkie. Authors, if you have an SLP/SLT manuscript up your sleeve, or a terrific book idea, contact J&R Press. They have much to offer!
February
LOCHI Study
The National Acoustics Laboratory is a division of Australian Hearing. Its LOCHI "outcomes study" aims to examine, longitudinally, the development of children who have been identified with hearing loss in the Australian states of New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland. In its first phase the study focuses on development up to 5 years of age. This small but highly informative, family-friendly and interesting site includes research papers, clinical tools and newsletters. The LOCHI team also provides, as downloads or via email, copies of the PEACH and CDI assessments in a range of languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, Japanese, Turkish and Vietnamese.
January
Speechmag
UK based Speech & Language Therapy in Practice is an immensely readable quarterly print magazine "written by therapists for therapists". Each issue includes how-to articles, clinical reports, low cost ideas, reflections, opinions, discussion and debate (much of it around EBP), advice from a life-coach, and book, materials and other reviews. The mission of the magazine is, "To be the most inspirational, essential and practical resource for speech and language therapists in the UK". It has its own web site with a members' only section, a presence on Facebook and the editor Avril Nicoll's blog. As well as being a skilled editor Avril has a lively and engaging writing style, so it comes as no surprise that her blog is interesting, informative and entertaining. The Speechmag blog has been recognised with the first Speechwoman award for 2010.

2009 Sites of the Month

December
Mutual Recognition of Professional Association Credentials Signatories: ASHA, NZSLT, IASLT, RCSLT, SAC and SPA
November
Teacher Space
Sue King is a teacher who works at Belvoir Special School, Wodonga, Victoria, Australia. Her passion is "helping students with learning challenges to engage in learning in both special education and mainstream settings and to help them to achieve outcomes that will lead to enviable lives." With few references to the peer reviewed literature or refereed evidence base, and a reliance on uncritical "testimonial evidence", she has developed a fascinating blog full of original ideas, clever resources, interesting leads and popular book recommendations. The site will be of interest to speech-language pathologists, teachers and students working in education and special education,
October
Walkathon for Children with Apraxia
Visit the Apraxia Walk Headquarters, no matter where you are in the world and register by October 5 to participate (and get the T-shirt!).

September
Internet for Allied Health
Would you like to learn how to use the Internet for Allied Health? Use this free, interactive tutorial to improve your Internet research skills. Thank you David Brunt and Nicola Smart! Speechwoman would say more except that she is distracted and somewhat smitten by the Internet Detective {{swoon}} Thank you Intute! GONE
August
Speech and Language Therapy for Cambodia GONE
July
Become an International Affiliate of ASHA
"If you are interested in applying as an International Affiliate, you must hold a master's degree or the equivalent.* International Affiliation with ASHA is open only to persons who reside abroad and who are not exclusively citizens of the United States. Dual citizens may also become International Affiliates as long as they reside outside of the United States. You should be aware that International Affiliates are not eligible for and do not hold ASHA's Certificate of Clinical Competence. You must also agree to abide by an ethical code of professional practice statement which prohibits use of affiliation with the American Speech- Language-Hearing Association in the promotion of commercial products.
June
Publications - ASHA
May
Free Reading
A companion piece to the FastForWord and Reading Assistant software programs from the Scientific Learning Corporation, and the work of many hands. Free Reading is an open-source instructional program that aims to help educators teach early literacy. GONE
April
Special Education Technology - BC
The mission of SET-BC is to enhance student opportunities for success by providing access to curriculum through the use of appropriate educational and communication technologies. The home page is a good place to start, but Speechwoman suggests you explore these wonderful links in detail first and then check out pictureSET. Marvellous, SET-BC. GONE
March
Treasure for Teachers GONE
February
Dysfluency: Stuttering and Cluttering GONE
January
SLPath
SLPath is the brainchild of Jennifer Taps, M.A., CCC-SLP. Jennifer facilitates the Articulation Resource Center for the San Diego Unified school district, supporting 250 SLPs in phonological and articulation treatment. Online for about a year, the site is a work in progress (as all the good sites are!) full of helpful child speech related resources and information. Nice work Alex, Zoe and Jen!

2008 Sites of the Month

LORS Speech Language Therapy - Inclusive Education
The LORS Project was conducted in 2005-2007 and explored issues in identifying, defining, collaborating and reporting on literacy outcomes for students and the implications for speech-language pathologists’ role in early literacy. This project highlighted the requirements of the workplace as a key factor in the roles that SLPs take within schools and how SLPs report the results of their work. Many materials are provided free in return for appropriate acknowledgement of the the LORS Project.
Encyclopedia of Language and Literacy Development
Launched in 2007, the Encyclopedia of Language and Literacy Development forms a component of The Canadian Language and Literacy Research Network web site. The people behind this online, free encyclopedia hope to help provide answers to questions about children's language and literacy by providing information based on relevant and up-to-date research that is presented in an easily accessible format. An interesting feature of the site is its hyperlinked listing of the ten most popular articles. This is already an outstanding resource that promises to improve with age.
ISAD Conference 11
If, for ANY reason, you have an interest in stuttering (stammering) check out the 11th online stuttering conference. This is a wonderful month-long learning opportunity, and 'communication opportunity' for people who stutter, their families and employers, the professionals who work with them, students in training and their instructors.
International Society for AAC
With Chapters in 14 countries, and members in 50 other countries, ISAAC supports and encourages the best possible communication methods for people who find communication difficult. ISAAC's vision is for everyone in the world who could potentially communicate more easily by using AAC to be able to do so. To make this a reality, people who use AAC, their families, therapists, teachers, researchers, people who make equipment, and people in governments will have to collaborate and cooperate. This excellent, accessible and practical web site helps make such communication possible. Well done ISAAC!
Child Phonology Laboratory
Language Development in Internationally Adopted Children
This is an interesting and helpful mini-site by Sharon Glennen, PhD which is designed to provide answers to the many questions parents and professionals have about language learning following international adoption. We don't hear enough about language acquisition in older children generally, so this is very, very interesting!
Oxford Study of Children's Communication Impairments
So eager was Speechwoman to explore the Conferences Presentations and Reference Lists on this deceptively low-key looking but content rich site that she nearly sprained her typing finger again (the last time was in 2006, you may recall) and the people left her awestruck.
Tower to Trenches GONE
Lizzie's great article in Girlfriend Magazine
"While most girls my age have boyfriends, go out every weekend and can start a can start a conversation without even thinking about it, those things are like running a marathon for me."Lizzie aged 20 combines two talents. One, she is an outstanding in-line hockey player competing at state and national levels, and two, she is a very good writer, as her nicely constructed and well expressed article in Girlfriend Magazine shows. Speechwoman has broken with tradition this month, dusted off the scanner, and uploaded Lizzie's insight-producing article about being a young woman diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome (AS). Not many females have AS, and it is good to see this terrific piece that demonstrates in no uncertain terms that, "even if you are different you can still do things." Well done Lizzie!
ELCISS
ELCISS aims to enhance language and communication in secondary school children with primary language and communication impairment through narrative and vocabulary enrichment. Victoria Joffe, who claims responsibility for the site's pink and purple colour scheme, is the primary investigator on the ELCISS research project funded by the Nuffield Foundation. The witty illustrations by Peter Hudspith and the clever web design by Cato Hoeben are a joy, and the advisory group impressive!
Oxford Dysfluency Conference GONE

2007 Sites of the Month

National Literacy Trust
Each month the UK organization the National Literacy Trust, offers a perspective on current issues affecting literacy and education policy and practice. Its website is resource rich and includes a collection of very good photocopy free handouts on fostering speech and language acquisition, and all topics are listed here.
My Baby's Hearing
If your baby has a hearing loss, it is important to catch it early. "Babies begin to develop speech and language in the earliest months of life. If families know about a baby's hearing loss, much can be done to encourage communication development." Sensible, practical advice and information about newborn hearing screening and what to do if your baby is diagnosed with a hearing loss.
David Crystal and DCblog
Professor David Crystal is one of the world's foremost experts on the subject of language. In 1995, he was awarded the Order of the British Empire for services to the English language. Visit his web site and blog.
First autism prevalence study in Australia GONE
Best Practice Makes Perfect GONE
Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS) Support
This website is designed to provide support and information to those seeking information about a rare speech disorder called foreign accent syndrome (FAS).Congratulations William Katz and Diane Garst of the Speech Production Lab University of Texas at Dallas!
Word Learning Lab GONE
Unicode Phonetic Transcription
Put phonetic symbols into your Word documents - easy! And check out the index Fun, UCL!
CHERI
The Children’s Hospital Education Research Institute (CHERI) is a unique research institute that aims to improve the interface between children’s health and their education. CHERI was established in 1996, in association with the University of Western Sydney, University of Sydney, NSW Department of Education and Training, and the Catholic Education Commission of NSW. CHERI is a highly regarded and nationally recognised institute that conducts research into the educational and psychosocial aspects of children with learning problems. In addition, the CHERI team conducts educational assessments for some of these children who also have a genetic or chronic condition such as neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), velocardiofacial syndrome (VCFS) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). CHERI also provides information and resources to families and professionals through its conferences, research forums, and helpful information sheets.
Minimal Pairs for English RP & ALSO HERE IN CASE THE ORIGINAL SITE IS TAKEN DOWN
Speechwoman could not wait to make amends upon realising that John Higgins' endlessly useful masterpiece had never received her site of the month award! Minimal pairs are pairs of words whose pronunciation differs by one segment, such as sheep and ship orlice and rice. Beloved by Speech-Language Pathologists/Speech and Language Therapists everywhere, they are often used in phonological therapy, phonemic awareness activities, auditory discrimination exercises, and in EFL contexts, pronunciation exercises. Use John's meticulously cross-referenced tables of vowels and consonants to retrieve relevant lists of pairs for your clients. Conveniently, all of the lists are plain ASCII text files. They are easy to use, and invaluable. When you visit this unpretentious site, check out the homophones, homographs and more.
International Directory of Communication Disorders
The International Directory of Communication Disorders is an inspirational database on international issues related to communication disorders. The information is offered as a community service to persons in the professions; it is free, and available for use for any non-commercial purpose.
Tongue Tie: From confusion to clarity
This is the long-awaited companion web site for Australian Speech-Language Pathologist Carmen Fernando's helpful book about ankyloglossia, published in 1998. Reflecting one skilled professional's tireless dedication to, and opinions, observations and expert experience of this common but under-researched congenital condition, this developing site presents a range of useful information and resources for (and by) professionals, and for the families and individuals they serve.

2006 Sites of the Month

Stuttering Information for Preschool Teachers GONE
Clinical Decisions with Linguistically Diverse Learners
Targets and Activities Project (TAP) Now called Commtap
The UK-based Targets and Activities Project (TAP) website has been set up to allow Speech and Language Therapists, Language and Communication Teachers and others to share ideas with those working with children with communication difficulties in schools and other locations. On the TAP site are activities sheets for working with children at a variety of different levels and across a variety of curriculum and skill areas. The site uses the P-scales and the lower levels from the National Curriculum as a means for organising these documents in a way which should make them easy to find. These documents use a simple standardised format to make them easy and quick to read. TAP sheets are especially designed to be used by education staff - such as learning support assistants - who have had guidance from the appropriate specialist.
International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics
The International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics (IALP) is a non-profit, non-political and nongovernmental, worldwide organisation which works for the benefit of persons with speech, language, voice, swallowing and hearing disorders. The Organisation was established in 1924 and has two major subfields, logopedics and phoniatrics. IALP aims to help clinicians around the world to improve the treatment of people with communication disorders.
Speech Pathologists' Board of Queensland, Australia GONE
Nicenet
Nicenet's Internet Classroom Assistant (ICA) allows virtually any classroom, even those with modest resources, access to powerful tools. Everything in Nicenet is offered free for public use, and Nicenet makes no profits from your participation. It is ideal for journal discussions, document development and a range of teaching and continuing professional development activities.
CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research
Research programmes at CanChild concentrate on children and youth with disabilities and their families within the context of the communities in which they live. The focus is on the interrelationships between individuals, their families, communities, and health systems. The focus of research conducted by CanChild is broad, and includes children and youth with physical, developmental, and/or communicative needs who require rehabilitation services, as well as their families.
Welcome to Child Language
The contents of this site come largely from Jean Peccei's handouts and lecture notes for courses she has taught, or currently teach, in the English Language and Linguistics Programme at Roehampton University. A very nice range of information and resources fro newcomers to the study of child language.
RSF Earthspeak
The EARTHSPEAK people build parent speech training programs that aim to complete the job that cleft palate surgery begins. Parents and other lay people, irrespective of their literacy levels, are taught to help their children gain a quality of life previously unavailable to them in a range of countries outside the industrialised world.
The National Center for Voice and Speech
The NCVS scientists, clinicians and teachers study human voice and speech. Working collaboratively, and representing backgrounds in vocal performance, computer science, speech-language pathology, physics, medicine and other disciplines, they are in a strong position to create comprehensive, cohesive voice and speech investigations. The team strives to communicate and engage with aspiring investigators, voice and speech practitioners, and the general public.
UW Medical Speech Language Pathology Masters
The Master of Science in Medical Speech-Language Pathology (MedSPL) at the University of Washington is one of only a few of its type around the world. The program is distinguished by its innovative third year, which includes the Clinical Fellowship, qualifying students for ASHA’s Certificate of Clinical Competence (CCC). MedSPL students will learn to approach speech-language pathology as clinical scientists, using methods grounded in evidence-based practice and the clinical literature.
i STUTTER GONE

2005 Sites of the Month

Velopharyngeal Dysfunction Clinic Overview GONE
Dysphagia On-line GONE
IASCL GONE
Augmentative Communication Inc
Augmentative Communication Inc. publishes resources that help keep busy professionals and individuals with complex communication needs up-to-date on important developments in AAC. ACI is also a partner in the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Communication Enhancement (www.aac-rerc.com).
Yale Developmental Disabilities Clinic GONE
Closing the Gap
Clearinghouse for information on the use of computer related technology for children with learning disabilities.
The Appraisal Website Homepage
This site is devoted to the Appraisal framework, an approach to exploring, describing and explaining the way language is used to evaluate, to adopt stances, to construct textual personas and to manage interpersonal positionings and relationships. Taking the form of an introductory course, the materials on the site include a step-by-step guide to using Appraisal in critical text analysis. The Appraisal framework is an extension of the linguistic theories of M.A.K Halliday and his colleagues (Systemic Functional Linguistics - SFL) and has emerged over a period of almost 15 years as a result of work conducted by a group of researchers led by Professor James Martin of the Linguistics Department of the University of Sydney.
New Voices-Nuevas Voces GONE
Eric Armstrong's voice & speech source
The creator and manager of voice & speech source, Eric Armstrong in Canada, welcomes you to this new incarnation of his dream child. He also helps you navigate the site, and introduces you to some of the highlights.
Friends: The Association of Young People Who Stutter
FRIENDS is a national organization in the US created to provide support for children and teenagers who stutter, their families, and the professionals who work with them.
Dr Mac's Amazing Behavior Management Site
You lucky dog! Or so says Dr Thomas McIntyre, the author of this eclectic site which offers THOUSANDS of tips on managing student behavior, and provides step-by-step directions for implementing a great number of standard interventions. It also contains a bulletin board on which you can post your disciplinary concerns and receive suggestions from teachers around the world.
Asperger's Association of New England Home Page
The Asperger's Association of New England (AANE) is made up of individuals with Asperger's Syndrome (AS), their families, friends and professionals. The group is dedicated to improving the quality of life for people with AS and related conditions, and its mission is to foster awareness, respect, acceptance, and support for these individuals and their families.

2004 Sites of the Month

Nuffield Dyspraxia Programme 2004
Speechwoman has been using the Nuffield Centre Dyspraxia Programme since 1985, and she is extremely excited about the latest version. You can download an order form from this site, and send it to the publisher. The babe intends to keep an eye on this embryonic web site, and looks forward to the promised sections of the site that include: frequently asked questions, background information about the programme, links, and information for parents. Note that this review relates to the NDP 2004 Web Site, and not to the programme itself.
Indigenous Australians and Hearing GONE
An introduction to children with language disorders GONE
Voice Academy
Vocal problems are common — about 10-20% of all children and 7% of all adults have voice disorders at any given time. The incidence for teachers alone is higher — about 15%. In fact (brace yourself!) according to a study cited on the Voice Academy site, teachers are 32 times more likely than individuals in other professions to be dogged by persistent and incapacitating voice difficulties. Amazed by this statistic, Speechwoman could not wait to sign up for free membership and a whirlwind tour of this fascinating interactive site, complete with audio samples, videos, and animations. The site includes a text only version, a comprehensive glossary of voice related terms, an outstandingly good section for SLPs leading in service events for teachers, a Media Kit, and a great FAQ - all aimed at teachers keeping their voices in fine fettle. Speechwoman, conserving her voice, is curbing an impulse to holler, "Sign up today!
Fool's Gold: Computers in Early Childhood GONE
Principles of Human Neuropsychology: Research Links
This is a web site from McGraw-Hill Higher Education, providing links from "Language", Chapter 6 of Principles of Human Neuropsychology by G. Dennis Rains, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. The chapter overview is here and there are flashcards too for this and every chapter! Use the drop-down menu on the left of your browser to explore all 15 chapters and the epilogue. There are a few too many dead links among the treasures on this links page, but it is worth persisting, and the rest of the book is easy to navigate definitely repays exploration.
Talkback Association for Aphasia Inc
Congratulations Clive and Carol, David, Bunt, Grant, Betty, Marilyn ... Bev Dodd, and friends.
Tutorials Home GONE
Encouraging your child to use a healthy voice GONE
How do infants learn language?
Consider the newborn. Thrown abruptly into a blaze of bright lights and babble of novel noises, it faces the immediate job of understanding and controlling its world...
Meds effects on voice and speech GONE
C A S L P A -A C O A (now //sac-oac.ca/)
The Canadian Association of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists (C A S L P A) / Association canadienne des orthophonistes et audiologistes (ACOA) is undergoing a remarkable transformation. Information about the professions, available in French and English provides a good starting point for newcomers to the site. Very nice!

2003 Sites of the Month

MEDLINE PLUS: Speech and communication disorders
This service of the US National Library of Medicine (here) and the National Institutes of Health (here) provides general overviews of speech and language impairments, as well as information, and leads to information, about clinical trials, diagnosis, research, specific conditions and a wealth of other resources. Importantly, it includes a link to MEDLINE where you can search for recent research articles on Speech & Communication Disorders . If you are a speech and language professional with a couple of hours to spare, explore this site in detail to familiarise yourself with what is there. Then you can refer to efficiently it when you need vital information.
Hazel Hawke Alzheimer's Research
Alzheimer's Australia
Voices: past and present
Voices past and present are included in this amazing sound archive. It is arranged in six sections (so far). The first comprises classic speeches and interviews in the area of stuttering; the second, excerpts from a 1968 panel discussion on "recovery" from stuttering; the third, a 1977 panel on the same topic; the fourth, a 1984 tribute to the life and work of Joseph Sheehan; the fifth, a 1996 panel on "recovery"; and in the sixth, various philosophies and treatments are explained and demonstrated via tapes dating back to 1975. In sum, the archive constitutes a wonderful, dynamic and fascinating work in progress. Congratulations Minnesota State University, Mankato technical staff (especially Christian Andrew Dinger and Agnes Lumenta), Bill Fabian from Australia, and the indefatigable Judy Kuster.
Time Magazine: Overcoming Dyslexia PAYWALLED
Child and Family Web Guide
Tufts University hosts this directory that evaluates, describes and provides links to hundreds of sites containing child development research and practical advice. Topics are selected on the basis of parent recommendations; they cover all ages, from early child development through adolescence. Selected sites have the highest quality, parent friendly, child development research.
Supercourses
Supercourse is a repository of lectures on global health and prevention designed to improve the teaching of prevention. Supercourse has a network of over 56000 scientists in 174 countries who are sharing for free a library of 4875 lectures in 31 languages.
Common Errors in English
Paul Brians is Professor of English at Washington State University. Explaining why he focuses on the common errors in American English Professor Brians says it is because "I'm an American, my students are mostly American, most English-speaking Web users are Americans, and American English is quickly becoming an international standard". Aware that not everyone agrees with him, Paul Brians invites discussion and input from his site visitors. Paul ("don't call me Brian") is reworking the site to take note of American deviations from standard British practice, noting that, "the job is complicated because Canadians, Australians, and many others often follow patterns somewhere between the two". Helpful for anyone who is not American, wanting to publish in American journals.
Learn to Read at Starfall
The Starfall site will delight the Phonological Awareness (PA) enthusiast! This method of teaching children to read is partly based on NICD research and incorporates PA activities, sound-spelling (sound symbol) relationships, and phonic skills.
Asperger Syndrome Australian Info Centre
I CAN
"I CAN are the experts in helping children with communication difficulties. If we find and help these children and their families, we can unlock their potential."
APA Help Center GONE

2002 Sites of the Month

Speaking of Speech
Pat Mervine ably maintains speakingofspeech.com, a resource rich commercial and informational web site, with an exciting collection of free-for-all downloads in the materials exchange section and numerous message boards and links.
The Phonetics Flash Animation Project GONE
International Stuttering Awareness Day Conference
The slogan for the Fifth International Stuttering Awareness Day Online Conference is Don't Let Stuttering Stop You ... from creating the life you want in relationships, academics, professional development and personal fulfillment. The conference is open to all comers and runs from October 1 to 22, after which it will remain online with the previous four ISAD conferences. Good news! Conference convenor and co-chair (with Michael Sugarman) and web-whizz Judy Kuster will be honoured next month when she becomes a Fellow of ASHA. Peer recognition - that's really special. And the thumbs up from Speechwoman is pretty nice too!
Speech and Langage Therapy Singapore
Hats off to Jennifer Gan, a multi-talented Speech Language Therapist, who single-handedly produces and maintains the SHAS web site. This attractive, well constructed association home page contains clearly explained, and interestingly written information for consumers, professionals and prospective SLT students. The site map enables easy navigation, leading visitors to sections on working as a speech therapist in Singapore, an employment FAQ and an outline of the linguistic and multicultural issues clinicians take into account in the Singapore work setting, as well as information about accessing publicly funded and private practice services.
Michael Giangreco's Home Page
A Professor at the University of Vermont, Michael Giangreco's professional and research interests encompass the why and how of planning, adapting, coordinating, implementing, and evaluating educational programs and services for students with disabilities who are included in general education classrooms. His recent work on inclusion, paraprofessional support for students with disabilities, COACH, creative problem-solving and VISTA are featured. Watch out for project evolve, don't miss this and this, and explore in detail - there is more to this site than meets the eye!
SRCLD
The SRCLD was initiated in 1980 to provide a forum for the presentation of recent research and the discussion of current issues among established scholars and students in child language disorders. It is organized by a committee of doctoral students from several departments at the University of Wisconsin.
Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists
What a wonderful transformation! Webmaster Tristán White has made a magnificent job of revising and expanding the RCSLT web site. The RCSLT is the professional body of and for speech and language therapists (SLTs) in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and their new site will repay detailed exploration by consumers, students and professionals.
Cleft Lip and Palate Tutorial GONE
VocalDevelopment.com
This appealing site has been designed to share information about early speech development and to provide examples of the delightful speech sounds that children produce before they say words. Visitors are invited to learn about and listen to vocalisations from different developmental levels; check their listening skills; and discover ways to stimulate early speech development and oral language.
Tele-Collaboration in Speech & Hearing Sciences
"Enhancing teaching and research in Speech and Hearing Sciences through collaboration with clinical and research communities using innovative communication technologies." This is a "must see" site for anyone interested in social communication and AAC.
Phonological and Phonemic Awareness GONE
Vicki Blackwell's Internet Guide for Educators
Vicki Blackwell, Technology Resource Teacher, Tangipahoa Parish School System provides, among MANY other resources, tutorials on web design, using PowerPoint in educational settings, and searching for information on the web. This is a magnificent starting-place for beginners in these matters. Allow a couple of hours to familiarise yourself with what this outstanding site has to offer. In this instance it is the web weaver and not just the site itself that is SLP related - Vicki's sister is a Speech-Language Pathologist.

2001 Sites of the Month

Queensland University Aphasia Groups GONE
Celia R. Hooper PhD - Home Page GONE
Speak Read Succeed
A short history of Speech Pathology in America
Judith Felson Duchan is an emeritus professor from CDS at the University of Buffalo. She is in the process of putting together this fascinating history of the profession in the US. While you're on Judy's site, check out her insightful Golden Rule article, her Medical Model graduation speech (wish I'd been there) and her amazing career. Inspirational Judy!
Australian Stuttering Research Centre GONE
Does someone you know need a SP? GONE
Speech-Language Therapy - What is it? GONE
YAACK GONE
The Practice GONE Hearing that The Practice was Site of the Month for April 2001, Speech Language Pathologist and funny woman Jenny Loehr, MA CCC/SLP marked the occasion by sending this cartoon!
Communication sciences and disorders GONE
Center for Voice Disorders Wake Forest University GONE
Time to sing! GONE

2000 Sites of the Month

Afasic
Afasic is a British charity that represents children and young adults with communication impairments, works for their inclusion in society and supports their parents and carers.
Rimes and Rhymes
A-Rhyme-a-Week is a phonological awareness program, on the Curry School of Education, University of Virginia, web site. It features thirty different nursery rhymes in a fun and appealing approach to fostering an important component of early literacy acquisition. A-Rhyme-a-Week is just one aspect of Webbing Into Literacy (WIL) a Head Start Program, which includes 101 Best Books for Children. Its author is Laura B Smolkin.
The Stuttering Home Page
The Stuttering Home Page, a project of Judith Kuster, in consultation with John C. Harrison, is dedicated to providing information about stuttering.
Apraxia-Kids
This recently revamped web site is aimed at multiple audiences, including parents of children who have been recently diagnosed with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS), parents of late talkers, teachers and speech-language pathologists. It also provides a constant stream of information for parents of older children with CAS who are negotiating the challenges of school, the workplace and life in general. It provides abundant support, well-referenced information, and links to carefully selected resources.
First Words Project
This is a model early identification and intervention program based in the Department of Communication Disorders at Florida State University. Staffed by speech-language pathologists and interdisciplinary consultants, the project is funded to evaluate the communication development of children from 6 to 24 months of age. The site makes an immediate and practical contribution to clinical practice with its handout materials which can be downloaded and printed.
Australian Deaflinks GONE
LIOA Orthophonie & Audiologie GONE
LinguiSystems
For more than 20 years LinguiSystems have provided quality materials for clinicians and teachers of students with special needs.
New Zealand Speech-Language Therapists' Association
NZSTA is the professional self-regulatory body for speech-language therapists in New Zealand. It is a tiny association by international standards, but what a powerhouse of talent, enthusiasm and industry!
Comeunity
This site focuses on adoption and children with disabilities or special needs and includes a comprehensive resources page.
North Queensland Rural Health Training Unit GONE
University Programs in SLP & Audiology
Scott Bradley's page contains a listing of university programs in speech language pathology and audiology.

1999 Sites of the Month

December
Internetinligtning vir die Kommunikasiepatoloog GONE
November
Neonatal and Infant Cry Archive GONE
October
PubMed
PubMed is the National Library of Medicine's search service that provides access to over 11 million citations in MEDLINE, PreMEDLINE, and other related databases, with links to participating online journals. I suppose I could live without it...
September
Bob Quesal Talks About Stuttering
This is just one section of Professor Quesal's entertaining and informative Web Site. It also contains some words of wisdom about approaching the things you have to do systematically. The essays on stuttering are personal, thought provoking, challenging (e.g., The Role of the Stutterer in Therapy) and quite likely to change the way you think about fluency disorders.
August
Health on the Net Foundation
The HONcode is not an award system, nor does it intend to rate the quality of the information provided by a Web site. It only defines a set of rules to: (1) hold web site developers to basic ethical standards in the presentation of information; and (2) to help make sure readers always know the source and the purpose of the data they are reading.
July
Searchwave GONE
June
Speech Pathology Australia
Speech Pathology Australia is the official body representing approximately 2750 speech pathologists across Australia. The Association lobbies government on behalf of members and their clients for improved services and facilities. It works with the media to explain what communication disorders are and how they can be overcome and it also sets professional standards for its members. Branches are located in all states and territories.
May
Hardin MD
Nothing but the best!
April
Velo-pharyngeal dysfunction GONE
March
Taming the Triad GONE
February
Argus Clearinghouse GONE
January
World Health Organization Terminology GONE

1998 Sites of the Month

December
Web Sites in Communication Disorders and Sciences GONE
November
Tongue tie - impact on breast feeding
Evelyn Jane's video is recommended.
October
Speech-Language Pathology Web Sites GONE
September
Speechweb GONE
August
ASLTIP - Private Practice UK
Registered members of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists providing private speech and language therapy services throughout the UK.
July
Sonic Page
Does Tom Brennan ever sleep? This frames disabled treasure trove is easily navigable for vision impaired visitors using speech and Braille access.
June
Net Connections
This is the number one SLP resource on the Internet. Judy Kuster's Net Connections is legendary in speech-language pathology circles around the world. See for yourself!

Speechwoman

What drives Speechwoman as she scours the Internet, month after month, for the BEST Speech-Language Pathology web sites, apparently undeterred by threats of Kryptonite, virus attack and repetitive strain injury? When our fearless cub research assistant posed that question, Speechwoman did not mince words:

"I'm inspired by the nicely spoken Man of Steel, the wonderfully composed Clark Kent, and star reporter Lois Lane: she of the impeccable fashion sense and nicely rounded compliment. As Speechwoman I try to combine the best of each of them. And like Ms Lane, I want to be appreciated solely for my intellect and industry: not for the way I look in Lycra®."

"Up close, he's the most magnificent figure of a man."
- Lois re Superman-

"Don't fall for me farm boy, I don't have time for it."
- Lois to Clark Kent-

Winners - Download Your Logo

Site-of-the-Month awardees are very welcome to display the Speechwoman logo on their award winning site, page or resource.

Vanessa Jones designed and contributed the logo

About the links on this site

The external links throughout this web site point to Speech-Language Pathology related web sites and resources that are considered helpful or interesting for SLP/SLT consumers, students and professionals. Occasionally, someone asks who decides whether or not links will be included. The answer is, I decide, but that I welcome site suggestions.

Review Format

Each site-of-the-month candidate is rated under the following Review Format headings:

Resource Description
Resource Evaluation
Level of pre-requisite knowledge

The Resource Description

The resource description aims to provide an objective sense of what each of the reviewed Internet resources includes, using seven key words. The key words are: Advocacy, Education, Professional, Consumer, Student, Guide and Links.

KEYWORD		DESCRIPTION
Advocacy		A parent consumer operated advocacy site.
Education		A university, government agency, organisation or SLP/SLT Professional or Personal Home Page that provides SLP/SLT- related information.
Professional		A site that provides information for SLP/SLT professionals.
Consumer		A site that provides information for SLP/SLT consumers.
Student		A site that provides information for SLP/SLT students.
Guide		A guide, meta guide, directory or search engine.
Links		A site that primarily comprises a list of links.

The Resource Evaluation

The Resource Evaluation aims to provide a subjective sense of the overall standard of the resource, in terms of four criteria: quality, usability, authority and design.

CRITERION	DESCRIPTION
Quality	Quality of the content of the web site.
Usability	Readability, organisation, ease of navigation.
Authority	The "standing" of the author and the use of scholarly methods including appropriate citations from peer reviewed literature.
Design	Aesthetics, layout, navigational aids

Rating system

A triple plus (+++) denotes excellent, and a double plus (++) denotes good, and a single plus (+) denotes adequate. No plus sign denotes less than adequate. For example Quality +++ means "the content of the site is of excellent quality".

Level of pre-requisite knowledge

Two additional criteria, "Technical" and "Non-technical" are included to indicate whether users require a technical knowledge of the topic to understand the content of the site. Many sites comprise a "mix" of technical and non-technical information.

CRITERION		DESCRIPTION
Technical		Indicates that some knowledge of topic is required in order to understand the content of the site or resource.
Non-technical		Indicates that topic knowledge is not required in order to understand content of the site or resource.

Where are the ratings?

From June 1998 to July 2011 the evaluations and ratings for every site-of-the-month were displayed on the old speech-language-therapy.com site. This practice was discontinued for the new site because for the whole thirteen year period not one word of feedback was received about the evaluations, the ratings or the review format itself. They were time consuming to prepare and obviously not of interest to many, if any, site visitors.

The task of reproducing the 1998-2011 evaluations and ratings that appeared on the old site and displaying them here is too big an undertaking, especially given the lack of enthusiasm for them.

Apologies if there are a few people out there who miss them.

This resource page contains many picture-and-word work sheets intended for use in speech-language pathology intervention.

The sheets were made in Microsoft Word, using copyright-free pictures from Microsoft Clip Art and Media, and other sources, and converted into portable document files (pdfs) with Adobe Acrobat.

The vocabulary represents (non-rhotic) Australian English pronunciation, and although most of the words and minimal pairs will 'work' in other varieties of English you may need to discard some. For example, pairs like saw-shore, and spa-star are minimal pairs in Australian English and in other non-rhotic varieties of English, but not in rhotic dialects such as Canadian, Irish, Scottish and most US 'Englishes'.

SLPs/SLTs and students are invited to use these worksheets and other resources when working with children with speech sound disorders. You are free to save them to your computer, to customize them to suit individual clients and to fit your service delivery model. Restrictions that apply to their use are stated in the copyright notice.

Please read this before downloading pdf or pptx files

Please avoid downloading the same file multiple times as it increases my bandwidth usage and drives up my costs. Choose a pdf or pptx file; download it once, and save it to a folder. If you find the free resources here useful, and would like to make your secure donation to the maintenance of this site, please click here, and then click on the DONATE BUTTON.

On this page you will find worksheets that draw on our knowledge of "systemic" or "complexity approaches", lexical properties, implicational relationships (markedness), the sonority sequencing principle (SSP), phonotactics (metrical stress and syllable structure) and natural phonological tendencies. There are also worksheets for the adjuncts, /sp/, /st/ and /sk/. Go to the Maximal Oppositions (Minimal Pairs) page for maximally opposed / near maximally opposed pairs and related information.

Systemic approach / 'Complexity approach'

When clinicians apply a traditional approach to treatment target selection their focus is on the phonetic level and the learnability of the individual sound. A systemic approach, or 'complexity approach' to treatment target selection, emphasises phonological restructuring of the sound system (Baker, 2015; Gierut, 2001; Williams, 2006b).

Expected or 'predicted' changes, due to generalisation, are system-wide. In a systemic approach, clinicians choose non-stimulable, later developing, phonetically more complex, and linguistically marked sounds, supported by least phonological knowledge. They may also take into account lexical properties in choosing treatment words.

References

Baker, E. (2015). The why and how of prioritizing complex targets for intervention. In C. Bowen, Children's speech sound disorders (2nd ed.). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 106-11.

Gierut, J. (2001). Complexity in phonological treatment: Clinical factors. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 32, 229-241. Click here

Williams, A.L. (2006b). A systemic perspective for assessment and intervention: A case study. Advances in Speech-Language Pathology, 8(3), 245-256. Click here

Lexical Properties - Word Frequency & Density

We can consider lexical properties in choosing treatment words, selecting those that occur with ‘high frequency’ or those with ‘low neighbourhood density’.

High frequency words may be desirable treatment-words

High frequency words occur often, e.g., come, go, good, look, one. They are recognised faster by children than low frequency words.

Low neighbourhood density words may be desirable treatment-words

Low neighbourhood density words have 10 or fewer neighbours and are said to reside in sparse neighbourhoods.

Explanation

High neighbourhood density words are phonetically similar to many other words and have 11 or more neighbours. They are said to reside in dense neighbourhoods.

The words in a neighbourhood are based on one sound substitution (e.g., sat to pat, or sat to sit), one sound deletion (e.g., sat to at, or apse to App) or one sound addition (e.g., sat to scat, or back to black).

The word ‘bat’ is a high neighbourhood density word. It is in a dense neighbourhood of 40 according to the Washington University Speech Lab Neighborhood Database. The 39 neighbours are: back bad badge bag baht bait ban bang bash bass bast batch bath batteau batten batter battle beat bet bight bit boat boot bought bout brat but cat chat fat gnat hat mat pat rat sat tat that vat. The word 'ship’ is in a neighbourhood of 19 so has 18 neighbours: kip zip sip nip dip gyp rip hip chip lip tip pip sheep shop shape shin shear shill.

Children recognise and repeat high-density words slower and less accurately than low-density words which have 10 or fewer neighbours. Also, children name high-density words more accurately than low-density words. This suggests that lexical processing in children entails a high-density disadvantage in recognition and a high-density advantage in production (Storkel, Armbruster & Hogan, 2006).

So, in choosing 'treatment words', consider using words that are high frequency OR words that have low neighbourhood density (Storkel & Morrissette, 2002).

Word Lists

Verbs, Nouns and Adjectives Residing in Sparse Neighbourhoods of <11 (PDF)

Low Neighbourhood Verbs (listed in the 1-page pdf above - no pictures)

blink block blow bounce bring broke brush bump camp carve change chirp clean climb clip cough count crawl crush cry dance dream dress drill drink drip drive drop dry faint film flap flip frown fry gasp give grab grow growl help honk hunt iron jive join judge jump love march pinch plant point push quack scan scold scream shrug ski skid skip smash smell smile snap sneeze snooze snore snort speak speed spell spend spill spit splash splat spray spread spy squash squawk squeak squeal stand start stay steal step stir stitch stomp stop surf sweat sweep swish swoop thank throw trim trot waltz want wash watch whoosh woof zoom

Low Neighbourhood Nouns (listed in the 1-page pdf above - no pictures)

ant arch ark arm axe bench blade blind block blood blouse branch breath bridge brooch broom brush bulb bump bunch bush champ child chimp church clamp clasp claw clay cliff clog cloth clove clown club couch crab craft cream crop crow crowd crown crumb crust crutch cube desk dial disk dog drain drawer dress drill drum farm fence five flag flake flame flash flask fleece flex flock flood floor flower fluff flute fog foot frame fridge friend fringe frog front frost froth fruit fudge geese germ gift glass glove glue golf gown grouch knife ground group grub harp hinge hoist ink jazz jewel junk lion lounge lump lunch lamp mask milk month moth mouth mulch mumps noise nurse palm plan plane plant plough plug plum plus pond porch pouch pram prawn price prince print pulse queen quiche quilt choir ramp ranch scab scar scarf school scone scoop score screen screw shark shelf shield shrub chef silk skin skirt skull skunk sky sleeve slice slime slug smock smog smoke snack snail snake snow salt spa space spark speech spice spire sport spring sprout spud square squid staff stag stage stalk stamp star steam steel stem stilt store stork storm stove straw stream street string stripe stump stunt swag swamp swan swarm swatch thatch thief thong thread three throat throne thud thump torch towel track tram trap trash treat tree troll trout trowel truck trunk sty tube tusk twig twin view voice wasp watch web whale wharf wheat wheel whip wolf world worm yolk zinc

Low Neighbourhood Adjectives (listed in the 1-page pdf above - no pictures)

black brave brown clean crisp cross cute damp dark flash fresh glad good grey huge large old proud quick real sharp short smart small soft strong sweet white

Pictures for Low Density Words with Clusters SIWI

Low Neighbourhood Density Words with Clusters SIWI - 1

blade blind block blood blouse branch breath bridge brooch broom brush clamp clasp claw clay cliff clog cloth clove clown club crab craft cream crop crow crowd crown crumb crust crutch drain drawer dress drill drum

Low Neighbourhood Density Words with Clusters SIWI - 2 (Complex Clusters)

flag flake flame flash flask fleece flex flock flood floor flower fluff flute frame fridge friend fringe frog front frost fruit sleeve slice slime slug smock smog smoke snack snail snake snow swag swamp swan swarm thread three throat throne

Low Neighbourhood Density Words with Clusters SIWI - 3

glass glove glue grouch ground group grub plan plane plant plough plug plum plus pram prawn price prince print queen quilt choir tram trap trash treat tree troll trout trowel truck trunk twig twin

Implicational Relationships (Markedness) and Sonority

Relationships don't always work out, and implicational relationships are no exception. It is worthwhile, however, to experiment with target selection based on the marked properties of phonemes.

Markedness is a concept from the study of the sound systems of all natural languages. A marked feature in a language implies the necessary presence of another feature – hence 'implicational relationship'.

FRICATIVES are marked because they imply STOPS
VOICELESS STOPS are marked because they imply VOICED STOPS
AFFRICATES are marked because they imply FRICATIVES
CLUSTERS are marked because they imply SINGLETONS

Some research suggests targeting MARKED consonants in order to facilitate the acquisition of unmarked ones, or more precisely, targeting marked PROPERTIES of the system in order to facilitate acquisition of unmarked aspects of the system.

What this means in practice is that we can target fricatives in order to promote generalizations to fricatives and stops (it does not work in the other direction); we can target voiceless stops to facilitate generalization to voiceless and voiced stops; we can target affricates in the expectation that there will be generalization to affricates and fricatives; and we can target clusters to achieve generalisation to clusters and singletons.

Sonority Sequencing Principle (SSP)

Sonority is the amount of stricture or ‘sound’ in a consonant or vowel (Roca & Johnson, 1999). Steriade (1990) proposed a numerical sonority hierarchy: a list of phones, ordered according to degree of oral stricture and sound. Most sonorous are vowels (= 0), then glides (=1), liquids (= 2), nasals (= 3), voiced fricatives (= 4), voiceless fricatives (=5), voiced stops (=6) and finally the voiceless stops (=7) are least sonorant.

We prefer to articulate words with a rise and fall in sonority. For example, in 'tramp' we start with the least sonorous segment (voiceless stop /t/) then liquid /r/ with the vowel /æ/ at the peak, then the less sonorous nasal /m/, finally falling to the least sonorous voiceless stop /p/. This comes more ‘naturally’ to us than 'rtapm', for example, even though the segments are the same. This rise-then-fall tendency is called the sonority sequencing principle or SSP.

Consonant clusters are more marked than singletons, but are some clusters more marked than others? One approach to classifying two-element consonant clusters according to markedness is to rank them according to their sonority difference scores, using their numerical values from a sonority hierarchy (Ohala, 1999). For example, /kw/ (7 minus 1) has a sonority difference score of 6, whereas /fl/ (5 minus 2) scores 3. Clusters with SMALL sonority differences of 2, 3 or 4 may better promote generalised change to singletons and clusters. Gierut (1999), Gierut & Champion (2001), and Morrisette, Farris & Gierut (2006) provide evidence and target selection guidelines.

Pictures: clusters with sonority differences of 2, 3 or 4

The more marked 2-element clusters, with low sonority differences are:
/sm/ /sn/ 'shr' /fl/ /fr/ 'thr' /sl/ /bl/ /br/ /dr/ /gr/ and /sw/

/bl/ SIWI

blue black blob block bleed blind blade bleep blimp bleach blonde blow

/dr/ SIWI

dress drum drip draw drink drop drill drive drawer dragon drain drycleaner

/fl/ SIWI

flower floor flood fly flour flag flute flea float flash flip flat

/fl/ vs /sl/ SIWI

fling sling flash slash fly sly flag slag flip slip

/fl/ vs /sn/ SIWI

flake snake, flow snow, floor snore, flip snip, flag snag, flare snare, flap snap, fleas sneeze

/fr/ SIWI

free fries frame frock fruit frown frill front fridge fringe friends frond

/f/ vs /fl/ SIWI

feet fleet fake flake fat flat

/gl/ SIWI

glue globe glass glum glad glitch

/l/ vs /fl/ SIWI

lock flock lie fly lip flip

/l/ vs /sl/ SIWI

lamb slam lime slime late slate leap sleep lip slip

/n/ vs /sn/ SIWI

nip snip nail snail nag snag snake nought snort

/r/ vs 'shr' SIWI

rug shrug Rhine shine red shred

/r/ vs 'thr' SIWI

rush thrush rob throb red thread rust thrust rip thrip row throw

'shr' SIWI

Shrek shrug shrimp shrine shrike shred

'shr' vs 'thr' SIWI

shred thread shrew through shrill thrill

/sl/ SIWI

slam slow slaw slate slip sleep slime slope sling slide sleeve slice sleigh sleet

/sm/ SIWI

smoke smile smart smell smash smog small smoothie smiley

/sn/ SIWI

snow snip snail snake snack snug snoop snort sniff snooze

/s/ vs /sl/ SIWI

sip slip, saw slaw, sew slow, side slide

/sw/ SIWI

swab swag switch swan swap swim sweep sweat swing sweet

'thr' SIWI

three thrust thread throat throne thrush throw through

/w/ vs /sw/ SIWI

wag swag witch switch wet sweat weep sweep wheat sweet wing swing

Triplets: Near Minimal Pair Contrasts

Triplets 1 /s/ vs. /sl/; /f/ vs. /fl/

sip lip slip; Sam lamb slam; sew low slow; soup loop sloop; saw law slaw; fake lake flake; fight light flight

Triplets 2 Adjuncts vs. voiceless stops; /sl/, /sw/ and /sn/ vs. singletons

team seam steam; tack sack stack; tick sick stick; sigh sigh sty; tore sore store; ting sing sting; pie sigh spy; pit sit spit; peak seek speak; pine sign spine; pill sill spill; port sort sport; purr sir spur; key C ski; core sore score; cold sold scold; cat sat scat.

law saw slaw; loop soup sloop; lamb Sam slam; low sew slow; lip sip slip; wheat seat sweet; wing sing swing; weed seed swede; wet set sweat; well sell swell; nail sail snail; no sew snow; nip sip snip; knees C’s sneeze.

Pictures for the 3-element Clusters

Targeting the 3-element Clusters

Prior knowledge of the second element and the third element is required.

The 3-element consonant clusters, /spr/ /str/ /skr/ /spl/ and /skw/ should only be targeted if the child already has the relevant stop (/p/, /t/ or /k/) and the relevant liquid (/l/) or glide (/w/) present in his or her phonemic inventory. For example, if targeting /skw/ the child should have productive knowledge of /k/ and /w/, but does not need to have productive knowledge of /s/.

Targeting the 2-element Clusters

Prior knowledge of the first element and/or the second element is not required.

The 2-element clusters, /sm, /sn/, /fl/ etc. can be targeted irrespective of whether the child has previous knowledge of either or both of the two elements. For example, in targeting /sl/ the child may or may not have previous knowledge of /s/ and/or /l/.

/str/, /spr/, /skr/, /spl/ and /skw/ SIWI

strap straw string streak street stripes stream strip strange strobes stretcher strainer sprout Sprat sprig spray sprain spring screw scrum scrap scrub screen script scroll scratch scrub Scrabble scribble scrunchie splash splatter splint Splayd split splice splinter splat splits spleen splendid splurge squad squat square squash squidgy squeegee squire squiggle squirrel squid squabble squatter

3-element vs. 2-element Clusters SIWI

strap trap street treat strip trip strainer trainer spray pray scrum crumb script crypt scrunchie crunchy splatter platter splat plait squad quad squire choir squid quid squash quash

Pictures for the Adjuncts /sp/, /st/ and /sk/

Note that the adjuncts /sp/, /st/ and /sk/ are not subject to the sonority sequencing principle with respect to generalisation. What this means is, if you target adjuncts the child will learn to say them, but there will likely not be generalisation to the other adjuncts or to the clusters.

/sp/ SIWI

spy speech spit spot spin spill space spear spine

/sp/ SFWF

clasp asp gasp crisp grasp rasp

/st/ SIWI

stool stop steam stork stake stack star stick steel store sty stamp

/st/ SFWF

waist nest ghost vest feast west best lost chest burst toast mist

/sk/ SIWI

ski sky school skip skate skirt skunk skull scuba skivvy score scar scat scales scoop skin

/sk/ SFWF

ask desk disk tusk whisk mask

/k/ vs /sk/ SFWF

deck desk tuck tusk mark mask ark ask wick whisk

/k/ vs /sk/ SIWI

key ski cool school Kate skate car scar core score cat scat coop scoop

/p/ vs /sp/ SIWI

peach speech pot spot pill spill pie spy pine spine pit spit paid spade pin spin

/t/ vs /st/ SIWI

top stop talk stalk tack stack tick stick tore store tool stool team steam take stake

/t/ vs /st/ SFWF

net nest vet vest wet west lot lost Bert burst mitt mist wait waist goat ghost feet feast tote toast

/st/ vs /sk/ SIWI

stool school star scar state skate sty sky stoop scoop store score

Phonotactics - Metrical Stress

SS spondee
toothbrush bathtub e-mail mailbox

SW trochee
poppy little tiny after Sophie wander doctor
SWSW trochees
superhero alligator supermarket vaccination

WS iamb
agree belong invite excuse explain around

WSWS iambs
Hermione anemone evacuate ‘of mice and men’

SWW dactyl
strawberry motorbike poetry mockingbird buffalo
WWS anapaest
magazine understand interrupt comprehend

WSW amphibrach
volcano Nantucket important engaging refusal

S = strong syllable W = weak sylable

Iambs / Iambic feet

Some children who omit syllables only do so if the word is iambic (WS). For example they can say ‘monkey’ but not ‘giraffe’. Weak syllables tend not to be omitted word finally. Weak syllables are subject to omission, especially if they are word initial, as in “tomato” “potato” “computer” “banana” and “mosquito”. This pattern is exacerbated when an unstressed word is immediately before the iambic word, e.g., “I saw a guitar” (WSWWS).

For carrier phrases, it is easier for the child to say the iambic word without omitting the weak (first) syllable if you make the phrase iambic (WSWSWS): ‘I saw a big guitar’, ‘I heard a loud guitar’, ‘I had a toy guitar’, ‘I want a new guitar’.

Pictures for Spondees / Spondaic feet

For children who only produce monosyllables one way to help them to produce 2-syllable combinations is to focus on reduplicated spondees.

Spondees

choo-choo tutu pawpaw bye-bye Coco dodo Toto Noo-noo cha-cha yoyo Bobo mumu La-La weewee tomtom bonbon Tintin Bambam

Phonological Tendencies and Trochees

When working on extending the number of syllables a child can say, or in working on sequencing the syllables in polysyllabic words and word combinations, it can be helpful to start with trochaic sequences. This is because there is a natural tendency for children to find them easier to say. A trochaic foot, or trochee, has a strong syllable followed by a weak syllable.

In the following sets of pictures and words each image is associated with a sequence of two trochees (STRONG weak STRONG weak) like CAmelRIder (camel rider) and WAterMElon (watermelon).

As the child grows in confidence and can say a good selection of trochaic words, gradually introduce new long words that are not trochaic, e.g., alphabet, America and dinosaur.

Pictures for trochees

Trochees 1

helicopter, locomotive, caterpillar, watermelon, kookaburra, motorcycle, grand piano, alligator, mashed potato, Easter Bunny, creepy crawly, cheeky monkey, clever puppy, birthday present, picking apples, big banana, camel rider, ballerina, taxi driver, soccer player, under water, hula dancer, television, Humpty Dumpty, finger painting, escalator

Trochees 2

letterboxes, tiger lily, very windy, scary monster, service station, stripy tiger, hungry kitty, cosy jacket, clever lady, aviator, tractor driver, unicycle, shopping basket, stacking boxes, supermarket, calculator, shopping trolley, nice tomatoes, laundry basket, rubber duckie, pillowcases, dictionary, competition, excavator, chocolate crackles, agapanthus, Persian carpet, Cookie Monster, grand piano, tiny pencil

Trochees 3

pencil sharpener, birthday candles, tape recorder, suit of armour, asthma puffer, graduation, Viking helmet, Hello Kitty, pressure cooker, motor scooter, airline pilot, ballroom dancing, table tennis, ten pin bowling, table tennis, exercising, scuba diving, entertainer, ballerina, hula dancer, opera singer, film director, portrait painter, carpet layer, fortune teller, respirator, coffee maker, vacuum cleaner, concertina

Trochees 4

ukulele, movie camera, tennis player, toilet paper, salad sandwich, bunch of roses, fortune cookie, apple blossom, window cleaner, paper hanger, teeter totter, vaccination, milk and cookies, bunch of daisies, station wagon, music teacher, salad dressing, taxi driver, glass of water, education, swimming lesson, synthesizer, stormy weather, consultation, swimming teacher, exclamation, animation, plastic bottle, four-leaf clover, end of freeway

Phonotactics - Final Consonants (Codas)

Final Consonant Deletion / Deletion of Coda

Most consonants are mastered first SIWI. The exceptions are velars and fricatives which are mastered first SFWF. English has a LOT of final consonants, the most prevalent of which are velars, fricatives and voiceless stops.In typical development, children produce codas (final consonants) more often after short (lax) vowels.

When working on eliminating Final Consonant Deletion choose words like bus, check, cop, rather than base, choke, keep where the vowel is long (tense).

At first, credit any final consonant, building on what the child already has in his or her inventory. If possible, select words with ‘favoured’ (in the language) final consonants: i.e., fricatives, velars and voiceless stops.

Wordlist and Pictures and Words for FCD

Final fricatives, velars and voiceless stops with short vowels - words (no pictures)

Fricatives

miss mess mass bus moss bus kiss guess gas fuss boss fuss Liz says jazz buzz Oz buzz fizz Des has fuzz was fuzz whiff eff gaffe cuff cough cuff biff chef graph tough off tough live rev have dove of dove give Bev Rav glove Dov glove wish mesh cash rush posh rush dish flesh mash hush wash hush

Velars

pick peck pack tuck lock tuck wick neck back luck knock luck fig peg wag bug fog bug twig beg bag mug log mug wing bang bung song bung sing fang rung long rung

Voiceless Stops

zip yep nap cup top cup dip Shep lap pup pop pup mitt net bat nut hot nut hit pet pat hut dot hut wick neck yak luck wok luck sick deck pack buck sock buck

Pictures and words: Final fricatives with short vowels

miss kiss Liz fizz whiff biff live give wish dish mess guess says eff rev chef mesh gas mass jazz Rav cash bus cuff buzz dove rush wash cough mash posh of moss boss Oz glove

Pictures and words: Final velars with short vowels

pick wick fig twig wing lick sing peck neck peg beg pack back pack wag bag bang fang tuck luck bug mug bung rung lock knock fog log song pig book buck wok gong king long

Pictures and words: Final voiceless stops with short vowels

zip dip mitt hit wick sick yep Shep net pet neck deck nap lap bat pat yak pack cup pup nut hut luck buck hot dot wok sock

Pictures and words: Final /k/ and /t/ with the short vowel /ʊ/ in CVCs and CCVCs

book look crook cook brook chook nook took rook sook hook shook foot put soot crook

Near Minimal Pairs FCD 2006 Small Pictures

bee beet bee beach pie pipe Sue suit “C” seat row road buy bike buy bite chew choose bee beak cow couch sew soak ray rain ray race why wine why white why wife why wise weigh wake weigh wait lay lake lay late lay lane lay lace lay lame lie like lie light lie line lie lime tea tease tea team rye rice tray train purr purse hoe hose car calf car card chore chalk four fork shoe shoes scar scarf

Pictures and Words: Near Minimal Pairs (FCD) go-goat

go goat bow boat dough dome hoe hose throw throne row road no nose toe toad

Phonological Tendencies and Reduplication

In working to eliminate reduplication capitalise on the natural phonological tendency for toddlers to produce /i/ as the second vowel ov a CVCV word or babble. Note also that alveolars tend to co-occur in the language with high front vowels. Choose, as therapy targets, words such as pretty, itty-bitty, daddy, tidy, pussy, messy, busy, easy funny, bunny, silly and billy.

Pictures & Words for Eliminating Reduplication

1-syllable words with Alveolars and High Front Vowels; 2-syllable words with alveolar + /i/

1-syllable

sit knit feet seat kid lid bead read kiss hiss geese piece fizz his bees cheese bin pin bean queen drill hill seal wheel

2-syllables

pretty spotty muddy teddy messy pussy busy dizzy funny sunny frilly silly

Pictures and Words for children who only produce monosyllables

The reduplication worksheets above can also be used to encourage two-syllable combinations.

Spotty Snap

Use the 2-syllable words on the "spotty snap" sheets above to help children who find it difficult to produce >1 syllable (i.e. those who only produce monosyllables). Try /iː/ following a CVC word where both consonants are alveolars – Ted/teddy, etc. In extending this try to use words with a short vowel in the first syllable. Then try /iː/ following a CVC word where only the second consonant is an alveolar puss/pussy, etc.

Ted teddy, sun sunny, Dad Daddy, Sis Sissy, Nan Nanny, puss pussy, mess messy, fun funny, mouse mousie, goose goosie, kiss kissy, rat ratty, bird birdie, rain rainy, bud buddy; pretty muddy busy dizzy frilly silly; Spotty Snap Game (larger pictures on two pages); Spotty Snap Game (smaller pictures on one page); final and within word alveolar word lists

Backward Build-ups for teaching long words

Backward build-ups have long been used used in ESL and teaching (and in teaching children and adults other languages too). Velleman (2003) advocates backward build-ups as a therapy technique for multi-syllabic words, especially with children with CAS. You start with as much of the end of the word a child can say. This might even be ALL of the word except the first syllable.

Here are four examples.

dictionary
teach and strengthen "arry"
THEN
teach and strengthen "shun-arry"
THEN
teach and strengthen "dick-shun-arry"
THEN
modify the stress and timing (prosodic features)
until you have dictionary
California
teach and strengthen "yuh"
THEN
teach and strengthen "forn-juh"
THEN
teach and strengthen "lee-forn-yuh"
THEN
teach and strengthen "callie-forn-yuh"
THEN
modify the stress and timing (prosodic features) until you have California
How Jessica learned to say "yellow" (Slide Show)

Successive Approximations (Progressive Approximations)

Successive Approximations (also called Progressive Approximations) involve a shaping technique in which the child is taught to use syllables he or she can pronounce in order to produce an intelligible but not-quite-perfect version (an approximation) of the target word or phrase. In the following example, Max, who was unable to produce /r/ was taught to say Leura Public as "Loowa Public".

How Max learned to say "Leura Public" (Slide Show)

Can't open the ppsx slide shows? Go to Slide Show Help

This resource page contains many examples of picture-and-word work sheets intended for use in speech-language pathology intervention.

The sheets were made in Microsoft Word, using copyright-free pictures from Microsoft Clip Art and Media and converted into portable document files (pdfs) with Adobe Acrobat.

The vocabulary represents (non-rhotic) Australian English pronunciation, and although most of the words and minimal pairs will 'work' in other dialects of English you may need to discard some. For example, pairs like saw-shore, and spa-star are minimal pairs in Australian English and in other non-rhotic varieties of English, but not in rhotic dialects such as Canadian, Irish, Scottish and most US 'Englishes'.

SLPs/SLTs and students are invited to use these worksheets and other resources when working with children with speech sound disorders. You are free to save them to your computer and to customize them to suit individual clients and to fit your service delivery model. Restrictions that apply to their use are stated in the copyright notice.

Please read this before downloading pdf or pptx files

On this page you will find pictures and words for vowel minimal pairs, singleton consonant and consonant cluster minimal pairs, and near minimal pairs. Word lists without pictures are here and here.

How many exemplars?

There are many pictures to choose from here, but in selecting target words for phonological therapy it is definitely not a case of 'more is better'. Elbert, Powell and Swartzlander (1991) found that they could teach as few as 3 to 5 minimal pairs in order for over half of their 19 participants, aged 3;6 to 6;8, to show spontaneous generalisation to other words containing the target sounds.

ABSTRACT
"This descriptive study examined the number of minimal-word-pair exemplars necessary for 19 phonologically impaired children to meet a generalization criterion. For 59% of the test cases, three exemplars were sufficient for generalization to occur. Five exemplars were sufficient in 21% of the test cases, and it was necessary to teach 10 different exemplars in 14% of the test cases. In 7% of the test cases, generalization did not occur despite treatment on 10 exemplars. Although generalization usually occurred following treatment using a small number of exemplars, there was substantial variability across individual subjects. There was no apparent relationship between specific sounds and the likelihood of generalization; however, the data from some children suggested that treatment on one sound enhances learning of subsequent sounds. The theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed."

Elbert, M., Powell, T. W., & Swartzlander, P. (1991). Toward a technology of generalization: How many exemplars are sufficient? Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 34, 81-87.

Vowel Minimal Pairs

There are vowels in words here at the foot of the page

bait-bat
bait bat cape cap paint pant shake shack Js jazz rake rack brain bran maid mad plane plan

bay-buy
bay buy lay lie paint pint race rice lane line tail tile bake bike praise prize space spice paper piper players pliers Spain spine

K-cow
play plough/plow bay bow K cow way wow ale owl brain brown tail towel gate gout pray prow

beer-bee
beer bee near knee ear e pier pea deer d tear tee

oil-owl
soy sow boy bow oil owl foil fowl poi pow koi cow toil towel coil cowl buoy bough oy! ow!

boy-buy
boy buy toy tie oil aisle quoit kite point pint voice vice

rye-row
rye row sigh sow bye bow tile towel aisle owl pie pow mice mouse chai ciao why wow pry prow brine brown rind round

cat-cart
cat cart hat heart pack park match march jazz jars shack shark

la-lie
la lie baa buy Pa pie baa bye spa spy Shah shy

soy-saw
soy soil boil ball loin lawn coil call oil all foil fall quoit caught toil tall pois paws joy jaw soil Saul noise gnaws

soy-sea
soy sea loin lean oil eel foil feel pois peas soil seal noise knees coil keel boy bee toy tee koi key

bored-bird
bored bird walk work warm worm wall whirl hall hurl store stir fawn fern saw sir pour purr call curl torn turn

hurt-heart
hurt heart dirt dart burn barn Bert Bart spur spa stir star firm farm yearn yarn cur car shirk shark Kurt cart lurk lark herd hard Serb Saab fur far Pert part purple Parple purr Pa curd card bird Bard

bite-bat
bite bat kite cat lime lamb night gnat bike back mine man type tap vine van pilot pallet pirate parrot

cot-cut (2011)
cot cut jog jug pop pup boss bus lock luck dock duck

cot-cut (2017)
cot cut jog jug pop pup boss bus lock luck dock duck knot nut cop cup cob cub sock suck hot hut cough cuff dog Doug shot shut rob rub hog hug long lung pot putt bog bug robber rubber stomp stump golf gulf collar colour/color potty puttee Tommy tummy model muddle

deck-duck
deck duck bed bud s us bench bunch beg bug peg pug net nut

pet-put
bell bull set soot neck nook check chook wed wood well wool fell full head hood pet put

hat-hut
hat hut track truck bank bunk cat cut bag bug cab cub rag rug cap cup lamp lump tag tug

ship-sheep
ship sheep sill seal chick cheek pick peak bin bean grin green fit feet hill heel mill meal mitt meat pitch peach pill peel slip sleep wick week Tim team

tin-ten
tin ten pin pen big beg pig peg knit net bill bell sill cell pick peck chick cheque pit pet wrist rest billy belly

bed-bad
bed bad beg bag pen pan net gnat ten tan vet vat gem jam S ass said sad Ben ban men man hem ham peck pack dead Dad wreck rack guess gas wrench ranch lend land pet pat bend band send sand X axe pedal paddle merry marry celery salary Kenyan canyon lettuce lattice pellets palettes trek track

There are vowels in words here at the foot of the page

Consonant Minimal Pairs

Singleton Contrasts

Affrication (Affricate replacing Fricative); Deaffrication (Fricative replacing Affricate)

'ch' vs 'sh' SIWI
choose shoes, chop shop, chair share, cheap sheep, chew shoe, chip ship

'ch' vs /s/ SIWI
chick sick chip sip chilli silly

'sh' vs 'ch' SFWF (3) pages and 1 page of 'sh' SFWF
wash watch, crush crutch, hash hatch, mash match, leash leech, swish switch, wash watch, marsh march, mash match, wish witch, hush hutch, crush crutch, hash hatch, leash leech, bush Butch, swish switch; fish wash bush hush crash rush push wish leash brush mash quiche

'sh' vs 'ch' SFWF Six-Pix
wash watch crush crutch hash hatch

'sh' vs 'ch SFWF Six-Pix
marsh march bush Butch wish witch

'sh vs 'ch' SFWF Six-Pix
mash match leash leech swish switch

Context Sensitive Voicing (Pre-vocalic Voicing)

/p/ vs /b/ SIWI
pea bee pin bin peg beg peep beep pay bay peach beach park bark pig big peas bees path bath pug bug pie bye

/p/ vd /b/ SFWF
rope robe cup cub cap cab rip rib lap lab nip nib pup pub

/t/ vs /d/ SIWI
ten den tea D tore door tin din tip dip town down tot dot tart dart tie die

/t/ vs /d/ SFWF
mate maid feet feed heart hard beet bead fête fade mat mad eight aid seat seed pot pod court cord coat code butt bud

/k/ vs /g/ SIWI
key ghee cap gap cage gauge card guard coal goal curl girl coat goat cold gold

/k/ vs /g/ SFWF
wick wig lock log back bag leek league buck bug pick pig sack sag tuck tug stack stag whack wag frock frog shack shag dock dog tack tag block blog

See affricate and fricative cognates below under "V" for Voiceless vs. Voiced; and word final devoicing under "W".

Denazalisation (Stop replacing Nasal)

/m/ vs. /b/ SIWI
mat bat mic bike mug bug

/n/ vs. /d/ SIWI
nice dice nip dip knee D

Gliding of Affricates (Glide replacing Affricate)

/w/ vs. ch SIWI
wick chick win chin Wayne chain west chest whip chip walk chalk

/w/ vs. dg SIWI
weep jeep whale gaol | jail wig jig weigh J wet jet worm germ wade jade

/j/ vs. ch SIWI
ewe chew year cheer yellow cello yes chess

/j/ vs dg SIWI
yam jam yak jack yay! J

Gliding of Fricatives (Glide replacing Fricative)

/j/ vs. sh SIWI
U shoe yell shell yawl shawl ewe shoe yurt shirt yawn shorn ute shoot yak shack yabby shabby U shoe ewe shoo you choux

/j/ vs. /s/ SIWI
ute suit yell cell yap sap yum sum yak sack yay say yet set yam Sam yolk soak U Sue ewe Sioux you sue

/w/ vs. /s/, 'sh' and /f/ SIWI
one sun weed seed wheel seal whale sail wing sing wok sock wink sink well shell wok shock wake shake wall shawl wag shag whip ship wall fall weed feed walk fork wig fig one fun wait fete

Idiosyncratic Processes

/k/ vs. /h/ SIWI
cart heart corn horn calf half cat hat coal hole cook hook

/g/ vs. /h/ SIWI
gate hate go hoe goal hole

/h/ vs. /s/ SIWI
seat heat, sip hip, seal heel, soap hope, sum hum, sand hand, suit hoot, soup hoop, sauce horse

/h/ vs. 'sh' SIWI
sheep heap, sheet heat, shirt hurt, show hoe, ship hip, shot hot

Liquid/Glide Simplification

/l/ vs /j/ SIWI
lamb yam lei yay! lute ute lawn yawn less yes lard yard lot yacht let yet lap yap

/l/ vs /n/ SIWI
light night lock knock line nine lap nap low no lot knot lame name lei neigh let net lip nip low know life knife lice nice

/l/ vs /r/ SIWI
lamp ramp lace race lake rake leaf reef lock rock light right load road line rhyme lane rain lamb ram lead read look rook

/l/ vs /w/ SIWI
lead weed lock wok lick wick light white lyre wire lake wake link wink lead wed let wet late wait leap weep life wife lip whip lei way line wine leak week lay weigh leak weak

/r/ vs /w/ SIWI
rock wok rag wag rig wig rake wake ring wing rink wink run one reel wheel red wed

Palato-Alveolar Fronting

/s/ vs 'sh' SIWI
sew show seat sheet sour shower sell shell sip ship sack shack sign shine saw shore sock shock suit shoot cell shell save shave

/s/ vs 'sh' SFWF
ass ash Puss push Mass mash mess mesh lease leash

Stopping of Affricates (Stop replacing Affricate)

'dg' vs /d/ SIWI
Gs Ds jeep deep jive dive jaw door G D jam dam jog dog jug dig just dust

'dg' vs /g/ SIWI
juice goose Joe go gaol gale Jess guess jot got jet get jig gig jest guest G ghee just gust

'dg' vs 'd' SFWF
budge bud ledge lead siege seed bludge blood page paid hedge head wedge wed badge bad age aid

'ch vs /t/ SIWI
cheese Ts chop top chin tin chew two chai tie chick tick chalk talk chest test chick tick chip dip chews twos chart tart (tick tick tick tick chick chick chick chick etc.)

'ch' vs /t/ SFWF
patch pat arch art beach beet aich eight hatch hat ouch out match mat porch port hutch hut coach coat pitch pit

Stopping of Fricatives (Stop replacing Fricative)

/p/ vs /f/ SIWI
pan fan pin fin paint faint pig fig pine fine palm farm peel feel pat fat pair fair pile file pit fit pole foal port fort purr fur pork fork

/p/ vs /f/ SFWF
cup cuff cliff clip cop cough sheep sheaf whip whiff leap leaf harp half wipe wife cheep chief

/b/ vs /f/ SIWI
bus fuss bin fin bite fight big fig bun fun bowl foal ball fall bell fell bone phone bead feed box fox bat fat

/b/ vs /f/ SFWF
cub cuff tub tough rub rough pub puff grub Gruff cob cough Serb surf ebb F

/t/ vs /s/ SIWI
tub sub tip sip toe sew tick sick tail sail tore sore turf surf tea sea tack sack teat seat tower sour tell cell toot suit

/t/ vs /s/ SFWF
fête face eight ace mat Mass plate place court course butt bus right rice sort sauce yet yes

/d/ vs /s/ SIWI
dip sip D C dock sock duck suck dough sew die sigh door d sea deep seep

/d/ vs /s/ SFWF
bud bus slide slice mad Mass kid kiss lead lease loud louse

/t/ vs 'sh' SIWI
two shoe tie shy tape shape top shop tag shag tore shore tip ship tot shot toe show teat sheet tower shower tell shell take shake tack shack tin shin

/t/ vs 'sh' SFWF
fit fish hat hash heart harsh mat mash rat rash hut hush cat cash pot posh bat bash

/d/ vs 'sh' SIWI
door shore dip ship dot shot dark shark dock shock dough show dye shy dirt shirt deep sheep

/d/ vs 'sh SFWF
mad mash hard harsh sad sash blood blush

/v/ vs /b/ SIWI
V bee van ban veil bale vest best vat bat vet bet vole bowl Vs bees vow bow

/z/ vs /d/ SIWI
zip dip zoo do Zen den zee D zed dead

/d/ vs /z/ SFWF
bead bees pride prize road rose knead knees card cars bud buzz maid maze aid As

Velar Fronting (Alveolar replacing Velar); Backing (Velar replacing Alveolar)

/k/ vs /t/ SIWI
key tea cap tap cub tub call tall cool tool cape tape keys Ts coast toast kite tight coat tote cot tot coffee toffee

/k/ vs /t/ SFWF
pack pat ache eight Mac mat like light wake wait neck net bike bite beak beet lick lit ark art Coke coat

/d/ vs /g/ SIWI
go dough gown down gate date gust dust gull dull guide died ghee D gig dig

/d/ vs /g/ SFWF
big bid bag bad bug bud cog cod beg bed mug mud rig rid leg lead dig did rogue road

/n/ vs 'ng' SFWF
fan fang win wing pin Ping ton tongue ban bang thin thing run rung bin Bing tin ting gone gong

minimal triplets /n/ vs 'ng' vs 'nk'
win wing wink pin Ping pink ban bang bank thin thing think gone gong gonk tan tang tank

Voiceless vs. Voiced Affricates

'ch' vs 'dg' SIWI
cheese Gs chain Jane cheap jeep chunk junk choke joke chive jive

'ch' vs 'dg' SFWF
H age batch badge rich ridge lunch lunge

Voiceless vs. Voiced Fricatives and other Fricative Pairs (Fricative replacing Fricative)

/f/ vs. /s/ SIWI
fight site feet seat fun sun fort sort feed seed fax sax faint saint fit sit foal sole feel seal fine sign fur sir fail sail fox socks fix six fame same foot soot fold sold

/f/ vs. /s/ SIWI (small pictures)
fun sun feet seat four sore fell sell fur sir foal sole fit sit fine sign fix six fort sort feed seed fold sold fight site force sauce fox socks funny sunny foot soot fell sell four saw fir sir

/fl/ vs. /sl/ SIWI
fling sling flash slash fly sly flag slag flip slip

/f/ vs. /s/ SFWF
knife nice roof rhus buff bus F S leaf lease grief Greece life lice chafe chase goof goose gaffe gas poof puss f s

/f/ vs. /v/ SIWI
fan van foal vole fine vine

/f/ vs. /v/ SFWF
leaf leave surf serve fife five

/f/ vs. /v/ SIWW
loofahs louvres rifles rivals shuffle shovel

/s/ vs. /z/ SIWI
sip zip sink zinc sap zap

/s/ vs. /z/ SFWF
ice eyes bus buzz rice rise

/s/ vs. /z/ SIWW
fussy fuzzy lacy lazy prices prizes

th vs. /f/ SIWI
thin fin three free thread Fred

th vs. /f/ SFWF
wreath reef oaf oath deaf death

th vs. /s/ SIWI
thong song think sink thick sick thumb sum thaw saw thigh sigh

Weak Syllable Deletion

Find polysyllabic words on the Lexical Properties and Prosody page.

Word Final Devoicing

word final devoicing: stops, fricatives, affricates
coat code cup cub cop cob pat pad beet bead wet wed bat bad eight aid mat mad back bag cart card buck bug pick pig rope robe nip nib cap cab court cord mate maid feet feed heart hard seat seed surf serve bus buzz leaf leave fife five rice rise ice eyes aitch age batch badge rich ridge

/f/ vs. /v/ SFWF
leaf leave surf serve fife five

/s/ vs. /z/ SFWF
ice eyes bus buzz rice rise

'ch' vs 'dg' SFWF
H age batch badge rich ridge lunch lunge

Cluster Contrasts (cluster vs. cluster)

/fl/ vs. /sn/ Cluster Pairs
flake snake flow snow floor snore flip snip flag snag flare snare flap snap fleas sneeze

/r/ cluster vs. /l/ cluster Cluster Pairs
fry fly fruit flute frame flame frock flock free flea bring bling broom bloom braid blade pray play crown clown crock clock crowd cloud crew clue grow glow grass glass

/tr/ vs. /kr/ Cluster Pairs
trumpet crumpet track crack train crane trying crying true crew trust crust

/sl/ vs. /sn/ Cluster Pairs
slip snip slaw snore sleek sneak slow snow sloop snoop slap snap slack snack slug snug slob snob

Near Minimal Pairs

Cluster Reduction / Cluster Simplification SIWI

Near Minimal Pair (CR) /n/ vs. /sn/
nip snip nap snap no snow nail snail knees sneeze nought snort

Near Minimal Pair (CR) 'sh' vs. /sn/
show snow shack snack shore snore ship snip short snort shag snag shake snake share snare shale snail

Near Minimal Pair (CR) /s/ vs. /sn/
sew snow, sack snack, sore snore, sag snag, sail snail, sip snip, sort snort, soup snoop

Cluster Reduction / Cluster Simplification SFWF

Near Minimal Pair /k/ vs /sk/
deck desk mark mask wick whisk ark ask duck dusk tuck tusk

Near Minimal Pair /s/ vs /st/
bus bust chess chest guess guest

Near Minimal Pair /t/ vs /st/
coat coast butt bust fit fist get guest feet feast cart cast net nest mitt mist tote toast

Final Consonant Deletion / Deletion of Coda

Near Minimal Pairs FCD 2006 Small Pictures
bee beet bee beach pie pipe Sue suit “C” seat row road buy bike buy bite chew choose bee beak cow couch sew soak ray rain ray race why wine why white why wife why wise weigh wake weigh wait lay lake lay late lay lane lay lace lay lame lie like lie light lie line lie lime tea tease tea team rye rice tray train purr purse hoe hose car calf car card chore chalk four fork shoe shoes scar scarf

Near Minimal Pairs (FCD) go-goat
go goat bow boat dough dome hoe hose throw throne row road no nose toe toad

Initial Consonant Deletion / Deletion of Onset

Near Minimal Pairs ICD 2009 Medium Pictures 18 Pages
EIGHT wait gate late Nate Kate fete date mate; APE cape shape tape drape; AGE cage stage page rage; ACHE make break wake lake shake stake take cake rake drake bake snake; AIM shame game same lame; ALL shawl fall hall ball wall call mall Paul; ARM farm palm charm calm; ARC park dark shark bark; OUCH couch pouch grouch; EYE pie guy high tie try chai fly bye spy shy sky sty; EGG beg leg peg Meg; EAT feet beet seat meat; ITCH witch pitch ditch rich; IN win pin chin bin; EACH beach speech peach reach; UP pup cup; US bus Gus fuss Russ; UGG hug rug pug jug; AT cat hat rat bat mat pat sat scat; OIL foil boil toil soil; ICE rice nice dice mice; ORC hawk cork stork pork; EEL wheel seal heel reel

Initial Consonant Deletion: /s/ and /f/ [New 2015 Thank you Stacy Fietz for the idea]
eel seal feel; eat seat feet; aim same fame; ill sill fill; at sat fat; oil soil foil; ale sale fail; old sold fold; oak soak folk; ox socks fox; it sit fit; L cell fell; oar saw four; E sea fee; axe sax fax; oh sew foe

Near Minimal Pairs ICD 2008 Activity for Initial Consonant Deletion
Listening and production activity

Words with no final consonant - CV, CCV and CCCV words

CV words for rhotic varieties of English
pea pay Pooh paw pie poi bee boy bow bow boo bye two tie tea toe toy ta D day key cow guy go sea soy sow sew zoo Z shoe show hi hey knee no

CV words for non-rhotic varieties of English
pea pay Pooh paw pie poi pear pour bee boy bow bow boo bye bear bar two tie tea toe toy ta tear tar D day deer door key cow car core guy go sea soy sow sew seesaw zoo shoe show hi hey hair hoe knee no

CCV Words
brew brow blow blue pray prey play plough true tree try tray dry draw dray cry crew crow claw clay clue glue glee glow grow grey flow flea fly fry free sly slow sleigh slaw sty stay spa spy sky ski snow shrew sway through throw three

CCCV Words
straw spray screw stray strew spree scree straw splay spry (square squire)

Words with no initial consonant - VC words

VC Words (1) - small pictures
aitch (h) eight ape age ache aim Orc all orb arch ark arm ouch owl out eye ice eyes ill in itch axe ant at egg edge end off on odd eat each eel up is ugg oil

VC Words (2)
ace add aid ale ash ass ebb F (eff) if ink it L (ell) M (em) N (en) oak old ought own S (ess) urge urn X (ex)

VC Words (3) for rhotic varieties of English
aitch eight ape age ache aim ouch owl out eyes ice in itch axe ant at egg off eat each eel up us ugg ace add aid if old out oil

Words with the same first and last consonant - CVC words

"Palindrome Words" - same first and last consonant in CVCs
pip pup pop peep pipe Pope bib Bob tot teat toot tote Dad dead kick cock cake cook Coke cork* gag gig Sis sauce shush church* judge George* Mum / Mom mime nun nine noon naan Nan none

*‘Cork’, ‘church’ and ‘George’ are CVCC words (i.e., not CVC words) in rhotic varieties of English

Which of the following shows caroline making an effort to make her speech memorable?

Which of the following shows Caroline making an effort to make her speech memorable? Caroline decides to repeat some of the main takeaways from her research several times throughout the course of her speech. After writing a few early drafts, Caroline is confident she has narrowed her presentation's focus.

What are three methods speakers can use to avoid abstractions in informative speeches?

What are three methods you can use to avoid abstractions in your informative speech? Descriptions, compare and contrast. What does it mean to say that informative speakers should personalize their ideas?

Which techniques help you avoid abstraction in your speeches?

Your textbook recommends comparison and contrast as ways to avoid abstractions in an informative speech. Research shows that using personal terms such as "you" and "your" in an informative speech can increase listeners' understanding of the speaker's ideas.

In which of the following scenarios does Janet organize a speech from broad points to specific points?

In which of the following scenarios does Janet organize a speech from broad points to specific points. Janet decided to first discuss race relations in Europe at the time Shakespeare wrote Othello, and each example of racism in the play.

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Review Format

The Resource Description

The Resource Evaluation

Rating system

Level of pre-requisite knowledge

Where are the ratings?

Please read this before downloading pdf or pptx files

Systemic approach / 'Complexity approach'

References

Lexical Properties - Word Frequency & Density

High frequency words may be desirable treatment-words

Low neighbourhood density words may be desirable treatment-words

Explanation

Word Lists

Verbs, Nouns and Adjectives Residing in Sparse Neighbourhoods of <11 (PDF)

Low Neighbourhood Verbs (listed in the 1-page pdf above - no pictures)

Low Neighbourhood Nouns (listed in the 1-page pdf above - no pictures)

Low Neighbourhood Adjectives (listed in the 1-page pdf above - no pictures)

Pictures for Low Density Words with Clusters SIWI

Low Neighbourhood Density Words with Clusters SIWI - 1

Low Neighbourhood Density Words with Clusters SIWI - 2 (Complex Clusters)

Low Neighbourhood Density Words with Clusters SIWI - 3

Implicational Relationships (Markedness) and Sonority

Sonority Sequencing Principle (SSP)

Pictures: clusters with sonority differences of 2, 3 or 4

The more marked 2-element clusters, with low sonority differences are: /sm/ /sn/ 'shr' /fl/ /fr/ 'thr' /sl/ /bl/ /br/ /dr/ /gr/ and /sw/

/bl/ SIWI

/dr/ SIWI

/fl/ SIWI

/fl/ vs /sl/ SIWI

/fl/ vs /sn/ SIWI

/fr/ SIWI

/f/ vs /fl/ SIWI

/gl/ SIWI

/l/ vs /fl/ SIWI

/l/ vs /sl/ SIWI

/n/ vs /sn/ SIWI

/r/ vs 'shr' SIWI

/r/ vs 'thr' SIWI

'shr' SIWI

'shr' vs 'thr' SIWI

/sl/ SIWI

/sm/ SIWI

/sn/ SIWI

/s/ vs /sl/ SIWI

/sw/ SIWI

'thr' SIWI

/w/ vs /sw/ SIWI

Triplets: Near Minimal Pair Contrasts

The more marked 2-element clusters, with low sonority differences are:
/sm/ /sn/ 'shr' /fl/ /fr/ 'thr' /sl/ /bl/ /br/ /dr/ /gr/ and /sw/