What does Minimal Pairs mean?
Minimal Pairs is an approach that supports children who present with consistent phonological errors in their speech.
It is an approach that is suitable for children who present with mild to moderate phonological difficulties.
A minimal pair is a set of two words that differ by one sound, such as “snail” and “nail” or “tap” and “cap.”
If a child struggles with phonological awareness, they might say “nail” for both “snail” and “nail.”
Various phonological processes can be improved with minimal pairs, such as:
Fronting and Backing
Where a child produces sounds that should be made at the back of the mouth, like /k/ or /g/, with sounds made at the front of the mouth, like /t/ or /d/ and vice versa.
Example: saying “tat” instead of “cat.”
Gliding
When a child uses glide sounds such as /w/ or /j/ instead of liquid sounds like /r/ and /l/.
Example: “rabbit” being pronounced as “wabbit.”
Stopping
This is when a child replaces a fricative sound like /s/, /f/ or /v/ with a stop sound like /b/, /p/ or /t/.
Example: ‘Fun” becomes “Bun”
Cluster Reduction
Occurs when a child simplifies a consonant cluster by leaving out a sound.
Example: “Snail” and “nail” removing the /s/ from the /sn/ cluster.
Consonant Deletion
When a child leaves out the consonant sound from a word either at the beginning, middle or end of a work.
Example: “Cat” becomes “Ca” or “Dog” becomes “og”.
How does the minimal pairs approach work?
Focusing on pairs of words allows a child to understand how one single change in sound can create a new meaning. It’s more direct, using contrasting sounds to encourage a child to become aware of/hear the differences and begin to make their own adjustments.
Conclusion
The minimal pairs approach effectively engages children with small but significant sound differences they can understand to improve their speech development and communication.
It encourages children to become aware of the meaning of their words and supports them to build confidence in their communication.
Whether you’re a parent, caregiver, teacher or Speech Therapist, we have a range of Bjorem speech Minimal Pair Card decks in our shop, which you can see here: Sparking Speech Shop.
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References:
- https://www.bjoremspeech.com/blogs/bjorem-speech-blog/the-difference-between-bjorem-speech%C2%AE-minimal-pairs-decks-and-cycles-decks
- https://www.bjoremspeech.com/blogs/bjorem-speech-blog/understanding-phonological-disorders-the-cycles-approach-vs-minimal-pairs-approach
- https://therapyworks.com/blog/language-development/phonological-processes/phonological-processes
- https://southshoretherapies.com/b/what-are-phonological-processes
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