speech therapy st words

90+ ST Words Speech Therapy + PDF Blends

Are you a speech therapist working on the st consonant blend sound? As Speech-Language Pathologists, we are always in need of articulation lists! I’ve done the heavy lifting for you and gathered over 90 st consonant clusters. Hopefully taking some of the work off your plate. Also, don’t forget to use our flashcard set of st words for speech therapy practice below!

ST Words Speech Therapy

Below I’ve outlined target words, phrases, and sentences for practice as well as interactive flashcards and a free one-page printable with real-life photos. 

Be sure to save this post so you can refer back to it often when you need a quick and easy word list!

Phonological Processes

One phonological disorder a child or student might be experiencing when it comes to s blends in the initial position of words is called consonant cluster reduction. 

For example, consonant cluster reduction is when a child or student reduces two or three consonant sounds down to just one consonant, such as the “st” blend down to simply the s sound. 

For example, the word “stick” would become “sick”. 

Be sure to consult with a certified Speech Language Pathologist if your child is experiencing a phonological speech disorder.

Minimal Pairs

Using minimal pairs is a great idea when working on cluster reduction of initial blends.

For example, when using minimal pairs for cluster reduction with a child’s st speech sounds you could use the minimal pairs of “stack” and “sack”. 

One of the first things you can try is to show the child or student pictures of a “stack” vs. a “sack” and have them listen to hear the different sound at the beginning of each word. 

You could lay out the two pictures for the words “stack” and “sack” and then ask the child to point to the picture of the stack or the picture of the sack. 

You could then move on to have the child be the teacher and tell you to pick up the correct words either the picture of the word  “stack” or “sack”. If you pick up the incorrect picture due to their sound errors you could then point to the picture of the word they just said. 

The English language can be confusing and young children may have a hard time producing consonant clusters, but using visual picture cards and minimal pair words can be helpful for your phonology students.

Target Words

Here’s a list of st blends for you to use in your therapy room or at home for more practice.

• St Blend Sound Examples: stick, stuck, stamp, steep, stink, step, stop, star, stool, stove

See full list of words, phrases, and sentences below.

Be sure to grab my free speech articulation worksheets of st-blends below for your articulation therapy. Simply scroll to the bottom of this post and grab your free copy!

Speech Production

The initial s sound is made by lightly placing the tip of your tongue on the alveolar ridge, the area right behind your upper front teeth.

First, place the sides of the tongue against the upper side of your teeth in order to allow for the passage of air to go down the center of the tongue.

Then while smiling blow a skinny stream of air over the center of your tongue (you do not want the air to come out the sides of the tongue).

Word Level: ST Words Speech Therapy 

Word position.

The initial position of the st sound is at the beginning of a word followed by vowel sounds. For example, “stone” or “stay”.

• 1 Syllable: star, stone, step, state, start, storm, stick, stay, stop, stand, stage, stem, stove, store, sty, stock, sting, stuck, stain, still, state, stage, steak, staff, stage, stairs, stamp, stair, stool, steel, stack, stab, steps, stuff, stow, stare, stomp, stall, steal, steam, stud, stern, sticks, stork, stacks, stale, store
• 2 Syllable: story, student, stomach, Stella, station, standard, status, Stephen, style, stalker, stallion, starving, study, steady, stunning, standing, storage, stinky, starfish, stolen, stapler, stabbing
• 3 Syllable: stencil, stampede, starvation, studious, stomachache, stagecoach, stepmother, stargazing

Practice in Flash Card Mode Right Here from Your Computer!

Initial ST Words for Speech Therapy

SEE ALSO: 21 Best Reinforcement Games for Speech Therapy

Short phrases.

When working on initial st blends, it’s important to work on short phrases once your child or student has mastered the sound at the word level at or near 80% or higher accuracy.

Here is a list of initial st word phrases to try:

ST Words Speech Therapy in Phrases

Sentence Level: ST Words Speech Therapy

The next step after working at the word and phrase levels are to work on st blends at the sentence level.

For example, you could give your child or student a list of sentences to read aloud while they work on their st articulation sound. 

Another idea would be to give your child or student pictures with their st sound in them and then have them create a sentence about those pictures.

Below is a list of sentences to use with your child or students.

ST Words Speech Therapy in Sentences

ST Final Positions 

Were you hoping to find a list of st blends at the end of a word? 

If you answered yes, here is a list of 12 to get you started!

SEE ALSO: Free Articulation Games for Speech Therapy

Sn words .

Were you hoping to find a list of initial sn blends for your speech students? 

If you answered yes, here is a list of 12 to get you started! Or simply grab my entire list of 65+ sn words and don’t forget to download the free pdf as well.

ST Words Speech Therapy Ideas

Video games.

Are you looking to add some fun and engaging activities to your therapy sessions? 

Video games are a great way to reinforce practice while working on your students’ sounds. Here are a few video games to try!

• Arctic – S Blend Words by Quia has some fun, interactive games like matching, flashcards and word finds! 
• Martha’s S Blend Challenge by Quia is a fun challenge board for 2 players to practice articulation of the S blends. 
• Articulation Practice for S Blends by Quia is a great bundle of activities that target S blend production.

Language Skills

Do you have a group of students with articulation goals and language goals? 

Here are a couple of worksheets for the st blends that include some language skills as well.

• FREE St. Patrick’s Day Articulation Gold Coin Game Speech Therapy March by Sparkly Speechie is a fun interactive game with many opportunities to practice repetition of /st/. 
• Sliding Worksheets Boom Cards FREEBIE for ST Blends Articulation by Activity Tailor is a great resource to give students that need a visual cue to help with articulating /st/. 

Cluster Reduction Packet

Are you working on st-blends to work on the phonological process of cluster reduction?

If so, here are a couple of different approaches to work on cluster reductions of st-blends.

• Free Winter Speech Therapy Dot Art: Consonant Cluster Reduction (S Blends) by Ausome Speech is a simple, low prep activity to engage students in the practice of st cluster reduction. 
• Phonology Interactive Mini-Books Cluster Reduction: /st/ by Teach Speech 365 is a packet that targets cluster reduction for ST. You can get up to 100 trials by just reading the book! 
• ST blend Cluster Reduction sentences – FREEBIE by Gillian Scandurra is a pack of sentence activities to help target the reduction of st clusters. Included are sentence cards and a data collection sheet. 

SEE ALSO: 279+ Free Speech Therapy Digital Materials

Variety of home practice sheets.

Do you have some students who are making slow progress? Why not send home some simple worksheets to give your students some extra practice across multiple settings? 

Here are a couple of worksheets for the st blends that would be great to send home for practice.

• FREE Medial & Final S Blends Drill Worksheet by The Speech Spot Creations is a set of print-and-go worksheets that can be used to practice s blends. It is simple and great to send home!
• S-Blends Coloring Sheets by Zamora Gissell is a simple and fun way for students to practice saying st and other s blends as they color the worksheets. 

Low Prep Worksheets

Feeling like you don’t have enough time to prep for your speech therapy sessions? 

If you want a simple way to get your therapy session started with little to no prep why not grab one of these friendly print out worksheets and get started?

• S Blends Articulation Bingo *Freebie* by Michelle’s Communication Corner is an easy, no-prep game for your students to practice /st/ and other S blends! Just print and go! 
• St. Patrick’s Day Dot Art for Spring | No Prep by Language Speech Literacy is a no prep, engaging activity for your students to color and practice high repetition of the target sound. 
• FREE Speech Therapy Game – Articulation S Blends by The Elementary SLP – Kelly Workman is a dice deck series game with lots of opportunities to practice /st/ and other S blends! It is interactive, fun, and engaging!

Boom cards are another fun and engaging way to strengthen your child’s speech skills.

Here are a few favorite boom cards to work on initial st blends: 

• FREE “S” St. Patrick’s Day Articulation Sort BOOM Cards for Speech Therapy by Sunflower SLP is an engaging and fun boom deck to get kids practicing /st/ and other s blends. 
• Articulation Aquarium BOOM Cards: Initial SP and ST FREEBIE Sample by Panda Speech Therapy is a simple but fun game for drilling St and sp articulation! Students drag items into the aquarium while practicing the correct pronunciation. 
• S Blends V alentines Day Articulation Game by Jennie’s Speech Room is a fun, no-prep game that targets S blends and /st/. Students take turns looking under the hidden lion and then articulate the correct sound. 

In Conclusion: ST Words Speech Therapy

We hope you have found this article helpful for working on your child or student’s initial st-blend sound. 

Be sure to grab your freebie of 20 words to start practicing 5 minutes a day!

Grab Your Free ST Word List with Pictures Here!

Simply enter your name and email to have this free ST words list with pictures emailed directly to your inbox!

Grab our ST-Blends Freebie List!

Want even more s words for speech therapy.

• 213+ S-Blends for Speech Therapy
• 65+ SN Words Speech Therapy
• 63+ SM Words Speech Therapy
• 185+ Initial S Words Speech Therapy

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1100+ S Words, Phrases, Sentences, and Reading Passages Grouped by Place, Syllable, & Blend

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grasshopper

SC/SK - Blends

Sl - blends, sm - blends, sn - blends, sp - blends, st - blends, sw - blends, see also:   the best free app for speech therapy.

Initial S by Syllables

Central Park

self-control

soccer ball

celebration

certified mail

safety glasses

satellite dish

seeing-eye dog

sewing machine

subdivision

superficial

supermarket

supervision

symmetrical

sympathetic

civilization

psychological

self-analysis

superintendent

supervisory

systematically

Medial S by Syllables

tennis shoes

disadvantage

participate

policewoman

vice-president

association

classification

disobedient

electricity

necessarily

potato salad

precipitation

unnecessary

vice presidency

water moccasin

Final S by Syllables

White House

apple juice

lemon juice

adventurous

camera case

nevertheless

opera house

praying mantis

table tennis

tomato juice

appendicitis

hippopotamus

magnifying glass

metamorphosis

simultaneous

tuberculosis

Initial S Phrases and Sentences

circle of hands

fast sailboat

healthy salad

tasty sandwich

sharp scissors

playful seal

gray seatbelt

number seven

street sign

bathroom sink

garden sunflower

They made a circle with their hands.

She is so sad she is crying.

They are taking the sailboat on the water.

We ordered a salad for lunch.

The salt was dumped out on the table.

The desert had endless hills of sand.

You made a tall sandwich.

Don't run with scissors.

The seal rolled over on his back.

Put on your seat belt before leaving.

The seed will grow into a tree.

They made a seven out of stars.

She can sew the hole closed.

She is too sick to go to work.

The sign said 106 more miles.

She was not nervous to sing.

Get some water from the sink.

She would sit and wait everyday for the bus.

Wash your hands with soap.

They always want to play soccer.

The sock is hanging on the fence.

She told her dad sorry for not listening.

I ate chicken noodle soup when I was sick.

She found out that lemons are sour.

The sun was starting to set.

A sunflower grew in the garden.

Medial S Phrases and Sentences

blue bicycle

metal bracelet

ballet dancer

December holiday

scary dinosaur

wood dresser

pencil eraser

water faucet

wear glasses

tiny grasshopper

flying insect

kissing her

listen carefully

medicine bottle

secret message

small motorcycle

short pencil

nice policeman

bright popsicle

horse racing

credit card receipt

recycle bin

His bicycle is the blue one.

Her grandmother gave her the bracelet.

She was a ballet dancer.

Christmas is a holiday in December.

There was a dinosaur in the park.

The dresser is made of wood.

He used an eraser on his paper.

The faucet started to drip.

His glasses helped him see.

The grasshopper has big legs.

The insect has orange wings.

She is kissing the horse

Listen with the headphones.

He is holding the medicine bottle.

There was a message in the bottle.

He needed to clean his messy room.

We ride the motorcycle in the field.

His muscle is so big.

It is a beautiful day outside.

He needs to sharpen his pencil.

He has been a policeman for 10 years.

The popsicle is cold.

They are racing on the horse track.

The waiter gave him his receipt.

This is the best cookie recipe.

She is showing people how to recycle.

Final S Phrases and Sentences

green cactus

night class

wooden doghouse

yellow dress

erase a mistake

beautiful face

white fence

water glass

two story house

orange juice

green lettuce

little mouse

silver necklace

empty office

police officer

tied shoelace

tennis ball

I ran to catch the bus.

Cactus grow in funny shapes.

He took a night class.

The pug likes his doghouse.

She is wearing her yellow dress.

If you make a mistake, erase it.

She has a beautiful face.

The fence went around the land.

Pour me a glass of water, please.

I need to cut the grass.

The horse is running fast.

They moved into their new house.

The ice is melting quickly.

I want juice for breakfast.

The farmer grows lettuce.

She has pink lips.

The mouse wanted some cheese.

She is holding her necklace.

The office workers were all gone.

The police showed up at the crime scene.

She takes her purse everywhere.

They all wanted to race together.

Tie your shoelace before jogging.

Tennis is her favorite sport.

The walrus has huge tusks.

He said "Yes!" after being chosen for the job.

S Reading Paragraphs

Last December I was sad because my favorite baseball team lost in a tournament. You should have seen my face, it looked like someone erased my smile.

To cheer me up my dad took me out on our sailboat. It was a little messy so we took some soap and cleaned it up first. We took some sandwiches, soup, and juice and left the house early on Saturday morning.

We spent a few hours sailing around the lake. It was relaxing to just sit and listen to the water against the boat and soak up some sun. Dad told me he was sorry about the baseball team losing.

"They will have more chances to win in the future," he said. I told him I wasn't too sad anymore. "I just really wanted them to win," I said. Dad suggested that we sing the team song. He thought that would help us get excited for next years tournament.

"Next year we will sit outside on the grass behind the fence to watch the game," dad said. "We can take some salad, popsicles, and your toy dinosaurs. It will be the most fun we've ever had at a baseball game." I love my dad. He is so good at helping me be happy. 

No-Kissing Club

Kissing is gross. It makes me sick. On Valentine's Day my dad gave my mom some sunflowers in a glass vase. But that wasn't all. He also bought her a new purse, a bracelet, and a red dress. Mom was so surprised! She was so excited about all of her gifts that she threw her arms around dad and gave him a big kiss.

Yuck! It's one thing for them to say that they love each other all the time, but the kissing is too much for me. I have decided to start a club called "Anything But Lips" for people like me who don't like kissing.

I posted a sign outside and told all of my friends to come. We are going to meet in my dad's office once a week at six o'clock. We will talk about anything that is not related to kissing.

I have put a list of different topics together that we will discuss which includes: grasshoppers, motorcycle's, seat belts, soccer, tennis, soup, car racing, and insects, to name a few. Before I will let them come in the office, everyone will have to sign a contract saying they won't talk about kissing.

We have our first meeting tomorrow. I hope some people come. 

The Ice Hotel

My family and I want to see the ice house. It is really called "IceHotel", but I call it the ice house. It is located in a small town in Sweden called "Jukkasjarvi", I don't know how to say it but that's o.k. Everything inside of it is made of ice. Really!

There are ice sculptures, ice beds, ice walls, an ice roof, ice chairs, ice couches, and even an ice restaurant. People get married there, see the Northern Lights, snowmobiling, dog-sledding, and learn how to ice sculpt. It looks like so much fun, if you don't mind the cold.

Some of my friends have wondered how someone would sleep on a bed of ice. I told them you sleep on a bed of ice the same way you sleep on your bed at home...with blankets! I have wondered if the hotel has ice showers with ice soap but my mom told me it would be too cold for people to do that. I did read that they have a sauna in one of the deluxe rooms though.

Our family is going to save our money this year so we can go to Sweden in December and experience everything the ice hotel has to offer. We are so excited that we have already started packing! 

Return to Top of S Words Page

SEE ALSO:   The Best Books for Speech Therapy Practice

Initial SC/SK Blends by Syllable

schoolhouse

scholarship

scorekeeper

scoutmaster

Medial SC/SK Blends by Syllable

grade school

grass skirt

high school

butterscotch

fire escape

ice skating

public school

roller skates

stethoscope

discontented

discontinue

Easter basket

figure skater

kaleidoscope

microscopic

picnic basket

private schooling

roller skating

San Francisco

Final SC/SK Blends by Syllable

school desk

mammoth tusk

office desk

reading desk

Initial SC/SK Phrases and Sentences

really scared

school room

white skirt

furry skunk

skydive jump

She is scared to get a shot.

The scarf keeps her warm.

The school built three new rooms.

She wanted to skate on her own.

She is learning how to ski.

She is wearing her favorite skirt.

The skunk was walking in the dirt.

The sky was blue and bright.

To celebrate they want to skydive.

Medial SC/SK Phrases and Sentences

warm buscuit

secret escape 

high school club

learn to ice skate

go to preschool

rescue swimmer

long whiskers

Their lunch was in the basket.

The butter melted on the warm buscuit.

The mouse made his escape.

They are all in high school.

The husky is playing in the snow.

She knows how to ice skate well.

My son goes to preschool.

They were able to rescue the swimmer.

The cat has long whiskers.

Final SC/SK Phrases and Sentences

ask questions

ripe corn husk

classroom desk

wear gas mask

wood school desk

blue swim mask

clean whisk

You learn more if you ask questions.

The corn husk was ready to be picked.

I will sit in my favorite desk.

The gas mask kept him safe.

Wear a mask to the party.

She kept books in her school desk.

He left his swim mask by the ocean.

The elephant has a long tusk.

Use the whisk to mix the eggs.

SC/SK Reading Paragraphs

Scared to ski.

Scarlet had been scared to ski since high school. It had been 3 years since her skiing accident. She twisted her knee while skiing down a steep hill. She still didn't remember what had gone wrong.

All she remembered was that she was wearing her red scarf, black ski mask, and sky blue snow coat. She had brought a basket with some home made biscuits for her and her friend Skip to eat at lunch.

As she skiied down the hill she remembered one ski caught an edge in the snow and the next thing she knew her knee was in a lot of pain and she was being rescued by the ski patrol.

While she was in the hospital, the doctor asked her a few questions about how she was skiing on the hill. She remembered he had a deep husky voice. He told her that skiing accidents happen all the time and sometimes for no reason.

As she sat at her work desk she rubbed her knee just thinking about how bad it had hurt. She wanted to ski again, but she couldn't escape the fear of hurting her knee again. She didn't like feeling scared to ski. She had skiied for almost 10 years and didn't want to give it up.

She decided she would go skiing the coming weekend. "If I take it easy and go with a friend, maybe I can get past being scared," she thought.

Adventurous Skunk

Skylar is the most unique skunk you will ever meet. She wears pink skirts and likes to sky dive. Her favorite color is pink. If you ask her why she likes to sky dive she will simply say "I like the wind in my face." Skylar likes the wind in her face so much that she also ice skates, water skis, and scuba dives. She isn't scared of anything.

I asked Skylar why she scuba dives because you can't feel the wind in your face under water. She just smiled and simply said "I like the water in my face, as long as I have my mask on, it feels good on my whiskers."

I asked Skylar how she learned to do these types of sports. She told me she has been interested in ice skating since she was in preschool. As she got older she began to water ski and scuba dive. "I only started sky diving last year after I finished high school," she said.

I asked her where she gets the money to pay for these sports. She told me she works two jobs. She sells biscuits and other breads at the bakery during the day. At night she makes computer desks and sells them to furniture stores.

Skylar works hard and she plays hard too. I told her to have fun and be careful.

Initial SL Blends by Syllable

sleigh bells

slalom course

sledgehammer

sleeping bag

sleepwalking

slide trombone

slow motion

slow moving

sluggishness

Medial SL Blends by Syllable

cross legged

purposeless

super slide

translation

wrestling camp

wrestling coach

wrestling match

wrestling team

dislocation

legislation

legislative

Final SL Blends by Syllable

blood vessel

Initial SL Phrases and Sentences

light sleep

shirt sleeve

playground slide

toy slingshot

fuzzy slippers

dog slobber

He went fast downhill on his sled.

Sleep on the couch for a nap.

He fixed the sleeve under his coat.

He went fast down the slide.

His mom let him play with a slingshot.

She left her fuzzy slippers on the couch

I hope the dog doesn't slobber on me.

Sloths hang upside down in trees.

Drive slow, children are playing.

Medial SL Phrases and Sentences

fast asleep

race bobsled

dogsled race

big mudslide

quiet ski slope

English translator

loud whistling

They fell asleep on the couch.

Bobsled is a sporting event.

The dogsled team was out in front.

Stay far away from the mudslide.

He was excited to get on the ski slope.

Our translator speaks 4 languages.

He is whistling at the car.

The boys are in the championship wrestling match.

Final SL Phrases and Sentences

tiny blood vessel

vitamin capsule

kings castle

ancient fossil

big missile

You can see the blood vessel on her eyelid.

She prefers to take a vitamin capsule.

The castle is on top of a cliff.

The fossil is of a fish.

He will get tackled if he doesn't hustle.

The truck has a missile on the back.

The sumo's are starting to wrestle.

SL Reading Paragraphs

Dogsled racing.

I have a dog named Sylvester but we call him Sly for short. When we wrestle he likes to lick and slobber on me. We compete in dogsled races.

Dogsled races are hard work and we don't sleep much when we train for them. We don't go slow, we hustle...for many days. Some days it is hard not to fall asleep on the trail.

I talk to Sly through words and whistling. Dogsled races can be dangerous. One time we almost got caught in a mudslide and another time I pulled a muscle and needed help from another dogsled team. 

Sly and I help each other though. He is my best friend.

A Spy in Pajamas

My friend Sloan sleeps a lot. He told me about a crazy dream he had yesterday. In the dream he was a spy. He was being chased by bad guys on sleds down a ski slope. He had taken an expensive bracelet and destroyed the bad guys' castle. The bad guys were launching missiles at him and trying to slow him down.

When Sloan reached for something to defend himself, all he could find was a slingshot. He fired rocks from the slingshot as fast as he could. The bad guys began to laugh at him. Not because of the slingshot, but because Sloan was doing all of this wearing pajamas and pink bunny slippers.

Sloan didn't care though.

He remembered he had a special capsule that could help him. He reached up his sleeve, grabbed the capsule and ate it.

A few seconds after he ate the capsule, Sloan was invisible. The bad guys couldn't see him. Just as he was about to escape, he woke up. It was a funny dream. 

Initial SM Blends by Syllable

smoke screen

smart aleck

smelling salts

smoke chase

smoke jumper

smorgasbord

Medial SM Blends by Syllable

businessman

Christmas card

Christmas Eve

Christmas tree

first baseman

locksmith shop

second baseman

silversmith

third baseman

embarrassment

junior classman

lower classman

senior classman

upper classman

Initial SM Phrases and Sentences

smash glass

happy smile

black smoke

smooth rocks

fruit smoothie

He feels small next to him.

She is a very smart girl.

He didn't mean to smash the window.

He stopped to smell the flower.

She has a beautiful smile.

Many large cities have smog.

The smoke was high in the sky.

The black rocks are smooth.

Would you like a drink of my smoothie?

Medial SM Phrases and Sentences

empty basement

tool making blacksmith

important businessman

favorite classmate

skilled first baseman

nice locksmith

square placemat

He does laundry in his basement.

The blacksmith makes old-fashioned swords.

The businessman had many important meetings.

She sells Christmas trees.

Sue was her favorite classmate.

The first baseman caught the fly ball.

The locksmith is fixing it.

I will put my food on the placemat.

SM Reading Paragraphs

Smart locksmith.

Smitty is a clever businessman. He is smart, a smooth dealmaker, and always smells like pizza. Some people might not like that but since I love pizza, it's o.k. with me.

I am a locksmith and Smitty is the person I order parts from. When people break, smash, or ruin their door handles or locks, they call me. There are thousands of different types of locks and handles, but Smitty knows all of them. That's why I think he is so clever.

He and I were classmates at Smith High School and have worked together for 10 years now. He always answers my questions and has just the right locksmith tools and products I need to help my customers. I have wondered if he has a secret locksmith lab in his basement. That way he can be around locksmith parts and tools all the time.

When I asked him how he knew so much he smiled and said he was given a book at Christmas 10 years ago. The title of the book was "Everything You Need to Know About Locksmithing". "It isn't a small book," he said. He has learned everything he knows from that book.

Of course, he still has to be smart and remember the information in it, and being a smooth salesman helps too. There is a lot to be learned from reading. I should start reading some of the books I have in my basement.

Dumb Robber

As the policeman looked at the crime seen he saw some clues. The robber who had broken into the house was not that smart. He had smashed the window to unlock the door. But the door wasn't locked. The handle had just been replaced by the locksmith and didn't have a lock on it.

Then the robber had made himself a smoothie and left fingerprints all over the blender, the glass he drank the smoothie out of, and the placemat he had put the smoothie on. The robber even spilled some of the smoothie on the ground, stepped in it, and left footprints in the kitchen. Now the policeman had fingerprints and a shoe size.

The policeman followed the footprints past the Christmas tree. The robber had knocked some of the ornaments off so the policeman could tell that he went down the stairs to the basement. The home owner was a businessman who worked out of his basement office.

When he reached the basement, the policeman could smell some of the smoothie so he knew the robber had been there. The policeman looked around the basement. There were pictures of the home owner playing baseball. Judging by the pictures the policeman thought that the home owner was a first baseman.

The policeman saw a small ashtray on the home owner's desk. It looked like the robber had smoked while he was in the basement which would give the policeman more evidence to catch him. "This will be an easy case to solve," he thought, as he walked back upstairs. 

Initial SN Blends by Syllable

snake charmer

snowball fight

snow blower

snapping beetle

snapping turtle

Initial SN Phrases and Sentences

healthy snack

green snake

snap in half

going to sneeze

use snorkel

cold snowman

She is eating a midnight snack.

The snail has a hard shell.

The snake in the grass made me jump.

He showed us how to snap the pencil.

Allergies made him sneeze a lot.

He would snore loudly during his nap.

He uses the snorkel to breath under water.

The pig put his snout through the fence.

We will make a snowman this winter.

SN Reading Paragraphs

Sneezing and snacking.

Sometimes I snore at night. I sneeze a lot too. I can't help it. My wife told me to go see a doctor, but I haven't yet and I'll tell you why. I love midnight snacks too much.

Before my snoring and sneezing problem I would have to sneak out of bed at night to go to the kitchen. My wife is a light sleeper and I woke her up a lot. When she did she would get a little snippy with me, so I had to be more careful.

There was one night that my daughter caught me eating my snack in the kitchen. I asked her to go back to bed. The next day she snitched on me and my wife said eating midnight snacks can be unhealthy if you eat bad food. I told her I eat healthy food and she said it was o.k. then.

Don't get me wrong, I love my wife, and I love to sleep, but I get to see a lot of cool things at midnight too. Since eating snacks at midnight I have seen a snake in our yard, snow storms, and one night I watched a snowplow run into a snowman in my neighbor's yard. I was surprised that I didn't wake everyone up because I was laughing so hard. My neighbor is kind of a snob, so I thought it was funny it happened to him.

I will go see the doctor about my snoring and sneezing some day. There are too many fun things about having a midnight snack that I don't want to give up. I just hope my wife doesn't get sneaky and make a doctor's appointment for me.

My friend Terri plays the snare drum in her band. The band's name is "Snakebite". Terri told me that the band's guitar player was bit by a snake when he was a teenager and wanted to name a band after it.

When I went to listen to them play I started to snooze. They were good, but I didn't like their style of music. When Terri asked me how I liked their sound, I told her she played the snare drum well. She knew I was being sneaky and asked what I really thought.

I told her that I had fallen asleep during their song. "I thought I heard someone snoring during the song," she said. "You all play really well, it just isn't my type of music," I said. "Next time I listen I will have to bring some snacks to help me stay awake."

The guitar player heard me talking to Terri and snickered "You wouldn't know good music if it sneezed on you."

"I think you sound great," I told him. "I just don't like the type of music you play. I think Snakebite is going to be very successful." He apologized and told me that I was a nice guy and that he liked my sneakers. Then he gave me a firm hand shake and snapped his fingers. "We'll remember you when we're famous," he said. 

Initial SP Blends by Syllable

space heater

space station

Spanish rice

speed limit

spelling bee

spinal cord

sponsorship

sporting goods

sportsmanship

sportswriter

spectacular

speech therapist

speech therapy

speedometer

spider monkey

spinal column

spiral notebook

spontaneous

Special Olympics

specialization

specifically

specification

Medial SP Blends by Syllable

Shakespeare

loudspeaker

mispronounce

outer space

transparent

correspondence

desperation

disposition

inspiration

perspiration

respectable

respiration

responsible

tablespoonful

unspeakable

hospitality

indisputable

irresponsibly

respiratory

inspirationally

respectability

responsibility

Initial SP Phrases and Sentences

speeding car

spill juice

green spinach

spooky night

silver spoon

play sports

It would be amazing to go into space.

The police chased the speeding car.

The spider waited for flies in the web.

Don't spill on the carpet.

Spinach is very healthy for you.

She squeezed the water out of the sponge.

The graveyard was spooky at night.

I eat cereal with a spoon.

You can choose to play many sports.

Medial SP Phrases and Sentences

asparagus stalk

crispy chicken

disposable dishes

high-speed train

big hospital

blue passport

brown suspenders

one tablespoon

whisper softly

I eat my asparagus steamed.

They made crispy chicken.

It's easier to clean with disposable dishes.

She was riding on a high-speed train.

We are going to the hospital tonight.

You must have your passport to enter.

He wears suspenders instead of a belt.

The recipe says to use one tablespoon.

She whispered into the girl's ear.

SP Reading Paragraphs

My friend spring.

Her parents named her Spring because she is happy despite what is going on in her life. Spring loves to eat asparagus and go to the spa. She spends most of her time studying space because she wants to be an astronaut. Either that or she wants to be in the hospitality business.

I have known her for one year, but Spring and I have only been on one date. We have spent a lot of time together during the last year. She speaks softly but is confident. She is an amazing cook and loves to eat spicy food. She uses spices I have never even heard of. She chews spearmint gum and likes spooky things, especially at Halloween.

She and I met in a speech therapy class in college. We have had many of the same classes and spent time doing homework, studying for tests, and working on class projects together. She is amazing at spelling. In addition to taking college classes, Spring volunteers for Special Olympics. She is inspiring to watch. As a coach, she sparks happiness in people even when they are really sad.

Spring also likes to speed when she drives. Don't tell her I told you though. I told her she is special to me and that I don't want her to get hurt. I think she respects my opinion. I told her I would spy on her to make sure she slows down. She just laughed and said she will try and be better.

Sports Crazy

Spike is a sports nut. Some people might say he is a sports lunatic. He knows specific statistics about almost every baseball, basketball, soccer, volleyball, hockey, tennis, rugby, and cricket game that has been played in the last 6 years. The first basketball game he watched sparked his interest. From that time on, he has almost become a specialist in most sports and their players.

I think he should be a sports writer. If he had it his way, he would eat spoonfuls of sports for breakfast. When I told him that he responded by saying "They might be a little crispy!"

Recently, he has become more interested in motor sports like car, motorcycle, and speedboat racing. A few months ago he was changing spark plugs in his car. He realized there were sports that use machines and he didn't know anything about them. Since then he has spent every day watching and researching motor sports.

He spends a lot of time and money learning about sports. That way he can speak to others about them and answer questions they might have. Some people have asked him to speculate about what teams or drivers will win so they can bet on them. Spike won't do that though. He says he has too much respect for sports to "sell them out". 

Initial ST Blends by Syllable

stateswoman

stepbrother

stepping stone

stomach ache

storm cellar

storm warning

storm window

study group

station master

station wagon

Medial ST Blends by Syllable

bus station

distinguish

gas station

outstanding

post office

question mark

consistency

constitution

establishment

grocery store

interesting

investigate

misunderstand

pessimistic

questionable

solar system

superstition

T.V. station

understanding

United States

constituency

investigative

unquestionable

Final ST Blends by Syllable

hornet's nest

pathologist

psychologist

ventriloquist

audiologist

cardiologist

ophthalmologist

Initial ST Phrases and Sentences

bright star

juicy steak

stir around

sore stomach

clothing store

I see more than one star.

The steak is on the grill.

The gum on my shoe is too sticky.

I need to stir to soup.

His stomach was sore from the pain.

Always stop when you see the sign.

It was their favorite store to shop at.

It was a big lightning storm.

Mom read a story to her son.

Medial ST Phrases and Sentences

at the bus stop

busted criminal

bamboo chopsticks

Halloween costume

red lipstick

old postcard

ask a question

rusty metal

long yardstick

The man waited at the bus stop.

The man was busted for theft.

His chopsticks were made from bamboo.

He wore a costume to the party.

She is putting on red lipstick.

Send us a postcard when you get there.

She raised her hand to ask a question.

The rusty containers were in the field.

A yardstick is 3 feet long.

Final ST Phrases and Sentences

eat breakfast

dentist visit

dressed man

thick forest

green toothpaste

I love bacon, eggs, and orange juice for breakfast.

His chest is muscular.

I went to the dentist for a check-up.

He was dressed for work.

You can tell that the horse is fast.

Many trees are in the forest.

There are eggs in the nest.

Toothpaste will help keep your teeth clean.

He is holding his wrist.

ST Reading Paragraphs

Spicy chinese.

Stan's stomach began to ache from eating spicy Chinese food. It started about 2 hours after he finished lunch. He used chopsticks so he wouldn't eat too fast but the food was catching up to him.

He stopped at the store on the way home from work because his chest was burning. He hoped that he could find something to help stop the burning.The antacid pills he bought didn't cost too much, especially if they would help.

It was starting to storm outside and Stan thought it would be a good night to stay in and relax on the couch with his favorite book "Stewart Little". He had plans to make steak for dinner, but he chose something lighter since his stomach was bothering him. When he got home he walked up the stairs to his bedroom and dressed in his most comfortable lounge clothes.

After changing and eating a light dinner Stan tuned his stereo to some classical music, sat down, and started to read his book. He read for about an hour and decided to stop and go to bed. He had thought about eating his leftover Chinese food for breakfast in the morning but he quickly changed his mind. The storm had passed and everything outside was still. Stan drifted off to sleep.

Running Stars

Steve and Dusty were the fastest runners on the high school track team. No one messed with them. Last August the both ran the longest races and finished in first and second place.

One time, someone asked them the question "How did you become such good runners?" Both of them had different statements. Steve said "I follow a constant and consistent training program and meal plan. I use a stopwatch to time my speed every race and I try to beat that speed everytime."

Dusty said "I run stairs everyday in the football stadium for thirty minutes without stopping. I can run long distances because I have established endurance in my lungs and muscles."

A woman came from the TV station wanted to ask them more questions like when they started running and how they became interested in it. Steve said "My grandpa told me stories about himself when he was a runner and that is what interested me in it." Dusty said "When I was a middle school student, I was always restless at night. I started falling asleep during the day. Running helped me stay calm, stop being anxious, and go to sleep. If I felt restless, I would go on a short run, and afterward, I would go right to sleep at night."

The woman from the TV station told them they were fantastic runners and wished them good luck on their next race. Steve and Dusty thanked the woman and headed to the shoe store to buy some new running shoes. 

Initial SW Blends by Syllable

sweat gland

sweat pants

sweat shirt

sweet tooth

Swiss cheese

swimming hole

swimming pool

swinging bridge

swinging door

Switzerland

sweet and sour

Initial SW Phrases and Sentences

dripping sweat

red sweater

The swan is a beautiful bird.

His shirt is covered in sweat.

She will buy the red sweater.

Their mom asked them to sweep up the leaves.

The dessert tasted very sweet.

He likes to swim in the lake.

She likes to swing at the playground.

Swipe your card to pay for it.

She will switch the light off.

SW Reading Paragraphs

Swap meet switch.

The swap meet was every Saturday at 10 a.m. Sweeney looked forward to the swap meet, there were so many fun and new things to see there.

Last week he had seen a swan with 4 ducklings and the week before that he saw a swarm of bees which was a little scary.

In the past, he had eaten sweet and sour chicken with Swiss cheese, bought a new swimming suit, and found the perfect broom for sweeping his floor at home.

During breakfast Sweeney was reading the newspaper and saw a new swap meet that was in town. He couldn't believe his eyes. "Two swap meets?" he thought. He wondered if he should switch which swap meet he went to.

He nervously searched the advertisement to see what time the second swap meet happened. His hands began to sweat. The newspaper said the second swap meet was on Saturdays at 2 p.m.

"Sweet!" said Sweeney. He knew exactly what to do. He would simply go to both swap meets! For a moment, Sweeney had thought he might have to switch which swap meet he would go too. He was so happy that he could go to both of them.

To celebrate he went into his room and put on his swap meet sweater and danced to his favorite Swedish music, both of which he had bought at a swap meet.

Sweet Birds

Have you ever met a swan or a swallow that loves sweets? There is a lake by our house that we go swimming in all the time.

Last week we were getting ready to eat lunch. We had brought ham sandwiches with Swiss cheese that were made from sweetbread and some sweets, chocolate cake and licorice. We began eating.

Just then a big white swan flew over by us. Then a tiny swallow flew down and landed on the ground by the blanket we were eating on. Both of them walked right up to the cake and stuck their beaks in it.

I swiped the cake away from them but they only switched their position to the other side of the blanket where I had put the cake.

I swatted at the swan. It didn't bother him and he just kept eating. I swatted at the swallow. He flew away from me but quickly came back to eating the cake.

I was working so hard to get the swan and the swallow away from our sweets that I began to sweat. I had never seen a swan or swallow with such a strong sweet tooth.

I worried that my wrists would be swollen from swatting at the birds so much. Luckily they weren't. Next time we go swimming at the lake I think I'll leave our sweets at home.

This list of functional words was professionally selected to be the most useful for a child or adult who has difficulty with producing the "S" sound.

We encourage you to use this list when practicing at home.

Home practice will make progress toward meeting individual language goals much faster.

Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) are only able to see students/clients 30-60 mins (or less) per week.

This is not enough time  for your child to overcome an articulation disorder with the "S" sound. But with high caseloads...

...it's all SLPs can do.

There's  only so much time  in the day.

Every day that your child goes without practice  it becomes more and more difficult  to correct an "S" error because he/she continues to say it incorrectly. 

We know life is busy , but if you're reading this you're probably someone who cares about helping their loved one as much as you can.

Practice 5-10 minutes whenever you can, but try to do it on a consistent basis (daily).

Please, please, please use this list to practice.

It will be a great benefit to you and your loved one's progress.

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I created these free speech and language worksheets so you can easily download and print them out to use as part of your speech therapy program.  Just scroll down the page to view the worksheets by topic.  You will find free speech therapy worksheets for articulation, vocabulary , grammar, holiday articulation and language games…and lots of other miscellaneous speech therapy creations that I love!  If you would like more information on what articulation therapy is you might like to read a post I have written called  Teaching Speech Sounds: The Process of Traditional Articulation Therapy

Parents:  If you are a mommy or a daddy (or grandma or grandpa) who wants to work with your child at home, you can use these speech therapy activity pages for extra practice.  Just choose the sound position to work on (initial, medial, or final) and click on the corresponding link to view and print the worksheets.  To help make practice more fun, you can print out two of the same page so you have pairs, cut them out, and use them to play a game of memory or go fish. You can also use them as flashcards.  You will find free speech therapy worksheets by sound and at a variety of levels; word level, phrase level and sentence levels!

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How to Teach Z Sound: Articulation Activities, and Word Lists for Effective Speech Therapy

How to teach sh blend sound: articulation activities, and word lists for effective speech therapy, how to teach s blend sound: articulation activities, and word lists for effective speech therapy.

An “s blend” sound is a consonant blend that begins with the “s” sound and is followed by another consonant sound. Some common “s blend” sounds include “sp,” “st,” “sk,” “sl,” “sm,” and “sn.” In speech therapy, these sounds may be referred to as “s clusters.”

To produce an “s blend” sound, you can start by producing the “s” sound, and then quickly transitioning to the following consonant sound. For example, to produce the “sp” sound, you would begin with the “s” sound and then quickly transition to the “p” sound by closing your lips together and then releasing them to create the plosive sound.

Here are few tips you can follow to teach the “S blend” sound:

Demonstrate the sound: Start by demonstrating the “S blend” sound for your child. Make the sound and have your child watch your lips and mouth movements. Explain that the sound is made by placing the tongue behind the top teeth and blowing air through the small gap between the tongue and the teeth.

Visual Cue: Show the child how to place the tip of their tongue behind their upper front teeth and then push air out through a narrow gap between the tongue and the roof of the mouth. You can use a visual cue such as a picture or flashcard of the specific “S blend” sound (e.g. “st,” “sp,” “sk”) to help your child remember the sound.

Understand the sound: Help your child understand that the “S blend” sound is a combination of the “S” sound with another consonant sound, made by placing the tongue behind the top teeth and blowing air through the small gap between the tongue and the teeth.

Practice Blowing: Help your child get used to the sensation of blowing out air with their mouth by having them practice blowing bubbles, blowing feathers across a table, or blowing out candles.

Practice Tongue Placement: Show your child how to position their tongue behind their top teeth and blow air through the small gap between their tongue and teeth to make the “S blend” sound.

Practice in Isolation: Once your child has mastered the correct tongue and mouth position, have them practice making the specific “S blend” sound (e.g. “st,” “sp,” “sk”) on its own without any other sounds.

Add Syllables: After your child has mastered the “S blend” sound in isolation, have them practice using it in different syllables, such as “sta,” “spi,” and “sku.” You can make it more fun by having them say words like “stink,” “sparkle,” and “skunk.”

Practice in Words: Once your child has mastered the “S blend” sound in syllables, have them practice using it in different words such as “star,” “spring,” and “sky.”

Practice in Phrases: After your child has mastered the “S blend” sound in words, have them practice using it in phrases like “big star,” “silly spider,” and “warm scarf.”

Practice in Sentences: Finally, have your child practice using the “S blend” sound in different sentences such as “I saw a sparkly star in the sky,” “The spider spun a sticky web,” and “The skateboard skidded on the pavement.”

Practice Everywhere: Encourage your child to practice using the “S blend” sound in different contexts, such as during playtime, mealtime, or while reading books. You can also make it more fun by having them use the “S blend” sound in different accents or dialects.

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ST Consonant Blend

These worksheets feature words with the consonant blend ST.  Students will learn to read words like: start, stop, steep, stool, stem, and stand.

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These worksheets feature SN words, like snail, snip, and snap.

Use these printables to practice basic sight words.

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What Is Speech Therapy?

Speech therapy is a form of healthcare that helps improve communication and speech. It can also help improve swallowing function and other behaviors related to feeding.

About one in 12 children in the United States has a speech or swallowing disorder. Disorders are most common in young children, but many adults have a related condition. For example, about one million adults in the United States have aphasia (difficulty expressing or comprehending written and verbal language).

Speech therapists (STs) or speech-language pathologists (SLPs) assess and treat people of all ages. They use various techniques to help people with challenges related to speech production, language comprehension, hearing, voice quality, fluency, and swallowing. 

What Does Speech Therapy Treat?

Speech therapy treats various disorders involving hearing, speech, language, literacy, social communication, voice quality, executive functioning (for example, memory and problem-solving), feeding, and swallowing.

Specific speech disorders include:

• Articulation disorders: Difficulty pronouncing words or sounds such as the “s” sound (for example, saying “thun” rather than “sun”). This can occur during childhood language development or with structural problems like tongue-tie. A tongue tie is when a small band of skin connects the tip of the tongue to the bottom of the mouth. It is congenital, meaning it's present at birth.
• Dysarthria: Slow, slurred, or unclear speech. This occurs with oral (mouth) muscle control decline due to neurological conditions (related to the brain or nervous system), such as multiple sclerosis (MS) —a condition that occurs when the immune system attacks myelin, the covering wrapped around nerve cells.
• Apraxia: Knowing what you want to say but having difficulty producing the correct sounds or words. Apraxia can cause slow, error-prone speech or the need to intentionally move your tongue and lips in order to produce sounds and words. Apraxia can be present at birth, but it can also occur as a result of brain injuries, brain tumors , or a stroke .
• Fluency disorders: Speech flow disruptions like stuttering. Stuttering is experiencing interruptions in speech and repeating sounds, syllables, or words. Researchers are still exploring possible causes of dysfluency, but they seem to include genetics, developmental components, neurological factors (how the brain processes), and brain injury. Many children outgrow fluency disorders, but they can persist into adulthood.
• Voice disorders: Vocal cord spasming (choppy voice), hoarseness, pitch problems, or voice fatigue are examples of voice disorders. This can result from infection, overusing the vocal cords, or neurological disorders. 

Language or communication disorders include:

• Aphasia : Aphasia is a language disorder in which you have difficulty expressing or comprehending written and verbal language. Receptive aphasia is difficulty understanding written or verbal words. Expressive aphasia is difficulty communicating thoughts and ideas with language components like vocabulary, grammar, and sentence formation. Aphasia can occur with childhood development, language impairment, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), brain injury, or neurological disorders.
• Pragmatic language disorder: This relates to social communication. Signs include misunderstanding social cues like eye contact, body language, and personal space. It can occur during childhood development or with underlying neurodivergence (brain variation), such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) , a brain development condition that affects how a person perceives and socializes with other people.
• Accent or tone: While this is not a disorder, speech therapists can also work with people who wish to modify their accent or an unusual speech rhythm, pitch, or tone. For example, a high-pitched, sing-song, or robotic tone can occur with ASD.
• Executive functioning: Executive functioning challenges include difficulty with memory, planning, organization, problem-solving, and attention. This can occur due to brain injuries or conditions like ASD and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) , a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by inattention (being distracted), hyperactivity (feeling restless), and impulsivity (making hasty decisions).
• Auditory processing disorder: This is a neurological condition that makes it difficult to make sense of sounds. 

Feeding and swallowing disorders affect how you suck, chew, and swallow food and drinks. Difficulty swallowing is also known as dysphagia , which can result in choking during meals—and lung infections if food or liquid enters the airways. It can occur with structural abnormalities, muscular weakness, or neurological conditions like a stroke. 

Related: Rediscover Sound: The Best Hearing Aids for Improved Quality of Life

How Does Speech Therapy Work?

Speech therapy involves techniques like language practice, pronunciation exercises, voice therapy, and swallowing exercises. It begins with a thorough assessment, including observation of communication strategies, challenges, and frustrations.

Speech therapy for infants, toddlers, and children involves fun and engaging activities like play, language exercises, reading, picture cards, and modeling correct sounds. This helps make learning more enjoyable. 

Parents or caregivers often attend sessions and learn ways to support children at home. The ST or SLP will tailor the treatment plan to the child’s developmental stage. Early recognition and intervention (treatment) can help improve outcomes.

With adults, the ST or SLP will begin with an assessment to identify specific challenges. They will then create a specific care plan that addresses underlying concerns such as:

• Medical conditions
• Accent modification
• Voice challenges
• Pronunciation
• Conversational language
• Problem-solving
• Memory exercises

What To Expect During Speech Therapy

Speech therapy can occur in a class, small group, online, or one-on-one. Speech therapists typically assign exercises to practice at home in order to reinforce what you learn. Activities might include:

• Vocal warm-ups like humming 
• Tongue twisters to improve articulation
• Breaking words into syllables to improve clarity
• Contrasting word exercises—for example, "ship" versus "sheep"
• “Pausing” practice (for stuttering)
• Repetition after listening to a native speaker 
• Repetition exercises for sounds like “s” 
• Speech rate control—for example, by tapping hands to a beat
• Pitch exercises
• Breathing and posture exercises

Receptive language exercises include:

• Memory or problem-solving exercises
• Reading comprehension (similar to a book report)
• Speech supplementation (written, gestural, voice amplifier, speech-generating devices)
• Word association
• Communication partner exercises, such as practicing eye contact and active listening

Exercises for swallowing and feeding include:

• Diet modification (pureed to solid foods)
• Oral muscle strengthening (like tongue “push-ups”)
• Swallowing exercises

Benefits of Speech Therapy

One of the main goals of speech therapy is to enhance a person’s ability to express thoughts, ideas, and emotions effectively. This can lead to a greater sense of self-expression, meaningful interactions with others, and less frustration. Other benefits include:

• Greater self-confidence: Gaining more control over language and communication can increase confidence and boost self-esteem. As a result, you might be more willing and excited to engage in social activities. 
• Improved academic or professional performance: Clear speech and language can lead to enhanced skills in comprehension, reading, and writing. This can support academic success. Better articulation, language, and presentation abilities can help with career development.
• Greater independence: Speech therapy can lead to greater self-reliance, especially if you have severe communication challenges. For example, augmented and alternative communication (AAC) methods , such as speech-generating devices (SGDs), can allow you to express yourself more independently.

How Successful Is Speech Therapy?

Speech therapy's “success” depends on your goals. The meaning of success can vary based on your underlying communication or medical condition and its severity, as well as your motivation and commitment to therapy, the therapist's expertise, and your support systems. The time it takes to reach your goals also varies based on underlying factors like these.

For example, you may define success as improved pronunciation, or you may work towards more effective communication, more skilled accent modification, or swallowing without choking. If you stutter, your goal might be improved fluency or feeling more comfortable communicating openly with a stutter. For most people, what’s most important is to set realistic expectations and recognize that any improvement in communication is a success.

How To Find a Speech Therapist

A qualified speech therapist or speech-language pathologist holds a master's degree in speech-language pathology and state licensure to practice in your area. You can find speech therapists in settings like:

• Home health agencies
• Rehabilitation centers
• Private practice
• Telehealth (online)

You can also ask for recommendations from healthcare providers or school personnel who may know local speech therapists. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) also offers an online directory of certified speech therapies to help you locate someone in your area.

Check with your health insurance provider to see if they cover speech therapy. They can provide you with information about your co-payments and deductibles. If your insurance doesn't cover the cost, the clinic or speech therapist may offer payment plans. Some children may also qualify for:

• Individualized education programs (IEPs) that cover speech therapy costs as a service from the school district
• Early intervention (EI) or Preschool on Preschool Special Education (CPSE) programs for infants and toddlers for little or no cost to families
• State and federal programs, like Medicaid
• Financial assistance programs from non-profit and advocate organizations

A Quick Review

Speech therapy is a specialized healthcare field in which trained professionals help improve speech, language, hearing, swallowing, and feeding for people of all ages. Speech therapists (STs) and speech-language pathologists (SLPs) thoroughly assess and develop specific treatment plans for a wide range of conditions including difficulty communicating or processing language, stuttering, and voice disorders.

Speech therapy takes place in locations like schools, hospitals, and private practice. It can be one-on-one or in a group setting. Success depends on underlying factors such as the severity of the condition. It also depends on personal goals and your definition of success—which can vary widely from person to person.

Many people who have speech therapy experience powerful benefits that affect them in nearly every aspect of life, including greater self-confidence and self-reliance.

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Speech and Language Therapy

The most common areas where Speech-Language Therapy is beneficial are:

Through an engaging, play-based approach, we create activities that improve speech skills such as:

- Increasing speech clarity/intelligibility

- Production of age-appropriate speech sounds

- Phonological Processing

- Motor planning and coordination for speech

   production

- Apraxia of Speech

Proficient use of language is essential to a child’s social, emotional, academic and personal success. We may address both expressive and receptive language, meaning we teach children how to better understand what is being said to them as well as how to ef express themselves. Through evidenced-based practice, this is a sampling of what we may focus on:

- Language comprehension skills

- Answering questions

- Expressing wants and needs

- Following directions

Social Communication Skills

Some examples of appropriate social skills include:

- Eye Contact

- Conversational Skills

- Social Norms (e.g., greetings)

- Appropriate Play Skills (e.g., turn-taking)

Fluency & Stuttering

There are a series of compensatory methods one can learn to drastically reduce the presences of stutters in disfluent speech.  Some strategies include unique articulation techniques and breathing methods to help increase intelligibility.  

What is Speech-Language Therapy?

Speech and Language Therapy covers all aspects of communication, from birth throughout adulthood.  Pediatric therapy focuses on supporting infants through young adulthood. As soon as a baby is born, they’re communicating with their environment through methods such as eye-contact and crying. As that baby grows the communication demands become more complex.  Communication is the essence of human interaction, the process by which we express ourselves and engage in the world around us. Learning to successfully communicate involves understanding what others’ say to us, using language to be understood, and interpreting the nuances related to social interactions.

At Play OnWords , we assess each child’s unique needs and create a treatment plan that targets areas in need of improvement using play-based activities. 

Augmentative and Alternative Communication

Children who are delayed in learning verbal speech often need a personalized system to communicate. By providing an alternative system, mounting frustrations and negative behaviors are often significantly reduced.  Alternative communication systems promote the learning of verbal speech and language structure. 

   - Picture Exchange Communication Systems

   - Switches or Buttons with Voice Output

   - Specialized Software for iPads or Tablets

Any call to action with a link here?

143 Best Cluster Words for Speech Therapy (S Blends)

Are you a speech-language pathologist looking for a list of cluster words for speech therapy? This blog post contains a list of s blends, as well as links to lists of r blends and l blends .

What Are Phonological Disorders?

A phonological disorder involves  patterns  of rule-based errors. It falls under the umbrella of a speech sound disorder.

Young children often utilize speech pattern simplifications when learning to talk. A young child may have a hard time with l blends , r blends , or s blends. In other words, an error pattern may involve a cluster word. An example of one such speech pattern simplification might be consonant cluster reduction , or leaving off a consonant sound in consonant clusters (i.e. saying ‘no’ for ‘snow’). A child’s speech intelligibility can be very impacted by consonant cluster reduction. It can be frustrating for children if they are not easily understood. 

Another example of a phonological pattern is fronting (i.e. saying ‘tea’ for ‘key’). 

However, by certain ages, most patterns should be extinguished. 

A speech language pathologist is trained to diagnose a phonological disorder. 

Read all about  the different phonological processes .

How To Treat a Phonological Disorder

Speech therapists have several research-based intervention strategies available when treating a phonological disorder.

The Cycles Approach, created by Barbara Hodson, is one research-based approach for treating phonological disorders. Check out  this CEU course  to become trained in using the cycles approach.

Many speech therapists also enjoy using The Complexity Approach. When using this approach, complex, later-developing sounds or clusters, are targeted. Learn more about  The Complexity Approach .

One effective treatment idea involves using minimal pairs. Minimal pair targets are words that differ by only one sound or feature. An example might be contrasting “no” with “snow”. Check out these suggested  simple minimal pairs activities .

If you would like a deep dive into phonological approaches, you will love  this article  from The Informed SLP.

Speech Sounds- Word Lists for S Blends

The following word lists contain s blend cluster words for speech therapy. These  articulation word lists  allow the speech therapist to easily work on a target sound and speech goals in speech therapy at the word level. Or, have your student practice these words at the sentence level by generating their own sentences using a target word.

Quickly pull these word lists up during your speech therapy session. A simple way to motivate students is to pair articulation practice with a preferred  game  or activity.

OR, check out these s-blend minimal pairs .

Initial SK Words

Here is a list of sk cluster words in the initial position to use in speech therapy:

Medial SK Words

Here is a list of sk cluster words in the medial position to use in speech therapy (SK in the middle of a word):

Final SK Words

Here is a list of final blends sk cluster words in the final position to use in speech therapy (SK at the end of a word):

Initial SL Words

Here is a list of SL cluster words in the initial position to use in speech therapy:

Medial SL Words

Here is a list of SL cluster words in the medial position to use in speech therapy (SL in the middle of a word):

Final SL Words

Here is a list of final blends SL cluster words in the ending position to use in speech therapy (SL at the end of a word):

Initial SM Words

Here is a list of SM cluster words in the initial position to use in speech therapy (SM at the beginning of words):

Medial SM Words

Here is a list of SM cluster words for speech therapy in the medial position (SM in the middle of words):

• third baseman
• embarrassment

Initial SN Words

Here is a list of SN s blend words in the initial position:

Initial SP Words

Here is a list of SP s blend words in the initial position (beginning SP words):

Medial SP Words

Here is a list of medial SP words (SP in the middle of a word):

Initial ST Words

Here is a list of ST consonant blends in initial positions to use in speech therapy:

Medial ST Words

This word list contains ST in the medial positions of words:

• investigate

Final ST Words

Here is a list of final ST words to use during a speech therapy session:

Initial SW Words

​Reference this SW s-blends list during speech therapy:

• Swiss cheese 

S Blend Activities to Try in Articulation Therapy

Need some interactive activities to try using in speech therapy? Check out this article to see the 4 best cluster reduction activities for speech therapy . 

If you are working with older students, then check out this great resource that targets s blends at the carryover level. These worksheets are a great way to practice s blends at a higher level!

Finally, these articulation manicure cards provide a ton of engaging practice for s blends and s clusters. Simply pick the desired play dough color and pair it with a target sound. Your student will say the target word, then smash some play dough on a nail. After saying all target words, the manicure will be complete! This will quickly become a favorite resource in your therapy room! 

More Articulation Word Lists for Speech Therapy

Do you need to target a different sound in speech and language? Don’t miss these other articulation word lists! They also provide suggestions for effective activities that allow for extra practice of individual sounds and phonological processes.

• S Word Lists
• L Word Lists
• F Word Lists
• K Word Lists
• TH Word Lists
• R Words for Speech Therapy
• Z Word Lists
• V Words for Speech Therapy
• G Words for Speech Therapy
• SH Words for Speech Therapy

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In Transit: Notes from the Underground

Jun 06 2018.

Spend some time in one of Moscow’s finest museums.

Subterranean commuting might not be anyone’s idea of a good time, but even in a city packing the war-games treasures and priceless bejeweled eggs of the Kremlin Armoury and the colossal Soviet pavilions of the VDNKh , the Metro holds up as one of Moscow’s finest museums. Just avoid rush hour.

The Metro is stunning and provides an unrivaled insight into the city’s psyche, past and present, but it also happens to be the best way to get around. Moscow has Uber, and the Russian version called Yandex Taxi , but also some nasty traffic. Metro trains come around every 90 seconds or so, at a more than 99 percent on-time rate. It’s also reasonably priced, with a single ride at 55 cents (and cheaper in bulk). From history to tickets to rules — official and not — here’s what you need to know to get started.

A Brief Introduction Buying Tickets Know Before You Go (Down) Rules An Easy Tour

A Brief Introduction

Moscow’s Metro was a long time coming. Plans for rapid transit to relieve the city’s beleaguered tram system date back to the Imperial era, but a couple of wars and a revolution held up its development. Stalin revived it as part of his grand plan to modernize the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 30s. The first lines and tunnels were constructed with help from engineers from the London Underground, although Stalin’s secret police decided that they had learned too much about Moscow’s layout and had them arrested on espionage charges and deported.

The beauty of its stations (if not its trains) is well-documented, and certainly no accident. In its illustrious first phases and particularly after the Second World War, the greatest architects of Soviet era were recruited to create gleaming temples celebrating the Revolution, the USSR, and the war triumph. No two stations are exactly alike, and each of the classic showpieces has a theme. There are world-famous shrines to Futurist architecture, a celebration of electricity, tributes to individuals and regions of the former Soviet Union. Each marble slab, mosaic tile, or light fixture was placed with intent, all in service to a station’s aesthetic; each element, f rom the smallest brass ear of corn to a large blood-spattered sword on a World War II mural, is an essential part of the whole.

The Metro is a monument to the Soviet propaganda project it was intended to be when it opened in 1935 with the slogan “Building a Palace for the People”. It brought the grand interiors of Imperial Russia to ordinary Muscovites, celebrated the Soviet Union’s past achievements while promising its citizens a bright Soviet future, and of course, it was a show-piece for the world to witness the might and sophistication of life in the Soviet Union.

It may be a museum, but it’s no relic. U p to nine million people use it daily, more than the London Underground and New York Subway combined. (Along with, at one time, about 20 stray dogs that learned to commute on the Metro.)

In its 80+ year history, the Metro has expanded in phases and fits and starts, in step with the fortunes of Moscow and Russia. Now, partly in preparation for the World Cup 2018, it’s also modernizing. New trains allow passengers to walk the entire length of the train without having to change carriages. The system is becoming more visitor-friendly. (There are helpful stickers on the floor marking out the best selfie spots .) But there’s a price to modernity: it’s phasing out one of its beloved institutions, the escalator attendants. Often they are middle-aged or elderly women—“ escalator grandmas ” in news accounts—who have held the post for decades, sitting in their tiny kiosks, scolding commuters for bad escalator etiquette or even bad posture, or telling jokes . They are slated to be replaced, when at all, by members of the escalator maintenance staff.

For all its achievements, the Metro lags behind Moscow’s above-ground growth, as Russia’s capital sprawls ever outwards, generating some of the world’s worst traffic jams . But since 2011, the Metro has been in the middle of an ambitious and long-overdue enlargement; 60 new stations are opening by 2020. If all goes to plan, the 2011-2020 period will have brought 125 miles of new tracks and over 100 new stations — a 40 percent increase — the fastest and largest expansion phase in any period in the Metro’s history.

Facts: 14 lines Opening hours: 5 a.m-1 a.m. Rush hour(s): 8-10 a.m, 4-8 p.m. Single ride: 55₽ (about 85 cents) Wi-Fi network-wide

Buying Tickets

• Ticket machines have a button to switch to English.
• You can buy specific numbers of rides: 1, 2, 5, 11, 20, or 60. Hold up fingers to show how many rides you want to buy.
• There is also a 90-minute ticket , which gets you 1 trip on the metro plus an unlimited number of transfers on other transport (bus, tram, etc) within 90 minutes.
• Or, you can buy day tickets with unlimited rides: one day (218₽/ US$4), three days (415₽/US$7) or seven days (830₽/US$15). Check the rates here to stay up-to-date.
• If you’re going to be using the Metro regularly over a few days, it’s worth getting a Troika card , a contactless, refillable card you can use on all public transport. Using the Metro is cheaper with one of these: a single ride is 36₽, not 55₽. Buy them and refill them in the Metro stations, and they’re valid for 5 years, so you can keep it for next time. Or, if you have a lot of cash left on it when you leave, you can get it refunded at the Metro Service Centers at Ulitsa 1905 Goda, 25 or at Staraya Basmannaya 20, Building 1.
• You can also buy silicone bracelets and keychains with built-in transport chips that you can use as a Troika card. (A Moscow Metro Fitbit!) So far, you can only get these at the Pushkinskaya metro station Live Helpdesk and souvenir shops in the Mayakovskaya and Trubnaya metro stations. The fare is the same as for the Troika card.
• You can also use Apple Pay and Samsung Pay.

Rules, spoken and unspoken

No smoking, no drinking, no filming, no littering. Photography is allowed, although it used to be banned.

Stand to the right on the escalator. Break this rule and you risk the wrath of the legendary escalator attendants. (No shenanigans on the escalators in general.)

Get out of the way. Find an empty corner to hide in when you get off a train and need to stare at your phone. Watch out getting out of the train in general; when your train doors open, people tend to appear from nowhere or from behind ornate marble columns, walking full-speed.

Always offer your seat to elderly ladies (what are you, a monster?).

An Easy Tour

This is no Metro Marathon ( 199 stations in 20 hours ). It’s an easy tour, taking in most—though not all—of the notable stations, the bulk of it going clockwise along the Circle line, with a couple of short detours. These stations are within minutes of one another, and the whole tour should take about 1-2 hours.

Start at Mayakovskaya Metro station , at the corner of Tverskaya and Garden Ring,  Triumfalnaya Square, Moskva, Russia, 125047.

1. Mayakovskaya.  Named for Russian Futurist Movement poet Vladimir Mayakovsky and an attempt to bring to life the future he imagined in his poems. (The Futurist Movement, natch, was all about a rejecting the past and celebrating all things speed, industry, modern machines, youth, modernity.) The result: an Art Deco masterpiece that won the National Grand Prix for architecture at the New York World’s Fair in 1939. It’s all smooth, rounded shine and light, and gentle arches supported by columns of dark pink marble and stainless aircraft steel. Each of its 34 ceiling niches has a mosaic. During World War II, the station was used as an air-raid shelter and, at one point, a bunker for Stalin. He gave a subdued but rousing speech here in Nov. 6, 1941 as the Nazis bombed the city above.

Take the 3/Green line one station to:

2. Belorusskaya. Opened in 1952, named after the connected Belarussky Rail Terminal, which runs trains between Moscow and Belarus. This is a light marble affair with a white, cake-like ceiling, lined with Belorussian patterns and 12 Florentine ceiling mosaics depicting life in Belarussia when it was built.

Transfer onto the 1/Brown line. Then, one stop (clockwise) t o:

3. Novoslobodskaya.  This station was designed around the stained-glass panels, which were made in Latvia, because Alexey Dushkin, the Soviet starchitect who dreamed it up (and also designed Mayakovskaya station) couldn’t find the glass and craft locally. The stained glass is the same used for Riga’s Cathedral, and the panels feature plants, flowers, members of the Soviet intelligentsia (musician, artist, architect) and geometric shapes.

Go two stops east on the 1/Circle line to:

4. Komsomolskaya. Named after the Komsomol, or the Young Communist League, this might just be peak Stalin Metro style. Underneath the hub for three regional railways, it was intended to be a grand gateway to Moscow and is today its busiest station. It has chandeliers; a yellow ceiling with Baroque embellishments; and in the main hall, a colossal red star overlaid on golden, shimmering tiles. Designer Alexey Shchusev designed it as an homage to the speech Stalin gave at Red Square on Nov. 7, 1941, in which he invoked Russia’s illustrious military leaders as a pep talk to Soviet soldiers through the first catastrophic year of the war.   The station’s eight large mosaics are of the leaders referenced in the speech, such as Alexander Nevsky, a 13th-century prince and military commander who bested German and Swedish invading armies.

One more stop clockwise to Kurskaya station,  and change onto the 3/Blue  line, and go one stop to:

5. Baumanskaya.   Opened in 1944. Named for the Bolshevik Revolutionary Nikolai Bauman , whose monument and namesake district are aboveground here. Though he seemed like a nasty piece of work (he apparently once publicly mocked a woman he had impregnated, who later hung herself), he became a Revolutionary martyr when he was killed in 1905 in a skirmish with a monarchist, who hit him on the head with part of a steel pipe. The station is in Art Deco style with atmospherically dim lighting, and a series of bronze sculptures of soldiers and homefront heroes during the War. At one end, there is a large mosaic portrait of Lenin.

Stay on that train direction one more east to:

6. Elektrozavodskaya. As you may have guessed from the name, this station is the Metro’s tribute to all thing electrical, built in 1944 and named after a nearby lightbulb factory. It has marble bas-relief sculptures of important figures in electrical engineering, and others illustrating the Soviet Union’s war-time struggles at home. The ceiling’s recurring rows of circular lamps give the station’s main tunnel a comforting glow, and a pleasing visual effect.

Double back two stops to Kurskaya station , and change back to the 1/Circle line. Sit tight for six stations to:

7. Kiyevskaya. This was the last station on the Circle line to be built, in 1954, completed under Nikita Khrushchev’ s guidance, as a tribute to his homeland, Ukraine. Its three large station halls feature images celebrating Ukraine’s contributions to the Soviet Union and Russo-Ukrainian unity, depicting musicians, textile-working, soldiers, farmers. (One hall has frescoes, one mosaics, and the third murals.) Shortly after it was completed, Khrushchev condemned the architectural excesses and unnecessary luxury of the Stalin era, which ushered in an epoch of more austere Metro stations. According to the legend at least, he timed the policy in part to ensure no Metro station built after could outshine Kiyevskaya.

Change to the 3/Blue line and go one stop west.

8. Park Pobedy. This is the deepest station on the Metro, with one of the world’s longest escalators, at 413 feet. If you stand still, the escalator ride to the surface takes about three minutes .) Opened in 2003 at Victory Park, the station celebrates two of Russia’s great military victories. Each end has a mural by Georgian artist Zurab Tsereteli, who also designed the “ Good Defeats Evil ” statue at the UN headquarters in New York. One mural depicts the Russian generals’ victory over the French in 1812 and the other, the German surrender of 1945. The latter is particularly striking; equal parts dramatic, triumphant, and gruesome. To the side, Red Army soldiers trample Nazi flags, and if you look closely there’s some blood spatter among the detail. Still, the biggest impressions here are the marble shine of the chessboard floor pattern and the pleasingly geometric effect if you view from one end to the other.

Keep going one more stop west to:

9. Slavyansky Bulvar.  One of the Metro’s youngest stations, it opened in 2008. With far higher ceilings than many other stations—which tend to have covered central tunnels on the platforms—it has an “open-air” feel (or as close to it as you can get, one hundred feet under). It’s an homage to French architect Hector Guimard, he of the Art Nouveau entrances for the Paris M é tro, and that’s precisely what this looks like: A Moscow homage to the Paris M é tro, with an additional forest theme. A Cyrillic twist on Guimard’s Metro-style lettering over the benches, furnished with t rees and branch motifs, including creeping vines as towering lamp-posts.

Stay on the 3/Blue line and double back four stations to:

10. Arbatskaya. Its first iteration, Arbatskaya-Smolenskaya station, was damaged by German bombs in 1941. It was rebuilt in 1953, and designed to double as a bomb shelter in the event of nuclear war, although unusually for stations built in the post-war phase, this one doesn’t have a war theme. It may also be one of the system’s most elegant: Baroque, but toned down a little, with red marble floors and white ceilings with gilded bronze c handeliers.

Jump back on the 3/Blue line  in the same direction and take it one more stop:

11. Ploshchad Revolyutsii (Revolution Square). Opened in 1938, and serving Red Square and the Kremlin . Its renowned central hall has marble columns flanked by 76 bronze statues of Soviet heroes: soldiers, students, farmers, athletes, writers, parents. Some of these statues’ appendages have a yellow sheen from decades of Moscow’s commuters rubbing them for good luck. Among the most popular for a superstitious walk-by rub: the snout of a frontier guard’s dog, a soldier’s gun (where the touch of millions of human hands have tapered the gun barrel into a fine, pointy blade), a baby’s foot, and a woman’s knee. (A brass rooster also sports the telltale gold sheen, though I am told that rubbing the rooster is thought to bring bad luck. )

Now take the escalator up, and get some fresh air.

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