Fronting and Speech Therapy
I am going to teach you everything you need to know about fronting and speech therapy. I will give a quick overview of the phonological process, how to treat it, and give away some free materials.
Keep scrolling to get started!
What is fronting and speech therapy?
Let's start with the basics! What is fronting?
Fronting is a phonological process where sounds that are suppose to be produced in the back of the mouth are produced in the front of the mouth.
To get a bit more technical, there are two types of fronting.
- Velar Fronting: Velar sounds (k and g) are replaced with alveolar sounds (t and d)
- Palatal Fronting: Palatal sounds (sh and zh) are replaced with alveolar sounds (s and z)
Is fronting normal?
Fronting is a normal part of development! Many children will demonstrate the process as language develops.
However, by the age of 3 years, 6 months (Bowen, C. (1998)), the process should disappear. If a child is still fronting past the age of 3 years, 6 months, an evaluation and/or treatment is recommended.
How do I treat fronting?
There are many evidence-based treatment approaches to treat a phonological disorder.
Please refer to my Phonological Disorder Overview page to review treatment options and grab a free handout!
Fronting Materials
We have made it to the good stuff! Treatment materials!
Minimal Pairs
No matter which approach I use, I almost always use minimal pairs during treatment.
Minimal pairs are two words that differ by one one phoneme. I use minimal pairs to target sound perception (can they hear the difference?) and production/awareness (say the correct sound and error sound together to hear and feel the difference).
For my membership site, I have print and no-print materials that target minimal pairs in a variety of ways! Some include fun games and some are simple flashcards.
Phonological Awareness
Phonological awareness plays a key role is articulation and phonology treatment! However, I wasn't able to find many materials that targeted phonological awareness and specific processes , such as fronting.
Therefore, per usual, I made some!
For my membership site, I have print (worksheets) and no-print (Google presentations) that work on fronting while:
- filling in missing sounds
- matching phonemes to pictures
- identifying initial/final phonemes
I find this targeted practice with thoughtful stimuli can make all the difference!
Sentence Level Practice
Creating sentences with the error sound and target sound in ONE sentence is challenging but necessary.
I created a worksheet and no-print Google presentation to target just this!
Members
I am EXCITED about this new section on the membership site.
Today, I added the following materials:
Velar Fronting: K/T - No Print Materials Using Google Slides
- K/T sound-picture match
- K/T minimal pairs hidden picture game
- K/T fill in the missing sound
- K/T name initial/final phoneme
- K/T create a sentence using both targets
Velar Fronting: K/T - Print (worksheets)
- K/T sound-picture match
- K/T create a sentence using both targets
- K/T fill in the missing sound
- K/T name initial/final phoneme
Velar Fronting: G/D - No Print Materials Using Google Slides
- G/D sound-picture match
- G/D minimal pairs hidden picture game
- G/D fill in the missing sound
- G/D name initial/final phoneme
- G/D create a sentence using both targets
Velar Fronting: K/T - Print (worksheets)
- G/D sound-picture match
- G/D create a sentence using both targets
- K/T fill in the missing sound
- K/T name initial/final phoneme
FREE Materials For EVERYONE!
If you are not a member, don't worry! You can join today!
For a small monthly free, 1,200+ materials are yours instantly.
If you not interested, I still have free materials for you today!
Fill out the form below and they are all yours!