Discrimination and Production Practice for Speech

Making the Most of Minimal Pairs

Your child’s speech-language pathologist (SLP) might use a minimal pair therapy approach if your child is struggling with a phonological disorder. This means your child is making predictable errors with sounds they’re able to produce, they just aren’t using the sounds at the right time. For example, a child might make the /k/ sound in a word like “book,” but not produce the /k/ sound in a word like “key.”

What Is Minimal Pair Therapy?

Minimal pair therapy focuses on changing how a child represents how words sound and are produced. This approach contrasts words by one sound to show the student how using the appropriate sound is important to being understood. It focuses on your child’s ability to discriminate between words that differ by only their error sound, and then produce words with the appropriate sound (for example, “tea” vs. “key”).

Tips for Discrimination and Production Practice

If a child has difficulty hearing and understanding the difference between the target sound and their error sound, practicing production of the target sound alone won’t be meaningful. That’s why discrimination between target sounds and error sounds matters so much, it’s what makes production practice meaningful in the first place.

When your SLP sends home minimal pair practice cards, here are some tips to help with this skill:

1. Point to a picture, say what it is, explain the item, and say the word again (e.g., “This is tea. Tea is something warm that you drink. This is tea.”)
2. Point to its minimal pair and do the same thing (e.g., “This is a key. You use a key to unlock the house. This is a key.”)
3. Tell your child to point to one or the other (e.g., “Show me the key.”)
4. If they identify the correct picture, praise them (e.g., “Good job! You found the key! Now I can unlock the door!”)
5. Kids love the idea that they can’t be tricked, so try saying, “Okay, I’m going to try to trick you. I’m going to ask for something again, don’t let me trick you!” Ask for one of the targets again, two to three times, randomizing the order.
6. If the child identifies the incorrect word, praise their effort and gently correct them (e.g., “Good job picking one! I asked for the key to unlock the door, and you showed me the tea that you drink! Can you show me the key that you use to unlock the door?”)

Tips for Production Practice

Once your child is accurate with discriminating between the sounds, they’re ready to be challenged to say the correct word. This practice requires some playing and acting, but it really helps.

1. Explain the items and say the words, just like in the discrimination steps above.
2. Ask your child to tell you what you need for a task (e.g., “What do I need to unlock the door?”)
3. If they respond with the correct sound, praise them (e.g., “Yes, we need a key! Good job, let’s look at some other keys I have!”)
4. If they respond with the error sound (e.g., “tea”), act like you don’t understand them (e.g., “Tea? Tea will help me unlock the door?”). This gives your child a chance to correct the production on their own without a model. If they continue to struggle, help by modeling the word or using other facilitative strategies your SLP has taught you.

We’re Here to Help

Minimal pair therapy can be a powerful way to help your child understand patterns of sound usage and speed up their ability to produce sounds in words correctly. The process described here is a basic model of how minimal pair therapy works. Your child’s SLP will let you know where your child stands in the process, along with the specific strategies and order of practice most beneficial for them.