Wow- life is amazing! Ask and you shall receive!
Jennifer Taps Richard, MA, CCC-SLP (who is an amazing speaker- go see her if you have the chance!) just came out with a new app targeting complex clusters. I emailed her and asked about reviewing her app and she said, "Yes!" Yay! So, I am playing around with it now and will be doing a full write up within the next day or two. From what I see so far, I like it! Go to her website: http://slpath.com/apps.html to learn more!
Why complex clusters? Because the complexity approach makes sense! Teach what is hard and you will see global changes! There is more evidence about this approach than the traditional normative approach that we use in Missouri. This is the theory: teach non-stimulable, phonetically complex, later-developing sounds to see changes with multiple sounds. This will increase your efficiency significantly!
So you need to know a little about phonemic laws to understand why using complex clusters makes sense:
1. Affricates imply fricatives: if student has errors with both, teach affricates first to see changes with affricates and fricatives.
For example: Joey has errors with "ch" and "sh." Teach "ch" to see changes with "ch" and "sh." So efficient!
2. Fricatives imply stops: if student has errors with fricatives and stops, teach fricatives to see changes with both.
For example: Sarah has errors with /s, z, k, and g/. Teach /s/ and /z/ to see changes with /s, z, k, and g/.
3. Liquids imply nasals: if student has errors with nasals and liquids, teach liquids to see changes with liquids and nasals.
For example: Johnny has "ng" and /l/ errors. Teach /l/ and look for changes in /l/ and "ng."
4. Voiced obstruents (fricatives, affricates, stops) imply voiceless obstruents: start with voiced and look for changes with voiceless.
For example: Mary has errors with /s/ and /z/. Teach /z/ first and look for changes with /s/.
5. THE BIGGIE! Clusters imply singletons and affricates...therefore, teaching clusters will cause changes with affricates, fricatives, and stops!
For example: Scott has errors with /l/ and /r/ blends, /s, z, k, and g/. Teach /l/ clusters and look for changes with /s, z, k, and g/!
6. 3 element clusters (e.g. /skr/ or /spl/) imply all other clusters. Teach 3 element clusters and look for changes with clusters, affricates, fricatives, and stops! BUT (caveat) the child MUST have the 2nd and 3rd consonant in his/her phonemic inventory for this to work.
For example: Jake has all sounds in his phonemic inventory as singletons, but clusters are hard. Treat with /spl/ and/or /str/ to see global changes with all cluster types. Jake needs to have /p, l, t, and r/ as singletons in his inventory to be able to do this.
SO, in conclusion, treating with complex consonant clusters will lead to global changes and increase your efficiency as an SLP. Which means you are getting students off your caseload faster and kickin' butt! Go to Jennifer Taps Richard's website to learn more (http://slpath.com/) and go see her speak!!!
So true! I know this from my own voice and speech training as an actor and as one who now sometimes coaches speech! I find that especially if you get an "s" and "z" sound cleaned up that cleans up the rest of the client's speech very efficiently. My mentor always talks about bringing students to their "edge" because that's where humans learn the most!
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