The Cycles Approach for Phonological Patterns: How to Choose Targets
I love the Cycles Approach (developed by Barbara Hodson and colleagues), and it is a highly effective phonological intervention to treat speech sound disorders. But what I found is that not a lot of clinicians are confident knowing HOW to implement this approach. In this blog post, I am going to specifically talk about how to choose target WORDS once you have established what phonological processes or patterns you are going to target using the Cycles Approach for Phonology.
Cycles Approach For Speech Therapy Primary Patterns Visual
If you are looking for a more in depth, step-by-step break down of the Cycles Approach for speech sound disorders, and some information on who is most appropriate for this phonological intervention, check out this blog post first. Then come back here to finish reading about choosing great target words!
Remind me…What are the primary patterns for the Cycles Approach?
The Cycles Approach focuses on 5-6 (depending on how you conceptualize them) primary patterns. The patterns are as follows:
syllableness
consonant omissions (which I break up into final consonant deletion and initial consonant deletion)
anterior/posterior contrasts (i.e. fronting or backing)
S clusters
gliding of liquids
But… let’s say you already did your speech sound assessment, decided on the Cycles Approach as the most appropriate intervention, and chose the primary patterns the child is stimulable for. Now what..??
How do you choose target words?
When using the Cycles Approach to address phonological patterns, you only need 3-5 words per phoneme targeted within a pattern. So for example, when working fronting (aka velars or anterior/posterior contrasts), let’s say you are going to target final /k/. You only need 3 to 5 final /k/ words! But you need to choose these words carefully. Choose words that: (1) are monosyllabic (except in the case of syllableness); (2) have facilitative contexts; (3) the child is stimulable for; (4) don’t contain the errored sound in addition to the target sound; and (5) are real words and words that the child is familiar with. Let’s break down each of these points.
Choose Monosyllabic Words (at first)
Cycles Approach in Speech Therapy for Phonological Processes
The reason we want to choose monosyllabic words is that they are generally easier for children to produce than more complex multisyllabic words. They allow the child to focus primarily on the errored sound. In my experience, they are also easier to cue as there are not all these extraneous sounds within the word for the child to focus on. You can increase complexity to multisyllabic words in subsequent cycles if needed (more about this later).
Think About Facilitative Context
Consider the other sounds that surround your target sound when choosing words. Look at the vowels in the word. They can inhibit or facilitate production of your target. For example, I feel like low vowels help facilitate a /k/ sound and inhibit the fronting. Why? The low aspect of the vowel keeps the child’s tongue tip farthest away from the alveolar ridge (where they would go to front a sound). And we can prolong these sounds with a wide open mouth (e.g. “baaaaack”) to give the child time to make the /k/ sound correctly. However, some children may benefit from back vowels (either low or high) to help facilitate the /k/ sound. This is all a case by case basis.
Another thing to consider is the other consonants in the words. When I am targeting final /k/ with a child who fronts, I will try to avoid words like “duck” or “like” because the initial consonants in those word are made in the same place as the errored sound (/t/). I want to try to avoid anything that will complicate the child’s ability to produce the target sound.
When working with initial consonant deletion and final consonant deletion, look at choosing CV or VC word shapes where possible…for obvious reasons. They are the most simple to produce and do not contain any other consonant sounds to influence production of the target!
Consider Ease of Stimulability
In Cycles, you only target sounds the child is stimulable for. This principle holds true when selecting whole words as well. A child may be stimulable for final /k/, but only in certain words! Maybe he can easily say “back,” but gets tripped up when trying to say “hike” for whatever reason. We want a high number of accurate productions, so don’t force it and try to use words that are difficult for the child to produce. You can definitely find 3-5 final /k/ words that are “easier” for the child to produce than others. You can increase complexity later on in Cycles if you need to (read below for more info on this).
Don’t Choose Words that Contain the Errored Sound in Addition to the Target
This is, again, so that we don’t make the task of producing the correct sound more difficult for our clients. We want them producing sounds accurately for high repetitions. So for example, if a child is a fronter and I am working on initial /k/, I would not choose the word “cat". That final /t/ in the word is the error sound (e.g. child normally says “tat” for “cat”) and is probably going to influence the initial /k/. Therefore, the child is more likely to front that initial sound than if he was trying to say the word “cup.”
Use Real Words that the Child is Familiar With
This is so that we reduced the cognitive load when producing the word. If the child has to retrieve the word first, and then produce it correctly, that is obviously a lot more difficult than if they can just automatically retrieve the word prior to production. Furthermore, we want these words to be words that the child may actually use in their day-to-day life. This increases the likelihood that the child will get (correct) practice outside of speech therapy and increase carryover.
HELP! This is a lot to take in…
If all of this target selection sounds daunting, and you need some great no prep sheets with perfectly selected targets - I’ll link them here. And here are some Boom Cards with the same targets. The words in these resources were carefully chosen for ease of production, considering facilitative context and familiarity for tiny humans.
What About Increasing Complexity of the Targets?
You can increase the complexity of the target words in subsequent cycles and as the child “gets good” as producing his initial targets. To do this, you can change the phonetic contexts of words. Use words that have the errored sound and the target sound (e.g. when targeting initial /k/ with a child who is a fronter, maybe you can incorporate the word “cat”). Use words with more complex vowels. Try words that are unfamiliar to the child rather than words that are familiar to him. Maybe consider two syllable words instead of single syllables. This, again, will be a case-by-case basis. What increases complexity for one child, may not do so for another.
Need More Information on the Cycles Approach?
I have created a complete toolkit that makes it simple and easy to understand the Cycles Approach for phonological processes - no more guesswork or flipping through a million different resources! It includes checklists, forms, step-by-step walk throughs, and even a sample client so you can see exactly how to implement the Cycles Approach. It also includes over 220 stimuli cards for all primary patterns used in the Cycles Approach so you can get started right away. It is literally a “one-stop Cycles shop!” I’ll link it here or click on the photo on the right!
So that’s it. If you have any questions about how to choose targets for the Cycles Approach for Phonology, e-mail me! I love to chat speech sound disorders!
