Phonological Treatment Course Resources

Below are extension activities and videos related to content from SLPath's online phonological treatment course, Phonological Treatment: Targeting Complex Sounds in Meaningful Activities, and Jennifer's forthcoming book, The Clusters Curriculum.

FL Books

The elegant and simple Flying (Crews, 1989) offers opportunities to practice the /fl-/ cluster. Here is a fun extension activity on how to make an airplane out of healthy snack items.

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly (Adams, 2003) features the word "fly" multiple times. Here are some colorful pictures for extended practice.

Jennifer's book and treatment course feature activities related to the nonfiction text, Baby Flamingo (Pingry, 2004). Young children may enjoy coloring these pictures of flamingos, which are available here and here.

Flamingos will become the favorite animal of every SLP after targeting the /fl-/ cluster and watching these videos:

FR Books

Frogs will become another favorite animal of SLPs and their students as well. The following resources pair well with Red-Eyed Tree Frog (Cowley, 1999), Froggy Gets Dressed (London, 1994) and other frog books. There are a number of printable resources available here, while instructions for a fun craft may be accessed here. National Geographic has a feature on red-eyed tree frogs. A frog game for preschoolers is available here. Lastly, another printable project is available at this link.

Eric Carle's Do You Want to Be My Friend? (1995) has delighted children for years. SLPs may access corresponding pictures here.

Taro Gomi's lovely book, My Friends (2008) features a child who shares what she has learned from her various friends. Additional resources are available here.

THR Books

Mo Willems' Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs wry story provides multiple occurrences of "three". Corresponding pictures are available here.

Eric Carle’s classic, The Very Hungry Caterpillar (1994), features multiple repetitions of "through." Corresponding pictures and craft activities are available here, here, and here.

Children will enjoy Julie Lacome's Walking Through the Jungle (2004) and these colorful drawings on Kiz Club.

Children may enjoy looking through these silly spyglasses or binoculars for some extra /thr-/ practice.

SL Books

​A Book of Sleep offers an excellent option for the /sl-/ cluster. The exquisite illustrations demonstrate how different animals sleep, such as how giraffes sleep standing up or penguins huddle close together. Children may watch an animated video during treatment sessions or for home practice here:

STR Books

Roger Hargreaves created the Mr. Men series, which includes the hilarious Mr. Strong. This longer text features 47 /str-/ words that provide focused stimulation of this complex cluster. In addition to related pretend play activities, children enjoy the video available on You Tube. The British narrator tells the story at a perfect pace for young children. This video works well during treatment or for home practice:

A Long Piece of String (Wondriska, 2010) features simple illustrations of string wrapped around 26 animals and objects. Children discover that the pictures are in alphabetical order and may guess what comes next upon subsequent reads. Before turning the page, they predict what it will be by saying something like, “The string will be around the key.” A science website provides a nifty extension project of how to make a string phone.

Many children enjoy the nonfiction text, Street Sweepers (DeGezelle, 2006). Moreover, a corresponding video is highly recommend. A father posted a movie of his young son who hunts for street sweepers and screeches with delight when one pulls down his street:

SKR Books

Abdo Publishing offers a nonfiction text called Screws (Tieck, 2007). A corresponding webpage "introduces young readers to several basic concepts of physics, explaining what a screw is, how it works, and how it is used to lift, lower, and fasten objects together" here.

SPR Books

Spring is Here (Gomi, 1999) describes this season with gorgeous illustrations and sparse prose. SLPs may wish to download printable activities from Kiz Club, the same website that provides resources for Taro Gomi’s other book, My Friends.

Children may also enjoy these spring-themed activities: a spring wind sock or spring sprouts.

SKW Books

Julia Donaldson wrote A Squash and A Squeeze (2005), a charming repetitive book about appreciating what you have. SLPs and families may access a video here. A song (also written by Donaldson) is available here.

Squish Rabbit (Battersby, 2011) draws children in with the lovely tale of a little rabbit who often gets overlooked. A corresponding video is available here:

SLPs may wish to peruse an extensive Squish Rabbit lesson plan as well.

I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean (Sherry, 2010) features an overly confident squid who thinks he runs the show. SLPs may download pictures from Kiz Club. Additionally, children may enjoy some fun and squishy activities as an extension of the story here, here, and here. Coloring pages of squids can be found at this link and also here.

SPL Books

Splat! (Pérez-Mercado, 2011) tells the story of one family’s attempt to bake a cake, which turns disastrous with frosting splatting everywhere. The story elicits a strong emotional response from kids and they cannot resist saying "Splat!" each time the frosting flies across the kitchen. Children may also enjoy this video of a watermelon meeting its demise.

Rob Scotton has written a delightful series of books featuring the enigmatic Splat the Cat. Numerous resources are available on the web for these stories, which SLPs may download here and here. Children may also enjoy coloring these pages while talking about their new friend, Splat, and more are available here.

In college, I used to go to midnight sales to buy new albums from my favorite bands, like R.E.M.'s Automatic for the People. Now I eagerly show up at bookstores for new children's books. One that lived up to hype came out last year: Splat! by Jon Burgerman. Moreover, the author released a delightful book trailer on You Tube to introduce his work. Kids will love this!

Spanish Books

The most complex clusters in Spanish are: /fɾ-/, /fl-/, /mw-/, /mj-/, /nw-/, /nj-/, /lw-/, /lj-/, /rw-/, /rj-/. For the complex /rw-/ cluster, a good book is Oso Polar, Oso Polar, ¿Que Es Ese Ruido? (Martin 1991), which is the Spanish version of the classic, Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? SLPs and parents may also wish to access a video of a man reading the story in Spanish here.

Additionally, SLPs and families may wish to download corresponding illustrations from Kiz Club.

Misc. Books

Elmer (McKee, 1989) is about a colorful elephant who stands out amongst his gray elephant friends. This book may be utilized to counsel children about speech differences. Extension activities are available here.