ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the problems with using voiceless consonants – rather than the voiced consonants – at the beginnings of words. This typically affects the stops ‘p’, ‘t’ and ‘k’. The consonants that are usually ‘voiceless’ at the beginning of words and syllables are produced as voiced, and those usually produced as ‘voiced’ at the end of words and syllables are voiceless. This pattern can affect sounds other than the stops ‘p’, ‘t’ and ‘k’, but this is less common in typical development. The chapter provides activities to address this pattern only for the sounds at the beginnings of words. Typically developing children usually have a voicing contrast by the age of 3. This pattern does tend to persist in children with delayed speech development and is referred as ‘stopping’ and ‘fronting’ where it might combine with these other patterns. Many of the activities can be used with different pairs of words.
