ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on helping children to produce ‘s’ when it is followed by other consonants at the beginnings of words, such as in words like ‘sweep’, ‘stone’ and ‘scream’, and at the ends of words, such as in words like ‘desk’, ‘wasp’ and ‘post’. In speech production the term ‘cluster’ refers to two or more consonants, which occur in sequence within a syllable. Most four-year-olds are beginning to get the hang of ‘s’ clusters, especially at the ends of words, but they are usually among the more difficult classes of sound sequences to master, and children may not say them all right, particularly those with three consonants like ‘spl’ and ‘str’, until they are five years old. The chapter provides activities for increasing awareness of ‘s’ clusters in speech. These activities can be used to make sure the child is ready for the change of emphasis from listening work to saying words with the target sounds.
