Phonetic Placement and Visual Cues

CONSONANTS VERBAL CUES OTHER CUES VISUAL CUES VISUAL CUE

And Name of (BASED ON VISUAL PICTURE
Sound PHONICS)
“P” sound Where’s your pop? Fill cheeks up with air and Open and spread fingers like
You forgot your pop. blow out with the sound, you are flicking your fingers
Whisper, make it quiet feeling wind on hand out as you say /p/. Imitates
You need two lips the blast of air needed to
produce /p/.
Quiet Lip Sound
“b” sound Where’s your pop? Fill cheeks up with air and Start with ASL “b” near face
You forgot your pop. blow out with the sound and push it away from you as
Turn your voice on you say /b/.
You need two lips

Loud Lip Sound

“m” sound Close your mouth and Lips together and hum. Touch Place index finger under nose
hummmmm.. to feel vibration and above lips as you say /m/.
You need two lips. Emphasizes that airflow from
Close your lips. nose is needed to make /m/.

Can also point to mouth to

emphasize pushing your lips
Humming Sound together as you say /m/.
“n” sound Teeth together and buzz. Finger on clenched teeth to Place finger on side of nose as
Use your nose. fell vibration you say /n/. Emphasizes
airflow from nose needed to
make /n/
Buzzing
Nose/Teeth Sound
“t” sound Use your tongue. Index finger to center of spot Face palm towards yourself
above upper lip and flick index finger up as you
say /t/. Mimics the tongue
flicking up against the top of
mouth.
Quiet Tapping
Sound
“d” sound Use your tongue. Index finger to center of spot Start with hooked index finger
above upper lip then tip hand so that index
finger is pointed down.

Loud Tapping
Sound
“h” sound Where’s your wind? Open palm of hand up just in Place hand in front of mouth,
I didn’t feel your wind. front of your mouth to feel then move hand away from
wind mouth slightly. Emphasizes
continuous airflow needed to
make /h/
Breathing Sound
“k” sound Where’s your throaty? Index finger pointed to throat Touch open hand to throat and
Turn your voice off. pull out as you say /k/.
Whisper, make it quiet. Emphasizes placement of /k/ is
Quiet Throaty in back of the mouth near
Sound (Back throat.
Sound)

J. Barbarick, M.A., CCC-SLP

4/9/2014
 Phonetic Placement and Visual Cues
“g” sound Where’s your throaty? Index finger pointed to throat. Point index finger at throat
Turn your voice on. Feel throat vibrate for this and pull out as you say /g/.
sound. Emphasizes placement of /g/ is
Loud Throaty in back of mouth near throat.
Sound (Back
sound)
“f” sound You forgot to bite your lip. Start with fingertips touching,
You forgot your blow. Bite lower lip with upper teeth pointing toward mouth. Then
and blow open fingers and spread apart
as you say /f/. Emphasizes
continuous airflow needed to
Quiet Biting Lip produce /f/.
Blowing Sound
“v” sound You forgot to bite your lip. Start with index and middle
You forgot to blow. Bite lower lip with upper teeth finger pointing towards mouth.
Turn your voice on. and blow. Then open fingers and spread
Feel throat vibrate for this apart as you say /v/.
sound. Emphasizes continuous airflow
Loud Biting Lip needed to produce /v/.
Blowing Sound

Initial “s” sound Smile and blow. Start with finger next to
Keep those teeth together. Smile with teeth together and mouth, move finger away from
Tongue goes right behind your blow body and go up and down like
teeth a sideways “s”. Emphasizes
continuous airflow needed to
Smiley Blowing make /s/.
Sound (Quiet)
“z” sounds Use your buzz. Smile and Teeth together and blow wind Start with index finger near
blow. Keep those teeth Feel throat vibrate for this mouth, move away from
together. Tongue goes right sound. mouth in a zig zag line like the
behind your teeth. letter “z”. Emphasizes
continuous airflow needed to
Buzzing Blowing make /s/.
Sound
“sh” sound Make your lips round and Lips out and puckered while Place index finger in front of
blow, blowing out mouth as if you were shushing
someone as you say “sh”.
Typical recognizable symbol
for the “sh” sound.
Quiet Sound
“w” sound ooo to eee sliding Start out in the ooo position Use index finger to circle
with lips puckered then move mouth as you say /w/.
to the eee sound Emphasizes the lip rounding
needed to produce /w/.

Sliding Sound
“y” sound eee to ooo sliding Start out in the eee position Make hand in v shape and
with lips spread then move to move slightly forward as you
the ooo sound say the “y” sound

Sliding Sound

* This resource has been further adapted from a resource retrieved from:

www.hart.k12.ky.us/docs/Speech%20Sound%20Production%20Cues.docx created by Kristina SideBottom on 11/12/13 which was

adapted from Special Kids Pediatric Conference: Childhood Apraxia of Speech, Presented by David W Hammer, M.A. CCC-SLP.

Changes included the inclusion of visual cues for phonemes many of which were adapted from the program Visual Phonics.
J. Barbarick, M.A., CCC-SLP
4/9/2014