Articulation Cards CV, VC, CVC, CVCV Words Assembly Instructions:

Here’s what you’ll need to put together these articulation flashcards.

Materials Needed:

• Sturdy paper to print this file

• Lamination if desired

• Scissors

Printing Instructions:

1. Print out the following pages on the front and back sides of the paper.  If you print them in order, the back of each card will label whether the word is a CV, VC, CVC, or CVCV word.
2. Laminate each page if desired for additional protection.  (Note: you can also do this after you cut the cards out if your lamination needs to be sealed around the edges)
3. Cut out each card along the green lines.
4. Sort cards by type (CV, VC, CVC, and CVCV) as needed and follow the directions for the speech activities on the next page.

Articulation Cards CV, VC, CVC, CVCV Words Included:

Consonant-Vowel (CV Words):

• me
• key
• knee
• shoe
• no
• cow
• boy
• bee
• paw
• saw
• toe
• tie
• you
• bow
• hay
• pie
• go

Vowel-Consonant Words (VC Words):

• up
• arm
• eat
• egg
• ice
• out

Consonant-Vowel-Consonant Words (CVC Words):

• moon
•  hat
• goose
• fan
• mouse
• coat
• comb
• cup
• dice
• boot
• bus
• cake
• cat
• bed
• tape
• bike
• book
• wave
• fish
• five
• mouth
• dog
• duck
• face
• foot
• leaf
• leg
• nose
• light
• hose
• kite
• knife
• lake
• gas
• gum
• white
• house
• sock
• pig
• nine
• food
• lime
• one
• soap
• phone

Consonant-Vowel-Consonant-Vowel (CVCV Words):

• baby
• bunny
• taco
• coffee
• cookie
• heavy
• hammer
• hippo
• honey
• ladder
• lady
• lego
• yo-yo
• money
• over
• paper
• penny
• pillow
• puppy
• pony

Articulation Cards CV, VC, CVC, CVCV Word Speech Activities:

How are the words organized?

The cards in this deck are organized by word structure type.  The four types present in these decks are consonant-vowel (CV, like “cow”), vowel-consonant (VC, like “up”), consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC, like “cup”), and consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel (CVCV, like “baby”).  You will notice that the consonants and vowels used here describe the sounds in the word, not necessarily the letters.  For example, the word “shoe” is made up of four letters but only two sounds because the “s” and “h” go together to make the “sh” sound and the “o” and the “e” go together to make the “oo” sound.  (Spelling in the English language is so much fun, right?).  Therefore, “shoe” would be an example of a consonant-vowel (CV) word.

Who would benefit from using these cards?

The children who would benefit most from using these decks of cards are children who have multiple speech errors and have difficulty putting together simple words such as these.  For example, children with apraxia of speech, autism, Down Syndrome, and severe phonological processes are all good fits for these cards as long as they are still working on putting together sounds to form simple words.  If the child is difficult to understand and you’re not sure why, these cards are a good place to start.  You can always move to more difficult words later when the child is ready.

How do I choose which cards to start with?

1. First, start with the consonant-vowel (CV) and vowel-consonant (VC) word cards.  Hold up each picture and ask the child “what’s this?”.  See if the child can say the word on his own.  If not, these will be the decks you start with.
2. Once the child is able to say the CV and VC words most of the time, move on to the consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) deck.  Ask the child “what’s this” for these words.  If he cannot say these words most of the time, choose this deck to start with.
3. Once the child is able to say the CVC words most of the time, move on to the consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel (CVCV) deck.  If the child cannot say these words correctly most of the time, use this deck to start.
4. As you go through this process, if the child is able to say all of those words, go back through and write down which particular sounds the child had trouble with when saying these words.  Focus on teaching him that particular sound.

How do we practice the cards we chose to start with?

1. First, have the child imitate the word after you.  Practice it a few times until it sounds pretty good and then move on to the next word.  You can do this while taking turns in a game or while playing with a favorite toy (for example, you could make him say a few words before he gets another piece of the train).
2. Once the child can imitate the words back to you most of the time with all of their sounds (it’s ok if they’re missing a few of the harder sounds like /r/ and /l/), have the child say the words on his own.  Hold up one of the pictures and say “what’s this?”.  If he can say the word, praise him and move to the next one.  If he cannot say the word, go back to imitation for that one and have him repeat it back after you.
3. When the child can say these words on his own most of the time, have him say them in two-word phrases.  For example, you can have the child say a word in front of the target word, such as saying “my ball, my bat” or “want shoe, want cow”.  You may have to model this for him several times before he’s able to do this on his own.
4. Once the child is able to do this, you have a few options.  If the child is speaking in sentences already, you can try having the child create sentences with the target word.  For example, he could say “I see a cow” or “the cow is brown”.  If the child isn’t speaking in full sentences, you can skip this and move on to the next hardest deck of cards to give him an extra speech challenge.

How can I make this fun so the child wants to do it?

You can entice the child to want to work on speech sounds by making it fun!  Try some of these ideas below, or check out our post about how to make speech practice more fun.

• Play a game while you work

• Trace something while you work

• Give them a piece to something after they do a little work (like a piece to a marble run)

• Hold yoga poses while doing work

• Perform actions while doing work (can you say your word while hopping on one foot?)

• Shoot hoops or toss a ball while doing work

• Plastic coins/treasure in a slot for each word

• Put the picture cards in mailbox after you say them

• Find computer or I-Pad games that will work on the skill (like Articulation Station!)

• Have the child be the teacher and show you how to do it (get it wrong so they can correct you)

• Hide their words around the house and have them find the words

• Video tape or audio record them doing their words so they can watch/listen to it later

• Take pictures of them doing their words and make a book they can show others

• Tape words to walls in the bathroom, turn off lights, use flashlight to find and say them

• Put words on wall and shoot them with a dart gun, then say the word you shot

• Praise them a lot!!

• End with something they are successful with

• If it’s too hard, back down to something easier and then mix in the harder ones

• If you get frustrated, end the session early.

• Mark their progress and show it to them, like on a chart or graph

If the Child isn’t Able to Imitate These Words:

If the child won’t imitate any words yet, start by having him imitate actions and then work up to having him imitate sounds that you make with the mouth.  This might be a better place to start for some children.  If he won’t imitate actions, help him do the action after you and then praise him or give him a reinforcement that he really likes, like a favorite toy or food.

Additional Resources for Teaching CV, VC, CVC, and CVCV Words:

Here are our most popular resources for helping a child learn to speak short words to communicate with others: