Minimal Pairs

Minimal Pairs:

• Population:
• Children 3 years- 6 years
• Ideal for mild-moderate level of phonological impairment 
• For children without concomitant hearing, oral motor, or language difficulties 
• Can be used with other populations if combined with other approaches

• Purpose of the approach:
• To increase phonological awareness

• Steps of the approach:
• Suggested amount of therapy: twice a week, for 9 and a half week, totally to around 18 hours
• Only recommended for individual therapy sessions

• Two types of approaches:
• Meaningful Minimal Pair Intervention:
• Child is challenged to produce a contrast betwwwe the word pair in the 1st intervention session
• 3 Steps:
1. Familiarization
2. Listen and pick-up
3. Production of minimal pair words
• Perception-Production Minimal Pairs Intervention 
• Children receives perception training followed by imitation speech production practice before starting spontaneous speech production practice 
• 4 Steps:
1. Familiarization and perception training
2. Production- word imitation 
3. Production- independent naming
4. Production- minimal pairs
• Materials Needed:
• Picture stimuli
• Games or toys
• Assessment and Progress:
• Still want qualitative and quantitative evidence 
• Generalization Data