Behind the Scenes: How I Organize My Articulation Materials

I used to have an entire filing cabinet (yes, all 3 drawers!!) filled with articulation worksheets. They were a hot mess! Even though I had thousands of options, I could never seem to find what I needed for my students–whether I was looking for a certain complexity, word position, or a combination of speech sounds.

I decided to stay after school for a few days. I painstakingly organized the worksheets by sound and complexity…

I thought I had it all figured out.

But I still had trouble finding what I needed when I needed it!

And forget about keeping up with copies!

I decided to try something different…

A New Approach to Articulation

I created some activity templates. I want a small set of worksheets to pull from. I decided to keep the original and a few copies in a sheet protector for easy access.

I use the templates to individualize practice for my students by…

1. Writing in words from a word list.

I could pull the exact words that I wanted from a list.

Better yet…

I started involving my students in the process.

• They walked around the room and identified words that included their target speech sound.
• They identified words with the speech sound in a book… or reading passage… or really anything they were reading in the classroom.
• So many possibilities!

This wasn’t the perfect solution for all of my students, so I created another tool to make my job easier (and better help my students)!

2. Using articulation stickers.

I created articulation stickers for the different speech sounds. I have plenty of options for each speech sound (in initial, medial, and final word position), with varying levels of complexity.

Need an activity with simple initial /k/ words? No problem!

Need an activity with CVC words? No problem!

Need an activity for generalization with /l/ in all word positions? No problem!

The stickers make it really easy to create individualized activities.

Students also happen to love the stickers! They are fabulous reinforcers.

It’s fun and functional! The process of creating a worksheet (peeling sticking, placing, and coloring stickers) allows for repeated practice opportunities.

Many of the activities are game-based and can be used for several sessions (or sent home for homework).

Here’s a peek at a quick activity in action:

Want to see more? Check out this video for a quick walkthrough that I shared with SLP Now members!

Interested in purchasing these templates for your speech room?

You can access them through the SLP Now Membership (or purchase on Teachers Pay Teachers).

You can purchase the labels here. (I print my stickers on 1” circle labels, but you can also print on regular paper for a “cut and glue” activity!)