Eliminate Final Consonant Deletion: 10+ Activities
Final consonant deletion is a common phonological process that is often targeted in speech therapy. The process of deleting final consonants is common until a child is three years old. After that time, it is often recommended as a speech therapy target if it is impacting the child’s intelligibility. We have products and FREEBIES below to help you target all your FCD goals.
For final consonant deletion, recommended targets are often MINIMAL PAIRS. This is a great way to help the child hear the sound they need to be including in their speech. I recommend incorporating minimal pairs into your therapy approach regardless of the activities you choose to use.
Most children that come to you to work on final consonant deletion (FCD) will be preschool age but not all of them. These activities are presented with the preschool child in mind, however, most of them can be adapted to help a school-aged child as well.
When you decide on an activity, if it is a play based activity, I recommend writing a list of high frequency words to target throughout the session. This is a great list to send home with caregivers as well.
There are plenty of opportunities for FCD practice with cut and paste activities such as THESE. They’re perfect for home carryover practice and extra trials in a session. But… Let’s mix it up. Here is a list of 10 activities to target final consonant deletion that you may not have tried yet. Try to use these activities throughout your sessions and see what happens!
TRAINS
Use a train toy to explain where the last sound of a word belongs. Push the train along and take off the caboose to show when the final sound is missing. Take turns with the train and let the child try to add and remove the caboose and final sounds. Provide word targets to practice with using a minimal pair list.SORTING BUCKETS
Use two buckets to sort target words. One bucket has a “yes”, “check mark” or “I hear a final consonant” label on it and the second bucket has a “no”, “X” or “I don’t hear a final consonant”. Have the student sort words, picture cards, toys, or throw balls/bean bags into the buckets while listening to words.SLIDE
If you have access to a real slide or playground, GO FOR IT. I’ll describe this activity as if that’s not the case. Draw a slide and show the student the way you slide downnnn the slide and STOP at the end. The stop at the end represents the final sound. This also works if you have the child slide their hand down their opposite arm and tap their hand at the end. “Caaaaaa-t”. This is a great activity if the child is not hearing the final sound in your speech or if they are not yet hearing the errors in their speech.BLOCKS
Stack blocks together and have each block represent a phoneme in a word. This is a common phonological awareness activity, however, the overlap into FCD is great. Take off the block if the sound is missing when the word is produced. If you are using legos, you can use a dry erase marker to write the letter on each block. You can also use blank blocks and pair with a picture or minimal pair card.HIDE AND SEEK
I enjoy playing hide and seek with my preschool students regardless of the goals they are working on. It has so many opportunities for articulation practice and language expansion. Specifically for FCD, try hiding the speech cards around the room. Be sure to hide only the cards that have the final consonant targets (not their minimal pairs). When a student finds a card, ask them what they found. “I found a _______” would be the ideal sentence response. If they delete the final consonant, you can pretend to look around the room and state “I don’t see the _______… what did you find?” for an opportunity to correct their response.HOPSCOTCH
This is an ideal outside activity if you have access to chalk, however, it can be done inside with construction paper and laminated picture cards. First, you’ll want to practice the word “hop” with your student. Put emphasis on the final “p” in the word. Practice hopping on one foot and saying “hoP” each time. Then create a hopscotch pattern on the floor with chalk or paper. Add picture cards into each square. As they hop, have them practice each word with the same emphasis on the final consonant they practiced with “hop”. Adding movement really works, I promise!
PIN THE TAIL
FREEBIE ALERT. Click here for our free TPT download. DON’T MISS IT because it’s adorable. I love this activity so much and made it free for anyone to use. Cut out the animals and their tails. As you are gluing them back together, practice the animal’s tail sound (aka the final consonant on the word).
You can get creative and make a bigger version of this with felt, velcro, laminating pages, etc. or you can just download the one page printable here. Have fun!
Final Consonant Deletion Freebie - Speech Therapy Final Consonant Worksheet
8. BUBBLES
Bubbles are a wonderful open-ended activity and many preschoolers prefer them over ANY other toy. With a FCD approach, I like to focus on the word “pop” but with a twist. Have the student practice an articulation card or two, then blow the bubbles. Have them use the articulation cards to pop the bubbles. It builds the PERFECT target sentence “pop bubbles with ________” or a variation of that depending on complexity.
9. SENSORY BINS
If you’ve been with us for a little while, you probably already know that we LOVE a good sensory bin. If you haven’t seen how to use sensory bins in speech therapy, I highly recommend looking into it. We have a sensory bin post here. Try hiding mini objects, mini erasers, or articulation pictures into the bins. The engagement you’ll receive during the activity will allow for a lot of trials for target words. You can use whatever objects you have or create a themed bin with specific targets. Here’s an apple one we love!
10. PLAY DOUGH
Play dough is a perfect activity to explain a great way to use a high frequency word list. Pick a few words and target them throughout the activity. The more opportunities you use them during play, the more opportunities the student will have to imitate you or use the words independently. For play dough, consider words such as “cut”, “in”, “out”, “make”, and “smash”. Consider a word list such as this for ANY open-ended activity… vehicles (bus, stop, on), play food (eat, on, bread…), school bus (bus, open, etc), or a farm (duck, cat, pig).
Regardless of the activity you choose, I hope I’ve explained the importance of the use of minimal pairs as well as use of high frequency words in play. The use of visuals and manipulatives can also help as well.
Here’s the link again for the PIN THE TAIL FCD FREEBIE. You don’t want to miss out on that one.
Have fun! If you need some print and go resources, check out our FINAL CONSONANT DELETION SPEECH PACKET full of minimal pairs, handouts, and articulation activities for all levels.
As always, we would love to hear from you! Follow us on TPT, Pinterest, and Instagram @redrosespeechies and let us know what new activities we’ve inspired.
Love, Your Red Rose Speechies
