Articulation Therapy Activities: How I Teach Initial R Words Step-by-Step (Part 2)

Welcome back! In Part 1, I shared the articulation therapy activities I used with Ruby to eliminate the W substitution and build a strong foundation for her to have success with Initial R words. Today, I’ll show you how we moved into auditory discrimination and awareness using minimal pairs.

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Step 2: Minimal Pair Activities for Speech Therapy to Build Sound Awareness

Once we’ve had some success with the initial R level 1 words, the next step I take is building awareness of the difference between R and W sounds. That’s where minimal pairs come in.

At this point, we’re not just working on production—we’re building the student’s ability to hear the difference and understand when the lips are sneaking back in. I keep this step very structured yet light. It’s all about exposure, modeling, and starting to engage that motor movement and phonemic awareness.

R/W Minimal Pairs (free download)

Listening First: Modeling and Auditory Discrimination

To begin, I model minimal pairs out loud—pairs like “ring” vs. “wing,” or “rock” vs. “wok.” We listen to the two words side by side. I use LevelUp Artic Initial R/W Auditory Discrimination slides that show both a picture and the written word, which really helps students who are developing sound-letter awareness.

Even with younger kids, seeing the written word underneath the picture can be powerful. It gives them an extra cue—and reinforces that what they’re hearing isn’t random.

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Active Engagement: Let Them “Be the Teacher”

Next, I invite students to take a more active role. I model both the correct and incorrect production—and ask them to "be the teacher" and tell me if my lips got involved. (I know, I know—I’m not a huge fan of using the word teacher with students either, but they love it.)

They might:

• Give a thumbs up/down

• Point to the picture of the word I actually said

• Use a “lip alert” sign when they hear that W sneak in

This articulation therapy activity helps them not only listen but also start to self-monitor—a key piece in making lasting change.

R/W Minimal Pairs Tic Tac Toe

Make It a Game: Minimal Pairs Tic-Tac-Toe

With my student Ruby, minimal pairs really clicked when we bumped things up to a simple Tic-Tac-Toe game. Here’s how it worked:

• I set up a board with minimal pair pictures (like ring and wing)

  
  

• If the student says “wing” instead of “ring,” I place the X or O on the wing picture, even though I know she wanted to choose the picture of the ring.

  
  

• This gives natural feedback—the game reflects what they actually said

  
  

• It motivates them to aim for accuracy while keeping the mood light

This kind of game-based feedback is powerful because it feels meaningful and immediate without needing to pause for a correction every time.

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Side note: Managing Engagement in Teletherapy

One quick tip that’s helped me in teletherapy—I don’t give students control over the screen. I’ve found it can really slow things down and lead to distractions. Instead, I offer a short free draw time at the end of our session as a reward. I set this expectation at the beginning of the year, and it’s worked beautifully. They stay focused, and we get way more done.

👉  In Part 3, I’ll walk you through how we used flashcards, sentence-level practice, and generalization speech therapy activities to take Ruby’s R to the next level. Don’t miss it!

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