A child repeatedly inserts an inappropriate sound in certain environments (e.g., [fpɪʃ] for [fɪʃ]). Which target would be most helpful for treatment?

• A. Words that contrast the child's error pattern with the target pattern in the word
• B. Bisyllabic words for which a minimal-contrast pair can be easily identified
• C. Repeated practice with the combinations of phonemes that the child finds particularly easy to produce
• D. Words containing phonemes that have distinctive features in common with the sound the child inserts inappropriately

Answer: (A)

When a child inserts an extra sound in the adult form, the most effective approach is to use words that directly contrast the incorrect form with the correct form within the same word. This helps the child hear and feel the difference between the two productions and learn to drop the unnecessary segment. For example, pairing a word where the correct form is fish with a version that includes the inserted sound, such as pfish, makes the contrast clear and provides a concrete cue to produce the target pattern. With practice on these contrasting items, the child maps perception to production and reduces the tendency to insert the extra sound across environments. Other options either rely on identifying separate minimal pairs that don’t spotlight the within-word contrast, focus on easy-to-produce sounds rather than addressing the error pattern, or use shared features that don’t highlight the crucial difference between the error and target.