Which strategy is most effective for a 5-year-old child with multiple speech-production errors?

• A. Start with sounds the child can make and use them as bridges to error sounds
• B. Delineate phonological processes in operation and address them through minimal-contrast pairs
• C. Teach sounds in isolation, then use nonsense syllables, and then build to words
• D. Arrange error sounds by developmental pattern and correct them sound by sound

Answer: (B)

When a child has several speech-production errors, the most effective approach is to identify the phonological processes at work and address them directly using minimal-contrast pairs. This targets the patterns the child uses across many sounds, so teaching a single contrast can improve multiple related sounds and overall intelligibility. Minimal-contrast therapy makes the contrast between the error form and the target form perceptually salient, helping the child notice the difference and produce the correct sound in productive contexts. For example, if a child substitutes a simpler sound for a more complex one, you would pair it with a word that differs by only that sound so the child learns to produce the target form rather than the error form. This pattern-focused method tends to yield broader, more efficient gains than treating sounds in isolation or following development tests to fix sounds one by one.