January 27, 2026
Alliteration and Orthographic Instruction
In my last blog post, I discussed the use of Word Wheels and Word Families to help with final consonant deletion, and learning that words with the same word ending rhyme. Over the past week, I observed the power of using alliteration (which I mentioned on this blog post) to address speech sound errors through orthographic instruction. Orthographic instruction helps a child to build a strong connection between the written word and the accompanying sounds. I have found the use of the written word a powerful tool to help in particular my autistic friends correct their speech sounds.
Here are three examples of how I witnessed the power of the visual in the written word:
One of my little friends (now five years old) started using this technique when he was four and already reading. He was observed to glide his “R“s to “W“s in conversation. To help him with generalization, if his mom wrote down the word that she heard in error, he would look at it and then correct the word. He now understood that the word “RED” did not start with “W”.
Another one of my little friends loves numbers and enjoys watching an adult write them. One session while doing so, I addressed the phonological process of stopping. He was replacing sounds like “F” with “B.” For example, “bour” for “four.” When I wrote the word and said, “Four starts with F not B,” he corrected the sound. I wrote numbers up to 100 and he corrected all initial F sounds and even medial F (“fifty”). I added addressing F’s voiced cognate V in the number “seven” and he accurately said the word.
Lastly, another friend who is six years old was reading a book and came across the word “see” which he pronounced “she.” When I asked, “Does see start with SH?” He proceeded to say no and corrected the sound in the word.
It is exciting to make my own discoveries of what works with my little friends in my practice and then seek out additional learning to support my observations. I am a lifelong learner who plans to add a course on orthographic instruction to my library of training. I look forward to sharing more next week!