Hi Brooke!
Great question! Sounds like he can make the sound physically as in your example of him saying “tail” and “door.” Try having him watch you and listen and use auditory bombardment (the sound correctly a bunch of times while he focuses on your mouth and listens!) Also use the LIPS program by LIndamood bell to give each sound a name and feeling! So a /t/ is called a “Tip tapper” and you discuss how his mouth feels when he makes that using a mirror, etc. then just keep contrasting the two sound with LOTS of opportunities to see that the sound difference means a meaning difference. I know you are already doing that, but maybe spend more time there and with the LIPS approach. I LOVE LIPS! It’s so effective!
Thank you so so much for your question! Please keep me posted!
Love,
Heather

Hi Hope, my 4 year old son also has initial consonant deletion. How is your son getting on, did you find any areas, games from therapy especially helpful. At the moment, I am not sure therapy is helping.

Hi Wendy!
I know that feeling of heart ache for your kids. You just don’t ever want to see them struggle or feel discouraged! One thing you can always do (and i’m sure you already are!) is to really emphasize their strengths! Any sports, arts, hobbies, anything they enjoy – pour into those and give tons and tons and then more praise and positive attention and reinforcement for those things they excel at that have nothing to do with speech. I have found that kids NEED this so much once they reach the age when they are comparing themselves to their peers and have a keen awareness of being or talking “different.” What errors are they still working on? I can try to give you some more specific tips if I know the patterns that are still making their speech hard to understand! Thank you so much for writing!
Love and hugs!
Heather

Hi Hope!
I’m so sorry I haven’t responded. Initial Consonant Deletion is a speech error that we do see in kids, but its not one of those that are super typical. I’m glad to hear he is getting speech therapy. Sometimes phonological errors such as initial consonant deletion might take longer to fix and retrain the new pattern or habit. Has your therapist tried using minimal pairs? Or even more sequencing-type activities. I am wondering if an apraxia type therapy would be beneficial for your son. Yes, it is definitely a pattern that is fixable! Don’t worry! These things can sometimes take time. It is difficult to say for sure without seeing your son in person. But don’t give up! He will get it!
All the best,
Heather

Hi Heather,
I am an SLT student from New Zealand. Would you mind pointing me to some of the research you referred to above?
Many thanks,
Jacqui