Description

Carrier phrases are short, simple “stock” phrases we use to help kids and adults practice their skills and to transfer their therapy gains from single word to phrase levels.

We use carrier phrases a lot in speech therapy to bridge the gap between single word drills and self-generated sentences. This can help clients to transfer their skills from the clinic into the real world.

For example, in the last few months, we’ve used carrier phrases:

• in lisp therapy to help a young lady correct her /s/;
• in phonological speech therapy to help a young gentleman learn to say /k/ (instead of /t/) at the start of his words;
• with children who stutter and are being treated with the Lidcombe or Westmead Programs for childhood stuttering;
• in language therapy with a young man working on regular plurals (e.g. cats) and possessive ‘s (e.g. David’s car);
• in accent modification therapy with an adult working on improving his primary stress patterns to improve his intelligibility;
• in voice therapy with an adult to practice healthy voicing techniques; and
• in reading interventions with school-aged kids to practice decoding of high frequency words and phrases.

Let’s not waste precious time reinventing wheels! To help clients, families, members of the public and other speech pathologists, we’re pleased to offer this short free resource with some of our favourite carrier phrases.