All our students learn so differently. One student may respond to a cue we always use, but another may struggle to produce their target sound. There’s always a new trick to learn and an activity to add to our toolbox. I wrote this speech therapy L sound articulation post to help add to your toolbox, to use as your call for backup during a busy week, and whatever else you might need to work on the L sound in syllables, words, sentences, reading, and conversation.
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Resources for Teaching the L Sound in Speech Therapy
First step, elicit that L sound. Here are some helpful links for this first step.
- Heidi Hanks has tips for elicitation and picture words for the L Sound on Mommy Speech Therapy.
- Watch this Peachie Speechie video to show students for how to say the L sound. Play it, pause it, and practice the L sound with your students. This can also be helpful to share with teachers and caregivers.
- If you need visuals, word lists and tips for eliciting the L sound, check out this Speech Sound Handbook from Peachie Speechie
- The Marshalla Guide has so many tips for producing sounds, including the L sound.
L Sound in Isolation and Syllables
- Once you’ve elicited the L sound, practice it in isolation. You can use this free printable from Adventures in Speech Pathology to get repeated practice with the L sound in isolation. Don’t forget to grab some dot markers, crayons, or markers for your students to color as they practice!
- Check out my syllable practice blog post, including a free printable practice sheet, or click the pink button below. Use dry-erase markers or post-it notes to practice L at the syllable level.
Speech Therapy L Sounnd Words Activities
Next on the L Articulation to do list? Practice the L sound in syllables and words! Here are some ideas.
- Keep everything in one place with these L activities speech therapy digital folders. You can easily customize quick drill activities for your in-person and teletherapy sessions. The digital folders include links to websites, YouTube videos, Google Slides, progress monitoring tools, and PDFs.
- Using a minimal pairs approach for L? There are also gliding and cluster reduction digital folders.
- These FREE Speech Therapy L Word Activities Books will help get those high trials in with activities and word lists. Print, laminate, cut them out and keep them together with binder clips. No time to prep? Use the L word activity books on your iPad or computer!
- Grab some pipe cleaners, beads and pipe cleaner articulation for another one of my L articulation activities.
More L Articulation Therapy Ideas
- Print out L speech word picture cards and use them for I spy games, drills, sensory bins, and more articulation activities your students enjoy!
- For kids who need movement or games that are sound-loaded, Home Speech Home has a few great suggestions.
- Make an I Spy sensory bin with L mini trinkets and other sounds to pair with the free L sound mat printable.
- Visit Home Speech Home for a word list for L and minimal pairs with L.
- Play Lids N’ Lizards! Head to the blog for some free printables to use this game throughout the year.
L Articulation Sentence Activities
Finding that your students are ready to work on L in sentences? Here are some ideas for you!
- Make L sound-loaded phrases with your students on paper that you can practice in the session. Then, your students can take this paper home for weekly homework.
- For example, you can use the phrase “Look at the ______.” Then, students think of different words. They don’t have to have an L because the word your student will be working on is “look.” When using mixed groups, give them a category group to name items.
- If you’re doing a theme-based approach, you can do this activity but use the themed vocabulary. See this IG for more details.
- Compare and contrast similar nouns that contain the L sound. For example, lemon and lime or pool and lake would be great L words to compare. If you need pre-selected compare-and-contrast flashcards, check out the L articulation carryover set.
- Play a sentence articulation challenge game that keeps the student motivated to practice high trials in a short amount of time.
- With your words lists, have your students create tongue twisters that they can practice. You can even have them illustrate their tongue twister to make a fun speech sound book. For example, you could use “Lucy loves long walks around the lake” or “Lionel left his lunch in his locker.”
- Play guessing games for secret words that only have the L sound. Add in carrier phrases for people to use like “My lips are sealed, but here is a clue: ______”
Speech Therapy Crafts for the L Sound
Many kids get super motivated when they have created something of their own. I’ve made a list of some fun L sound crafts for you and your students.
- Make speech sound wallets that your students can store in their speech folders or use for practice at home.
- Grab paper plates, glue sticks, scissors and markers to try this low prep L sound speech therapy paper plate challenge craft.
- With construction paper, glue, markers and a hole punch, your students can create this cute ladybug hole punch craft from Speech Sprouts. Each time you practice a word, they can punch a new hole in the ladybug wings!
L Sound Conversation Activities
When your students have mastered the sentence level, it’s time for reading and conversation!
- My L and L-blend conversation activities includes data sheets, short stories, non-fiction passages, compare and contrast cards, conversation starters, sequencing cards, problem solving bingo and a mystery delivery activity. It also includes a digital option for all activities included!
- Use some L sound-loaded non-fiction articles for students to read aloud.
- Check out Wonderopolis and readworks.org for more L sound-loaded articles. For example, students can read about Abraham Lincoln or about lizards.
- Make sound loaded questions or would you rather games using the L sound. For example, you can ask “What do you LIKE more?”
- Have students read the directions of a game, or read the cards while playing a game like Bubble Talk.
Create a list of words that start with the L sound (laugh, lazy, lion, learn, like, look, light, large, leg) then have students make silly sentences or create a story trying to get the sound-loaded words in the story.
Progress Monitoring Tools for the L Sound
If you need quick data checks for updates on your L sound speech therapy goals, check out the L progress monitoring Google Slide and Forms in the L digital speech folder. If you are working on minimal pairs for gliding or cluster reduction, there are also progress monitoring tools for those sound pairs.
What Speech Therapy L Sound Activities do You Plan?
I hope this post gave you some new ideas for cues, activities and resources when working on the L sound at all levels. There are so many ways we can work on speech sounds with our students and different ways we can support them in and out of sessions. What have you been doing during sessions to keep your students engaged while working on the L sound? Share in the comments or tag us on social to share your ideas!
