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Speech Therapy Homework Glossary for SLPs

Plain definitions of the terms used across these handouts. Where parents hear a different label than SLPs, both are shown.

Success-based therapy (called Success-based homework when talking to parents): Practice at a level where the child is correct on nearly every repetition, so accuracy and confidence build together. Families practice what the child can already do instead of correcting errors.
Diagnostic therapy (called Diagnostic practice when talking to parents): Starting at the beginning of the speech roadmap and working up until the soft ceiling appears, which shows clearly what the child can and cannot do yet.
The Speech Roadmap: The path every speech sound follows: sound discrimination, sound, syllable, double syllable, word, sentence, conversation.
Soft ceiling: The level where errors start to appear but the child can still self-correct. A little time here is good, but it needs watching.
Hard ceiling: The level where the child cannot produce the sound correctly at all. Never practice here.
The SEA: Smooth, effortless, automatic. The end goal: the sound happens automatically in conversation.
The Golden Rule: Accuracy first. Develop speed while keeping accuracy.
Strive for Five: Chunking targets into sets of five with a rhythm, so counting and effort feel easier and flow builds.
The modeling ladder: Fading models from all five slow, to medium, to fast, to first target only, to no model.
Purge the Pausing: Removing the pause before a target sound. Pausing is a crutch for accuracy and hinders automatic speech.
Eliminate Emphasis: Fading the emphasis on a target sound. Emphasis is like a brake: you cannot go fast with it on.
Speech team: The helpers around a child: grandparents, siblings, teachers, educational assistants and daycare staff who run drills so the child gets more practice.

Put the terms to work in the handouts.