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What is the 12 Minute Parent Trainer?
The 12 Minute Parent Trainer is Marcus Little's narrated, 36-slide walkthrough of the Speech PathWay for parents and educators. It shows the seven stages of speech sound development, the drills at each stage and when to move up, so families can practice at home alongside speech therapy.
By Marcus Little, M.Sc., speech-language pathologist · Last reviewed October 31, 2026
Who is the course for?
It is written for parents and educators who want to practice speech sounds at home and do not know where to begin. As an SLP, send it before you assign a handout, so families understand the stages, the Golden Rule and why accuracy comes before speed.
What does the course cover?
- Sound discrimination. Can the child hear the difference between the target sound and the error? Random drills with pointing, then minimal pairs in words. Move on at over 90 percent accuracy across at least 25 trials, then review words daily until 100 percent.
- Sound. The sound on its own. Accuracy first, then speed. Move on when the child says it rapidly and effortlessly 25 times in a row.
- Syllable. Add a vowel, with the sound before and after it. Give extra time to the combinations that are hard. Move on at 10 rapid productions in a row for every combination.
- Double syllable. The most important and most overlooked step. Rapid transitions between the target sound and the vowels around it. Get this right and words and sentences fall into place.
- Word. Words 10 times in a row, accurately and rapidly, then speed with accuracy maintained.
- Sentence. Sentences often sound right at first. Listen for pauses and over-emphasis, which are training wheels to remove. If they persist, go back to double syllable drills.
- Conversation. Monitor and correct the sound through the day, because the child can already do it and may be holding on to the old pattern.
It also explains why accuracy comes first, what to do when errors pile up, and how to remove pausing and emphasis. The handouts on this site turn each part into something families can print.
Is the course a replacement for speech therapy?
No. The course opens with a disclaimer: it supports and enhances speech sound development and programming, and it is not a substitute for a registered speech-language pathologist. A full assessment is always recommended before beginning articulation work.
What does the narrator say? Full transcript
1. Introduction
Welcome to the Speech PathWay! Glad you could make it.
2. Disclaimer
These tools have been designed to support and enhance speech sound development and programming. This tool should not be considered a substitute for the expertise of a registered Speech Language Pathologist. A full assessment with a registered Speech Language Pathologist is always recommended prior to beginning any articulation work.
3. Parent's Frustration
Working on developing speech sounds can be an intimidating process at first. Many parents or educators quite often do not know where to begin or have confidence in their abilities to effectively work on speech sound development.
4. A Roadmap
It is the goal of the Speech PathWay to empower individuals to efficiently and effectively develop speech sounds into conversation. Anyone who feels alone, lost or overwhelmed with the task of developing speech sounds will find this program a “roadmap” to articulation success.
5. Developing Speech Sounds
The good news is that developing speech sounds is very systematic. We can start at a very basic skill or level and gradually increase the difficulty by increasing the complexity of the task. Once you understand this pathway you will be able to effectively focus on the level of speech drills that will have the most impact.
6. The Speech PathWay
There are seven stages to the Speech PathWay: Sound Discrimination, Sound, Syllable, Double Syllable, Word, Sentence and Conversation. This progression is commonly known as a “traditional approach”. All speech pathologists are aware of, and understand this progression.
7. Learning Music
If you are familiar with learning how to play the piano – the process is similar. You spend a great deal of time in the beginning working with scales and drills till they become automatic. Then, you move your way through practice up to complex pieces.
8. Sound Discrimination Level
Sound discrimination is simply the ability to discriminate the target sound from the misarticulated sound being produced.
9. Sound Discrimination Process
For instance the substitution of the /f/ sound for the /th/ sound is a common occurrence- i.e. fum/thumb, baf/bath, baftub/bathtub. It is first necessary to make sure the child can differentiate between the two sounds. If a child can not tell the difference between the two sounds they will not hear their own misarticulations.
10. Tools
To do this task, you will need a couple pieces of paper and a pen or pencil. On the first piece of paper, write down the target sound and the misarticulated sound. Use the second piece of paper to record the number of correct trials using a + or a –.
11. Sound Drills
Say either /th/ or /f/ sound and have the child identify the sound by pointing to it on the paper. Be very random with this task – children are good at picking up patterns. Continue this until child is over 90% accurate in at least 25 trials.
12. Discrimination in Words
Next say words that start with either of the target sounds. Have the child listen and identify the initial sound in each word. Minimal pairs are excellent for this task. Some examples include: Thin/fin Think/fink Fic/thick Four/thor Once again be very Random. Continue to review daily until 100% accurate.
13. Sound Level
The sound level is where we develop the ability to say the sound in isolation. We focus on accuracy first. Once accurate we develop speed. The key is to make the productions automatic and effortless.
14. Articulation
Consider that when you or I speak our tongue is moving rapidly to different points of articulation and we are not aware of it. It is an automatic process. Every child I work with has to go through a period of consciously attending to the task at hand in order to accurately produce the sound. The goal of the Speech PathWay is to develop automaticity in your child's speech sound production. The access to this is repetition. Think of each production or repetition as a step closer to achieving our speech goal.
15. Sound Drills
Once the child can say the sound rapidly and effortlessly 25 times in a row they are ready to proceed.
16. The Golden Rule
Always remember the Golden Rule of the Speech PathWay: Accuracy first – then develop speed maintaining accuracy.
17. Syllable Level
When we move onto the Syllable stage, the child is able to say the target sound in isolation effortlessly and automatically at a rapid pace. At this stage, we add one additional element (a vowel sound) .
18. Syllable Sounds
At the syllable stage, we are working both with the sound as an initial production (before the vowel sound) and as a final production (after the vowel sound).
19. Distinguishing Sounds that Need Work
We identify which combinations (if any) the child can do as well as which combinations are hard for the child. We spend extra time on difficult productions to bring them up to speed.
20. Syllable Drills
Once again once the child has developed accuracy, we focus on speed and making the productions effortless. If the child can rapidly produce 10 productions in a row for each of the syllable combinations, they are ready to progress to the next level.
21. Double Syllable Level
Next, we move onto the double syllable stage. This is by far the most important step in the whole process and quite often the most overlooked.
22. Rapid Transition Skills
Double syllable drills give us the opportunity to practice rapid transitions between our target sound and surrounding vowel sounds. These rapid transitions are a key skill that is needed in order to say the sound accurately in conversation. Double syllable drills allow the skill of rapid transitions to be worked on in a very condensed manner.
23. Double Syllable Sounds
Again, at the double-syllable stage, we are working with the target sound as an initial production (before the vowel sound) and as a final production (after the vowel sound).
24. Double Syllable Drills
Once productions are accurate, speed becomes the focus. We are always working to have the child increase speed while maintaining accuracy until list can be done effortlessly and rapidly. If a strong foundation is set in double syllable drills, then word and sentence drills fall easily into place.
25. Word Level
Next come word drills. Word drills are typically quite easy following double syllable drills.
26. Words
The focus here is to have the child develop the ability to say words 10X in a row accurately and rapidly.
27. Word Drills
Again - once productions are accurate, focus on speed. The goal is to increase speed while maintaining accuracy until the list can be done effortlessly and rapidly.
28. Sentence Level
The next level is sentences. Quite often sentence productions appear correct at this stage if The Speech PathWay has been followed correctly. How the sentences are being produced becomes the issue.
29. Pauses and Emphasis
Quite often a pause and overemphasis is present in the sentences. For example “I hurt my…..thhhumb”. The pausing and overemphasis are training wheels which need to be removed. The child may be using them to buy time to get articulators into place. We need to see if the child can remove pause and emphasis by bringing it to their attention. Sometimes this is all it takes.
30. Strengthening Double Syllable
Other times, the child is still unable to do sentences without adding pauses and emphasis. This typically means revisiting the double syllable drills in order to develop transition speed.
31. Conversation Level
Once the child has a solid foundation in sentence level drills, it is time to start monitoring and correcting the sound in conversation.
32. Correcting in Conversation
We know the child has the ability but may still be sticking with old pattern. Make a point of monitoring and correcting the sound throughout the day.
33. Final Words
There are a few tips to help you out along the way if you get stuck. First of all, if you find that a number of errors are occurring during drills – slow down to regain accuracy. If as you progress along the pathway, you find errors in transitions – split the sounds apart and focus on them individually. We know what the child can do, and it helps to go back and strengthen that before moving forward. Finally – you can stretch sounds out as well (thhhhhis). Remember the Golden Rule – Accuracy First – then develop speed maintaining accuracy.
34. Breakthrough in Results
As a Speech Language Pathologist, I had a tremendous breakthrough in using this method. Previously, I focused on where the breakdown occurred. With more time correcting errors and trying to do what is difficult for the child, the number of repetitions became greatly reduced. But – when I started to focus on what the child could do, I saw an exponential increase in the number of repetitions a child could perform. Consequently, I started to see breakthroughs in the results.
35. Conclusion
I used to really struggle with children having difficulty with transferring what was learned in therapy into their conversational speech. Once I started focusing on developing automaticity of the speech sounds using The Speech PathWay, the process of transferring to conversation has become rapid, effective and painless.