The Difference Between Bjorem Speech® Minimal Pairs Decks and Cycles Decks

When it comes to effective speech therapy tools, Bjorem Speech® offers a wide range of resources tailored to address various speech and phonological disorders. Two of our most popular tools are the Minimal Pairs Decks and the Cycles Decks. While both are designed to help children improve their speech clarity, they are distinct in their approaches and the specific needs they address.

Minimal Pairs Decks: Targeting Specific Sound Errors

Minimal Pairs Decks are designed to target specific sound errors by using pairs of words that differ by only one phoneme. These decks are particularly effective for children who have difficulties with specific phonological processes, such as fronting & backing, gliding, final consonant deletion, S cluster reduction, voicing, and stopping. Each deck in this series focuses on a particular phonological error, offering a range of word pairs that help the child distinguish between the correct and incorrect sounds.

For example, the Minimal Pairs for Fronting and Backing deck helps children who present with the common phonological process of fronting and backing. This is when a child switches front and/or back sounds in words, which can drastically change the meaning of the word. For example, a child who is fronting may say “tea” when they are trying to say “key” - they are using the front sound /t/ instead of the back sound /k/ which changes the meaning of what they are saying. The visual and auditory cues provided in these decks help the child understand the importance of these sounds and how they can change the meaning of words and help them to practice producing them accurately. 

Each Minimal Pairs deck comes with visuals for the contrasting sounds to use along with word pairs that differ by one phoneme. For example, continuing with our example mentioned previously, in the Minimal Pairs Fronting and Backing deck, there are various visuals to represent /t/ and /k/, /d/ and /g/, /s/ and “sh,” and initial clusters /st/ and /sk/.

Using the Cues

The Bjorem Speech Minimal Pairs decks include multiple different types of cues in each deck for you to use to support the child’s understanding of the rule being taught. You are encouraged to trial which type of cue (if any) is the most successful in helping to cue the child to contrast their words correctly. 

The cues are a range of metaphors and phonetic placement cues. What do these types of cues mean?

What Does a Minimal Pairs Session Layout Look Like?

1. Familiarization: show each minimal pair card to your child and briefly explain the pictures. You will find a suggested familiarization cue on the back of each card.
2. Listening: spread all of the minimal pair cards in front of the child. Ask the child to pick up or point to the cards you say. Move on to the next step when the child correctly identifies 90% of the words. 
3. Production of minimal pair words: complete different drill-play activities so that the child can contrast the word pair and say each one correctly. Try to aim for 100 correct productions of the target sound in your session, and monitor for generalization to untrained target words during conversation. 

You have different options when choosing your minimal pairs treatment set. You can choose: 

1. One Target sounds (e.g., /k/ in the initial position) 
2. A mixture of sounds (e.g., a mixture of /k/ initial and /g/ initial pairs)
3. A mixture of positions (e.g., a mixture of initial and final position, and clusters)

While children can generalize to untrained words using 3-5 minimal pairs, some children benefit from more minimal pairs training words (e.g., 10 pairs). 

What Does a Minimal Pairs Deck Card Look Like?

Shop the Bjorem Speech Minimal Pairs Decks:

• Final Consonant Deletion
• Stopping
• Voicing
• Fronting and Backing
• Gliding
• S Cluster Reduction 

Cycles Decks: Addressing Highly Unintelligible Speech

The Cycles Approach, on the other hand, is a broader, more systematic method used to treat highly unintelligible speech. Developed by Hodson and Paden, this approach is particularly effective for children with severe phonological deficits. Instead of focusing on one phoneme at a time, the Cycles Approach cycles through different phonological patterns over a set period, providing the child with repeated exposure and practice across multiple areas of need. A *cycle* refers to the time period during which multiple phonological patterns are targeted in therapy. Once the clinician analyzes the child’s speech and determines what consistent phonological error patterns are present, *primary patterns* are selected to be addressed in the first cycle. Two or more stimulable phonemes are selected for each primary pattern for that cycle, addressing each phoneme for 60 minutes each. Once all the phonemes/patterns have been addressed in the first cycle, the clinician reassesses and probes for generalization to determine which primary phonological patterns should continue to be addressed in the second cycle. Secondary phonological patterns may be addressed in subsequent cycles, as well. For more information on the cycles approach, check out Amy Graham’s Cycles course here.

The Cycles Decks from Bjorem Speech® are designed to complement this approach by providing targeted practice on a range of phonological patterns. Each deck includes a variety of carefully selected target words that are grouped by phonological patterns, such as syllableness, s-clusters, fronting and backing, liquids & glides, initial and final consonant deletion, and singleton stridents. The goal is not to achieve mastery of a particular sound during one cycle but to give the child ample opportunities to practice and gradually improve across all areas of speech sound production.

For example, the Cycles Deck for Fronting and Backing includes 7 cards for each phoneme included: final /k/, initial /k/, initial /g/, final /t/, initial /t/, initial /d/, initial “ch”, and final “ch.” It does not include visual cue cards such as the ones included in the Minimal Pairs decks. It would instead be great to use the Bjorem Speech Sound Cues as extra visual cues here. 

What Does a Cycles Session Layout Look Like?

1. Review previous session targets 
2. Auditory bombardment word list presented with amplification for 1-2 minutes 
3. Familiarize the child with 3-5 target words for that session
4. Elicit numerous correct productions of target words during play
5. Incorporate metaphonological activities (rhyming, segmentation, blending, etc.) 
1. Check out the Bjorem Speech Sound Cues, or Bjorem Better Letters to pair with these decks to help you incorporate phonological awareness activities!
6. Probe for stimulability of next session’s targets 

What Does a Cycles Deck Card Look Like?

Which Deck to Choose?

Choosing between the Minimal Pairs Decks and Cycles Decks depends largely on the specific needs of the child in therapy. If the child struggles with specific sound errors and needs to focus on distinguishing and producing particular phonemes, the Minimal Pairs Decks would be the most effective. These decks offer targeted practice and are ideal for addressing specific phonological processes.

On the other hand, if the child has highly unintelligible speech and multiple phonological patterns need to be addressed, the cycles approach might be a better fit for the child and the Cycles Decks would be the best choice to help meet their therapy needs. 

Both the Minimal Pairs Decks and Cycles Decks are valuable tools in the speech therapist's arsenal, and many therapists have both in their therapy toolbox so that they are ready to provide the most robust support for children with speech sound disorders. It is imperative that speech-language pathologists educate themselves on the wide variety of interventions available for speech sound disorders, in which it is crucial to use their clinical judgment during the differential diagnosis process to best decide which therapy approach will best suit each individual child. 

Check out our decks for other approaches, such as the Complexity Approach Decks (see this blog post to learn more about the Complexity Approach, the phonological approach that will “change your life”), our Contrast Cues for contrast approaches (maximal, minimal, and multiple), and Facilitative Contexts.

For more information on these decks and how they can be incorporated into your therapy sessions, visit our Bjorem Speech® website where you can explore our full range of products and resources​​. Check out our YouTube Channel (and the product description media files on our site) to find educational videos on the products as well.