Introducing Silabación: Supporting Multisyllabic Word Production in Spanish-Speaking Children
If you’re a speech-language pathologist who works with young, Spanish-speaking children you’ve probably had this happen to you:
A parent comes to you with big questions and even bigger emotions.
Their toddler isn’t talking yet, and they’re wondering if the issue is that Spanish words are too long? Should they just switch to English words?
Their Spanish speaking child is having trouble producing full words and cuts out syllables.
They want to help and they don’t know how.
Silabación was created for this exact moment. As a bilingual speech-language pathologist working in homes and schools in Miami, FL, I come across this scenario often. Parents and teachers switch out longer Spanish words with shorter English words in the hopes that they will speak sooner or easier. It is my hope that this deck will help give families an avenue to target multisyllabic words, in Spanish, and preserve the consistent use of their home language!
What Is Silabación?
Silabación is a research-based, culturally responsive deck designed for children who need support with their speech production.
At its core, Silabación focuses on building early words through syllables—the rhythmic building blocks of language that are easier to produce and more functional for young children. It offers the added benefit of empowering families to continue using their home language when raising bilingual children.
Why Syllables?
Rather than targeting isolated phonemes or overly complex vocabulary, this approach centers around chaining together shorter words into longer words using short, familiar compound words. The words are already embedded in the child’s world—and their culture.
Why It Works:
Whether you're working in early intervention, private practice, or a school-based setting, Silabación offers a framework that feels both evidence-based and accessible for therapists and families. Here’s what makes it effective:
-
🧠 Grounded in research: Draws on principles of motor learning and naturalistic routines-based intervention.
-
🌍 Culturally responsive: Created by a bilingual SLP for bilingual families. We don’t treat home languages as barriers—we treat them as assets!
What SLPs Learn to Do with Silabación
When you use this framework, you’re not using a rigid protocol to support children in multisyllabic word production—you’re giving them a visual strategy that is easy to follow.
If you are an English speaking SLP with Spanish speaking children on your caseload, this deck offers translations on the back of each card so that you can feel confident using this deck no matter what your home language is!
Who It’s For
Silabación is designed for:
-
Children who are in early language acquisition
-
Bilingual or multilingual families (especially Spanish-English households)
-
SLPs who want a family-first, strength-based alternative to flashcards and drill-based therapy for speech sound disorders
-
Children who omit syllables in their Spanish words.
Silabación in Action
One of the most powerful aspects of this approach is how easy it is to integrate into real life. You don’t need a full materials kit or a clinic setting. These cards are easily embedded into play. I personally like to take a word in an appropriate category for the child and embed it into play with as many repetitions as possible until the child is producing that word with ease!
Another way to use this deck is to take the compound words and chain them together in play until the child can say the longer word!
A creative way that this deck can be used is to take nouns and verbs from the deck that can be chained together into phrases and sentences, such as “salta” and “oso” to make the sentence: El oso salta. Another option is to take the word “gira” and “dado” to create the sentence: “Gira el dado”. The latter sentence is a sentence that can easily be embedded into board game play.
Check out these videos to learn more about the Bjorem Speech Silabacion deck!
Ready to Learn More?
Whether you’re a seasoned SLP looking for a more culturally responsive approach, or just starting to build confidence coaching parents, Silabación can expand your toolbox and transform your sessions.
For more ideas and information, please follow @bjoremspeech and @miamispeechtherapy on instagram!
