Sound cues act as a bridge between the brain and mouth—especially for children who struggle with speech motor planning, phonological processing, or phonemic awareness. By pairing a speech sound with a meaningful image and an engaging environmental sound, children are better able to recall and produce the target sound.

The Bjorem Speech® Sound Cues 2nd Edition use a modified stimulability approach, combining sound training with gestures and picture cues tied to either environmental sounds or alliterative characters. This multi-sensory input helps establish stronger neural connections for sound production and sound-symbol associations. According to Miccio & Elbert (1996), this type of rich, multisensory stimulation may help activate the child’s mirror neuron system, which is believed to support both imitation and motor learning.

Research also shows that letter-name knowledge is a strong predictor of early reading success (Foulin, 2005). When children connect a visual cue to both a sound and its corresponding letter, they begin to develop phonemic awareness and sound-letter mapping, critical skills for decoding and spelling.

By integrating visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning, the Sound Cues foster deeper learning and better generalization of skills across contexts. Use the cards to support:

• Speech sound disorders and apraxia
• Phonemic awareness and literacy development
• Spelling instruction and reading intervention
• Communication access for children who are deaf or hard of hearing

With fun, meaningful visuals and research-based methodology, these cues turn abstract sounds into something children can see, hear, and understand, building confident communicators and readers.

• Miccio, A. W., & Elbert, M. (1996). Enhanced stimulability: Increasing sound system flexibility in children with phonological disorders. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 5(3), 24–33.
• Foulin, J. N. (2005). Why is letter–name knowledge such a good predictor of learning to read? Reading and Writing, 18(2), 129–155. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-004-5894-4