Speech Sound Cue Cards – Consonants & Vowels Bundle

These Speech Sound Cue Cards provide clear, consistent visual and verbal cues to support children and students learning to produce consonant and vowel speech sounds during Speech and Language Therapy.

Each cue card includes supports such as mouth shape visuals, sound descriptions and therapist cues, helping SLPs and SLTs explain how speech sounds are produced and provide consistent prompts during speech sound practice.

This complete bundle contains both the Consonant Speech Sound Cue Cards and Vowel Speech Sound Cue Cards, with multiple versions of the cards and additional speech sound visuals included.

Designed for use across speech therapy sessions, home practice and clinical displays, the cards provide a practical visual reference for supporting speech sound production.

⭐ What’s Included in the Speech Sound Cue Cards Bundle?

This bundle contains two comprehensive speech sound resources:

• Consonant Speech Sound Cue Cards
• Vowel Speech Sound Cue Cards

Together, the resources provide visual and verbal cues for a wide range of English consonant and vowel sounds.

Multiple versions of the cue cards are included, allowing therapists to select the type and amount of support most appropriate for the individual child or student.

Additional speech sound visuals are also provided to support understanding of areas such as mouth shape, tongue position, sound type and other aspects of speech production.

⭐ Consonant Speech Sound Cue Cards

The consonant resource contains cue cards for 24 consonant speech sounds of English:

p, b, m, n, w, h, t, d, k, g, f, v, s, z, ‘sh’, ‘zh’, ‘ch’, ‘j’, r, l, th (voiced and voiceless), y and ‘ng’.

An additional file is also included containing cue cards for /r/ with bunched and retroflex options, vocalic r and ‘rl’.

The consonant resource contains five different sets of cue cards, with two sounds per page.

Each set provides a different combination of cues, giving therapists flexibility in the visual and verbal information presented to the child.

An explanation page is included before each set to provide information about the individual cue-card style and who may benefit from that type of support.

⭐ What Cues Are Included?

The speech sound cue cards use a range of cueing approaches to support speech sound production.

Depending on the individual card set, cues may include:

• Mouth shape visuals
• Visual phonetic cues
• Verbal phonetic cues
• Tactile cues
• Motokinesthetic cues
• Gestural cues
• Metaphors
• Metaphonological cues
• Sound descriptions
• Some orthographic cues

Please note: not all graphemes are included.

Having different cue-card options allows the therapist to choose the cues that are appropriate for the individual child and therapy target rather than relying on one cueing approach for every student.

⭐ Speech Sound Mouth Cues & Visual Supports

The bundle includes speech sound mouth cue cards and additional visual supports to help children understand how different speech sounds are produced.

Alongside the individual cue cards, the consonant resource includes additional visuals such as the “My Speech Sound Helpers” diagram and supports relating to areas including:

• Mouth shape
• Tongue position
• Type of sound
• Volume
• Other aspects of speech sound production

These visuals can be referred to during therapy to provide consistent explanations and cues when introducing or practising speech sounds.

⭐ Vowel Speech Sound Cue Cards

The vowel resource contains cue cards for 25 vowel speech sounds of English, including non-rhotic vowels.

The vowel sounds included are:

/ɪ/ – bit
/ɛ/ – bet
/æ/ – bat
/ɒ/ or /ɑ/ – lot
/ʌ/ – but
/ə/ – about
/ʊ/ – book
/i/ – beep
/ɑ/ – balm
/ɔ/ – bought
/u/ – boot
/o/ – no
/eɪ/ – bait
/e/ – bait
/aɪ/ – bite
/ɔɪ/ – boy
/aʊ/ – mouth
/əʊ/ – boat
/oʊ/ – boat
/ɚ/ – butter
/ɝ/ – bird

The resource also includes non-rhotic vowels:

/ɪə/ – hear
/eə/ – square
/ʊə/ – cure
/ɜː/ – nurse

⭐ About the Vowel Speech Sound Cue Cards

The vowel resource contains three different sets of cue cards.

Each card provides a selection of cues to support production of the target vowel sound. The types and amount of information vary between the different card sets, allowing therapists to select the visual support that best suits the individual student.

Each set includes an explanation page describing the cue-card style and providing information about who may benefit from each type.

Supplementary visuals and cue cards are also included to provide additional information about features such as tongue height and tongue position.

⭐ A Note About Vowels, IPA & Regional Variation

The vowel sounds included in this resource are based on those represented within the vowel quadrant of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

However, vowel production varies considerably according to accent and regional dialect. For this reason, some alternative vowel sounds and symbols are included where appropriate.

You may also use a different IPA symbol from the one provided depending on the dialect or transcription conventions you use.

Please check which variation is appropriate for your needs before printing.

The resources are suitable for use across US, UK and Australian English, with the understanding that speech sound production—particularly vowels—varies between dialects and accents.

⭐ Ideas for Using These Speech Sound Cue Cards

The cards and visuals can be used flexibly across speech therapy activities and environments.

Ideas include:

• Using individual cue cards during therapy to support speech sound production
• Selecting different cueing approaches according to the individual student’s needs
• Using the mouth visuals when introducing or explaining a new speech sound
• Sending selected cards home to support consistent home practice
• Using the larger speech sound visuals as reference materials during therapy
• Displaying the sound visuals on a bulletin board or speech sound wall
• Using the all-sounds posters during stimulability assessment and progress monitoring
• Using the visuals when explaining speech sound production to children, caregivers or other professionals

The cards are suitable for students of different ages and can be incorporated into individualised speech sound therapy according to clinical need.

⭐ Preparation & Printing

Print the resource onto cardstock for additional durability.

There are two sounds per page. Pages can be cut in half to create individual cue cards.

Cards can be laminated if desired, which can also allow additional cues such as airflow markings to be drawn onto them using an appropriate erasable pen.

If smaller cue cards are preferred, multiple pages can be printed onto a single sheet using your printer settings.

Please note: this resource includes a colour version only. The materials can be printed in grayscale if preferred, although they were designed primarily for colour printing.

Disclaimer

This is a digital resource in PDF format. No physical item will be sent.

This resource is designed for use by qualified/certified Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) and Speech and Language Therapists (SLTs), or by parents/caregivers under the guidance of an appropriately qualified professional.

The cue cards and visuals are intended to support speech sound therapy and should be selected and adapted according to each individual’s speech sound needs. They are not intended to replace professional assessment, clinical judgement or individualised intervention planning.

Speech sound production and phonetic transcription can vary according to accent and dialect. Therapists should use their professional judgement when selecting appropriate cues, symbols and speech sound models for the individual child.