V words

V sound is a voiced fricative sound, meaning it is made with the upper teeth placed on the bottom lip, with a slightly constricted airstream, and the voice on.

We often hear kids say “berry” instead of very, and “begetable” for vegetable. In that case, they are demonstrating the phonological process known as “stopping” (substitution of /v/ with a /b/).

But according to developmental norms, most children should be able to make the /v/ sound accurately by age 4 to 5. If you’ve got a client who is past this age and is still struggling to produce /v/ words, it may be time to target it in therapy.

Flashcards are fine, but using motivating activities for targeting the /v/ sound in teletherapy or in-person speech therapy sessions can help keep even younger children engaged. That way, they can complete multiple trials for practice, and be more likely to attend to verbal and visual cues and eventually pronounce /v/ words.

Use the below articulation activities and techniques for teaching the /v/ sound. We’ve also got a /v/ word list at the end, organized from simple to complex, and in all /v/ word positions.

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Exercise #1: The Cheerio trick

This exercise for eliciting the /v/ sound in speech therapy is a fun one that’ll give your client tactile feedback while learning the correct placement for this sound.

Start by demonstrating the /v/ sound in isolation to the child. Draw the child’s attention to how you gently place your top teeth on your bottom lip. Next, it’s their turn to try.

Place a Cheerio or similar small, round piece of cereal, on the center of the child’s bottom lip (it should stick there.) Then, ask the child to use his or her top teeth to gently bite over the cereal, bringing it into their mouth.

Demonstrating how to do this can be helpful for your client. You can also ask them to look into the mirror during this exercise so they can better visualize how the muscles in their mouth are supposed to move. As motivation, the child gets to eat the cereal after each trial.

Once the client has completed several of these exercises, ask him or her to place their mouth in the same position they did before but this time, without a Cheerio. Then, show them how to turn their voice on and produce the /v/ sound.  

Exercise #2: Tuck it in

One of the most challenging parts about teaching the /v/ sound can be helping a client learn how to tuck their bottom lip under their top teeth, instead of putting their lips together, when making the sound.

When first introducing the /v/ sound, try using a gloved finger to gently put the client’s bottom lip in this spot, under the top teeth. Help him or her by holding the lip there for a second. Ask the child to then put their hand on their neck to make sure they feel the vibrations of the vocal cords as they say /v/. 

Once the child is stimulable for producing the sound with your assistance, ask them to try putting their mouth in the same position on their own to make the /v/ sound.

If he or she has a little trouble, ask the child to use their own finger to tuck their bottom lip under their teeth, just as you did.

After the child masters the /v/ sound in isolation like this, he or she is ready to move on to working on it in syllables for /v/ words.

Keep in mind that you may need to probe different syllable positions to determine which one the child is most stimulable for. Some children may be more easily able to produce /v/ in the final position of syllables in /v/ words (ex: “UV”) than the initial position (ex: “VEE”) of /v/ words or vice versa.