First of all, if you’re in a rush and need some quick “sh” words right now, scroll down to my free “sh” words lists!
But, if you have a little more time, you might want to look through some of my favorite products to work on words with the “sh” sound. Your future self will thank you when you have a solid plan for your entire year of articulation therapy!
SH Sound Errors
Just like the /s/ sound, the “sh” can be influenced by improper airflow. If the “sh” is sounding slushy, it’s probably because the tongue tip is pressed to the top of the mouth and the air is coming out of the sides!
Another common error with “sh” is substituting /s/ for “sh.” A lot of times this error can be corrected by telling the child to round their lips, almost making a fish face. Some children also respond well to a visual cue like bringing your finger up to your lips like you are telling someone to “shhh!”
Phonology or Articulation?
Just like with all the fricative sounds (those are sounds made by constant airflow, like /s/, /z/, and /f/), the “sh” sound can be in error due to a phonological process. If the child is stopping their “sh” sound, meaning they are substituting it with a quick sound, like /t/ or /d/, they may have a lingering phonological process. These processes can occur as normal speech development, but if they hang around for too long, we want to fix that. You might want to consider using the cycles approach for speech therapy if there are more than a couple phonological processes in your child’s speech.
My Cycles for Phonology Toolkit – Assessment, Progress Monitoring, & Intervention product gives you everything you need to informally assess, plan, and treat phonological disorders. The physical product is gorgeous when you’re done, but if you don’t have that kind of time, there is a digital version as well!
High Frequency Words
The key to good articulation intervention is to maximize the number of trials per session. I find the best way to do this is through no-nonsense lists using high frequency words for articulation practice. High frequency words make sense – they are the words our kids are using every day – and the ones they have been producing in error the most often!
These word lists don’t come with pictures, but that’s because these high frequency words are usually pretty abstract. A picture isn’t going to really help you figure out a lot of these words. But…a lot of these words are sight words! Educationally relevant? Absolutely!
That’s why I created my No Prep SH Articulation Activities Using Functional, High Frequency Words for SH product. You’ll find all the easy, no-prep worksheets and words you need to target words with “sh” at the word, phrase, sentence, and conversation level.
Make it into a game!
Now, you might think that repeating words from a worksheet can be boring, but there are just a few small things you can do to make it fun!
Kids always love a challenge! Tally counters are a great way that they can track how many words they are producing. I think kids are usually surprised at how many productions they can get it!
If that’s not enough, there are a ton of different ways you can quickly turn any targeted practice into an super simply, but engaging articulation game!
I love using my SH Articulation Playing Cards: Outline + Color Deck for Speech Therapy for some targeted practice that works with any game you can play with regular cards. It’s nice to not need to switch back and forth between stimulus materials and game materials!
I like to use my Mini Articulation Cards for Speech Therapy for easy targets that I can use in just about any activity, even crafts! These are going to be your more traditional picture + word, which is nice for kids who can’t read yet.
One other way I like to do this is by setting up articulation centers for my groups to rotate through. That way I get to spend a little one-on-one focus time with each of my students and they get lots of lots of repetitions! My Speech Therapy Centers for Articulation give you everything you need to set up fun stations in your therapy room. These are super versatile, so you can use them with your kids working on “sh” words or any articulation sound!
Throw in Some Literacy Work While You’re At It
Studies show that children who struggle with articulation and phonology are at a higher risk of having reading difficulties. That’s why I like to work on phonological awareness skills with my articulation students. My Daily Phonological Awareness Questions and Reference Lists for Speech Therapy include lots of general phonological awareness activities, and include sheets that target both literacy skills AND speech targets for maximum efficiency!
Articulation Carryover and Generalization
And once you’ve gotten in lots of awesome drill, don’t forget the activities that encourage carryover and generalization, like my articulation news and articulation menus products.
Now Let’s Get to Some “SH” words!
If you just need some “sh” words and you need them now, this will get you started!
Initial SH Words List
| shake | share | shade | shape |
| shack | shabby | sham | shall |
| chic | she | sheep | sheet |
| shed | chef | shell | shepherd |
| shy | shine | shire | ship |
| shin | shot | shock | shop |
| shaw | show | shore | shoot |
| shook | shoe | shut | shun |
Medial SH Words List
| dasher | pushy | washing | fishy |
| ocean | sushi | nation | eyelashes |
Final SH Words List
| ash | bash | dash | flash |
| gash | trash | lash | cash |
| sheesh | leash | mesh | flesh |
| dish | fish | squish | nosh |
| posh | wash | push | koosh |
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