Initial CH Words for Speech Therapy
Words that begin with CH — chair, cheese, chicken. CH is an affricate: a /t/ stop released into an SH fricative, produced as a single sound.
Word list
1-syllable
- chad
- chain
- chains
- chair
- chairs
- chance
- change
- changed
- char
- charge
- charged
- charm
- charms
- chart
- charts
- chase
- chat
- cheap
- cheat
- cheats
- check
- checked
- checks
- cheers
- cheese
- cheque
- chess
- chest
- chick
- chicks
- chief
- child
- chip
- chips
- choice
- choose
- chose
- chuck
- church
2-syllable
- chairman
- challenge
- challenged
- chamber
- chambers
- chances
- changes
- changing
- channel
- channels
- chapel
- chapter
- chapters
- charger
- chargers
- charges
- charging
- charleston
- charlie
- charming
- charter
- chassis
- cheaper
- cheapest
- checking
- checklist
- checkout
- cherry
- chicken
- childhood
- children
- chile
- china
- chinese
- chocolate
- choices
- choosing
- chosen
- chubby
- churches
3-syllable
- challenges
- challenging
- champion
- champions
- chancellor
- charity
4-syllable
- championship
- championships
- charitable
Words without competing sounds
- chad
- chain
- chains
- chair
- chairs
- chance
- change
- changed
- char
- charge
- charged
- charm
- charms
- chase
- cheap
- check
- checks
- cheers
- cheese
- cheque
- chess
- chick
- chicks
- chief
- child
- chip
- chips
- choice
- choose
- chose
- chuck
- church
- chairman
- challenge
- challenged
- chamber
- chambers
- chances
- changes
- changing
- channel
- channels
- chapel
- charger
- chargers
- charges
- charging
- charlie
- charming
- chassis
- cheaper
- checking
- cherry
- chicken
- childhood
- children
- chile
- china
- chinese
- choices
- choosing
- chosen
- chubby
- churches
- challenges
- challenging
- champion
- champions
- chancellor
Related lists
Other CH positions
Other sounds in the initial position
Worksheet preview
/ch/: 88 words · competing-free 69Generate a custom worksheet for this sound
Generate your worksheetAbout Initial CH words
90% of children produce CH by 4;11 (Crowe & McLeod, 2020). Because it is two gestures in one, CH invites two different simplifications — deaffrication, where the stop is dropped and chair becomes shair, and stopping, where the fricative is dropped and chair becomes tair.
Which half a child drops is diagnostically useful. A child producing shair already has the fricative and needs the stop closure; a child producing tair has the closure and needs the release. The cue that helps is different in each case.
Practising Initial CH
Building CH from its parts often works better than modelling it whole: a held /t/ released slowly into SH lets the child feel the two gestures joining. Once the sound is achieved, the single-syllable entries at the top of the list stabilise it.
Acquisition ages: Crowe & McLeod (2020), American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. Educational content — an SLP chooses the target for a specific child.
Frequently asked questions
- How many words have /ch/ in the initial position?
- Our dictionary lists 88 initial /ch/ words suitable for speech therapy practice.
- What are some example initial /ch/ words?
- Examples include chad, chain, chains, chair, chairs, chance, change, changed.
- Is shair for chair the same error as tair for chair?
- No. Shair drops the stop half of the affricate; tair drops the fricative half. Both are common, but they call for different cues, so it is worth noting which one a child produces.
- What is an affricate?
- A consonant that begins as a stop and releases into a fricative, produced as one sound. English has two: CH and its voiced partner J.
When do kids master each sound?
Free interactive checker: pick a sound and an age, see the research norm — all 24 consonants, sourced from Crowe & McLeod (2020).
Open the checker →