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.
Also called word-initial CH, CH in the initial position, or CH at the beginning of words.
- 85
- words
- 66
- competing-free
- 1–4
- syllables
Starter set: 49 Initial CH words
One- and two-syllable words with no competing sounds, spread across the alphabet — enough to pick 10–20 targets for a session. The full list of 85 words is further down the page.
- chad
- chain
- chair
- chance
- change
- char
- charge
- charm
- chart
- chase
- chat
- cheap
- cheat
- check
- cheers
- cheese
- cheque
- chess
- chest
- chick
- chief
- child
- chip
- choice
- choose
- chose
- chuck
- church
- chamber
- channel
- chapel
- chapter
- charger
- charleston
- charter
- chassis
- cheaper
- cheapest
- checklist
- checkout
- cherry
- chicken
- chile
- chocolate
- chosen
- chubby
- challenging
- champion
- chancellor
- 01chad
- 02chain
- 03chair
- 04chance
- 05change
- 06char
- 07charge
- 08charm
/ch/: 85 words · competing-free 66Generate a Initial CH practice pack
Pick an age band and a theme; the list you just read becomes picture cards with phrases and sentences, a no-prep game, a data sheet and a home letter, every word verified before the PDF is built.
- Picture cards: word, phrase, sentence
- Say & dab game
- Data sheet + probe
- Home practice letter (B&W)
04 · Full listShow all 85 Initial CH words
Grouped by syllable count, competing-free words marked
66 of 85 words contain the target without the sounds children commonly substitute for it
1-syllable · 39
- 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 · 37
- chairman
- challenge
- challenged
- chamber
- chambers
- chances
- changes
- changing
- channel
- channels
- chapel
- chapter
- chapters
- charger
- chargers
- charges
- charging
- charleston
- charming
- charter
- chassis
- cheaper
- cheapest
- checking
- checklist
- checkout
- cherry
- chicken
- childhood
- children
- chile
- chocolate
- choices
- choosing
- chosen
- chubby
- churches
3-syllable · 6
- challenges
- challenging
- champion
- champions
- chancellor
- charity
4-syllable · 3
- championship
- championships
- charitable
Take Initial CH to the next level
Ready-made, pronunciation-checked practice beyond single words:
Themed worksheets for Initial CH
The same target inside themes children love — verified lists plus a printable worksheet:
About 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.
Therapy guides
Minimal pairs therapy
Minimal pairs examples by pattern, how a session runs, and a worked fronting example.
Read the guidePrint-and-go articulation activities
No-prep drill ideas that turn a word list into a full session.
Read the guideNo-prep teletherapy articulation
Screen-share friendly activities that use the same word lists online.
Read the guideFrequently asked questions
- How many words have /ch/ in the initial position?
- Our dictionary lists 85 initial /ch/ words suitable for speech therapy practice.
- What are some example initial /ch/ words?
- Examples include chad, chain, chair, chance, change, char, charge, charm.
- 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.