Medial CH Words for Speech Therapy
Words carrying CH inside the word — kitchen, teacher, nature, ketchup. Matched by pronunciation, so the -ture endings, where CH is spelled t, are included.
Also called word-medial CH, CH in the medial position, or CH in the middle of words.
- 78
- words
- 56
- competing-free
- 2–6
- syllables
Starter set: 34 Medial 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 78 words is further down the page.
- achieve
- beaches
- coaches
- feature
- fortune
- future
- kitchen
- matches
- mature
- merchant
- nature
- patches
- reaches
- statute
- teacher
- teaches
- teaching
- torture
- virtue
- watches
- achieving
- apache
- approaches
- bachelor
- departure
- featuring
- furniture
- merchandise
- mutual
- natural
- purchasing
- researcher
- signature
- virtual
- 01achieve
- 02beaches
- 03coaches
- 04feature
- 05fortune
- 06future
- 07kitchen
- 08matches
/ch/: 78 words · competing-free 56Generate a Medial 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 78 Medial CH words
Grouped by syllable count, competing-free words marked
56 of 78 words contain the target without the sounds children commonly substitute for it
2-syllable · 41
- achieve
- achieved
- beaches
- churches
- coaches
- coaching
- creature
- creatures
- feature
- featured
- features
- fortune
- future
- futures
- kitchen
- matches
- matching
- mature
- merchant
- merchants
- nature
- patches
- purchase
- purchased
- reaches
- reaching
- searches
- searching
- speeches
- statute
- statutes
- switches
- switching
- teacher
- teachers
- teaches
- teaching
- torture
- virtue
- watches
- watching
3-syllable · 21
- achievement
- achievements
- achieving
- apache
- approaches
- bachelor
- departure
- featuring
- furniture
- merchandise
- mutual
- natural
- purchases
- purchasing
- researcher
- researchers
- signature
- signatures
- temperature
- temperatures
- virtual
4-syllable · 12
- expenditure
- expenditures
- legislature
- literature
- miniature
- naturally
- situated
- situation
- situations
- spiritual
- statutory
- virtually
5-syllable · 3
- congratulations
- obituaries
- unfortunately
6-syllable · 1
- spirituality
Take Medial CH to the next level
Ready-made, pronunciation-checked practice beyond single words:
About Medial CH words
In medial position the affricate has to be assembled mid-word, with the preceding vowel already running. The stop closure is the part most often lost here, which turns teacher into teasher without the child noticing the change.
The -ture family — picture, nature, future, adventure — is a large and easily missed group, because nothing in the spelling suggests CH. These words are also common in school vocabulary, which makes them practical carryover material for older students.
Practising Medial CH
Two-syllable words where CH opens the second syllable, such as kitchen and teacher, give the cleanest medial target. Slowing the word at the syllable boundary lets the child hear whether the stop closure is still there.
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 medial position?
- Our dictionary lists 78 medial /ch/ words suitable for speech therapy practice.
- What are some example medial /ch/ words?
- Examples include achieve, beaches, coaches, feature, fortune, future, kitchen, matches.
- Why are picture and nature on the CH list?
- Because both are pronounced with a CH sound in the middle — the -ture ending carries CH despite being spelled with t. Matching by pronunciation catches this whole family of words.
- Why does my student say teasher for teacher?
- That is deaffrication: the stop closure is dropped and only the SH portion is produced. Building the sound from a held /t/ released into SH targets the missing half directly.