Final SH Words for Speech Therapy
Words that end on SH — fish, brush, wash, dish, push. A short list, because relatively few common English words close on this sound, but a useful one: the sound can be held at the end of a word for as long as the child needs.
Also called word-final SH, SH in the final position, or words ending in SH.
- 32
- words
- 30
- competing-free
- 1–3
- syllables
All 32 Final SH words
30 of 32 words contain the target without the sounds children commonly substitute for it
1-syllable · 21
- ash
- brush
- bush
- cache
- cash
- crash
- dash
- dish
- fish
- flash
- flesh
- flush
- fresh
- hash
- marsh
- mesh
- push
- rush
- trash
- wash
- wish
2-syllable · 8
- danish
- fetish
- finish
- parish
- polish
- publish
- refresh
- stylish
3-syllable · 3
- accomplish
- establish
- macintosh
- 01ash
- 02brush
- 03bush
- 04cache
- 05cash
- 06crash
- 07dash
- 08dish
/sh/: 32 words · competing-free 30Generate a Final SH 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)
Take Final SH to the next level
Ready-made, pronunciation-checked practice beyond single words:
Themed worksheets for Final SH
The same target inside themes children love — verified lists plus a printable worksheet:
About Final SH words
Final SH is a continuant, which makes it one of the friendlier word-final targets: the child can hold it as long as needed, and both the clinician and the child can hear whether it is SH or the /s/ that often replaces it.
The substitution pattern mirrors the initial position — fish toward fiss — but the contrast is easier to hear at the end of a word, where nothing follows to mask it. That makes final SH a practical place to establish the S–SH distinction even when the treatment target is elsewhere.
Practising Final SH
Hold the final SH well past its natural length and let the child match it; the sustained fricative makes lip rounding audible. The list is short enough to work through in a session, which suits it to probing rather than extended drill.
Acquisition ages: Crowe & McLeod (2020), American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. Educational content — an SLP chooses the target for a specific child.
Therapy guides
Final consonant deletion
“Ca” for “cat”: when it stops, how to tell it from a sound error, and minimal pairs that work.
Read the guideMinimal 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 guideFrequently asked questions
- How many words have /sh/ in the final position?
- Our dictionary lists 32 final /sh/ words suitable for speech therapy practice.
- What are some example final /sh/ words?
- Examples include ash, brush, bush, cache, cash, crash, dash, dish.
- Why are there so few final SH words?
- English has few common words ending in this sound. The list holds the ones that are genuinely usable in therapy rather than padding it out with rare vocabulary.
- Is final SH easier than final CH?
- Often, yes. SH is a fricative that can be sustained indefinitely, while CH is an affricate that has to be built from a stop and released. Children working on both sounds frequently establish SH first and use it as the fricative half of CH.