Phonological Processes Series: Fronting, Backing, and Stopping
This session covers fronting, stopping, and backing, key phonological processes seen in children's speech sound development. Attendees will learn to identify these patterns, understand their typical developmental timeline, and explore evidence-based treatment approaches to support accurate sound production.
Speaker
Kira Howard, M.S., CCC-SLP, is a pediatric speech-language pathologist with 15 years of clinical experience and owner of Moving Mountains Speech Therapy in Pleasant Grove, Utah. She specializes in childhood apraxia of speech (CAS), speech sound disorders, and supporting autistic children, with advanced training in Dynamic Temporal and Tactile Cueing (DTTC), PROMPT (Level 1), and DIR/Floortime. Kira is passionate about bringing evidence-based, motor-based intervention strategies to clinicians and families alike.
Disclosure: Kira Howard owns Moving Mountains Speech Therapy. She also sells products through Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT) and Boom Learning, and will reference/display these materials during the presentation. Kira is being compensated for this webinar through AbleNet.
Built for you
Who this course is for
Every minute is written for working clinicians, educators, and families. You walk away with real-world tools to try with your next learner, not abstract theory.
Speech-Language Pathologists
Early Interventionists
Special Educators
Pediatric Clinicians
After this course
What you’ll walk away with.
You leave with concrete skills and frameworks you can apply in your next session, classroom, or family visit, not just ideas to think about later.
Earn your CEUs
Attend the full course and pass the post-session assessment at 80% or higher. Your 0.05 ASHA CEUs are reported to ASHA when you opt in on the assessment.
- 01
You’ll be able to
Identify instances of fronting, backing, and stopping in transcribed or recorded child speech samples, and classify each as a typical developmental pattern (fronting, stopping) or an atypical pattern (backing).
- 02
You’ll be able to
Describe the expected age of elimination for fronting and stopping (Bowen, 2011), and state the clinical indicators that warrant referral for further evaluation when backing or persistent fronting/stopping is present.
- 03
You’ll be able to
Select an evidence-based treatment approach (e.g., minimal pairs, cycles approach, complexity approach) appropriate to a child's presenting phonological pattern(s), and outline the initial treatment goals for that approach.
The full 30 minutes
Your learning path.
- 1
Fronting: definition and examples, typical age of elimination, identification tips, clinical relevance
10 minutes - 2
Backing: definition and examples, typical age of elimination, identification tips, clinical relevance
10 minutes - 3
Stopping: definition and examples, typical age of elimination, identification tips, clinical relevance
10 minutes
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Pass the assessment
Complete the short post-course assessment with 80% or higher to confirm mastery.
CEUs reported to ASHA
Choose to be reported on the assessment and your 0.05 ASHA CEUs are filed to ASHA for you. No paperwork, no chasing certificates.
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