Final Long I Words for Speech Therapy

long I is a diphthong: the mouth starts in one vowel position and glides to another inside a single syllable. Say the two halves slowly and separately first, then blend them until it is one smooth movement.

These words finish on the vowel, with no consonant to close them. Encourage your child to land on the long I sound and finish it rather than letting the word trail away.

Say the long I sound on its own first, then put the rest of the word in front of it and land on that same sound — "my".

Use a mirror. A vowel is made by how open the jaw is and how the lips and tongue sit, not by a contact your child can feel, so watching the mouth is the clearest feedback available.

Practice minimal pairs — two words that differ only in this vowel. Hearing the pair back to back shows a child exactly what has to change, which a single word never does.

Go by sound, not spelling. English writes the long I sound several different ways, so read the words aloud together rather than teaching them as a spelling pattern.

Rhyming works especially well here: words that end on the same vowel rhyme by definition, so a rhyme game is pure practice for this position.