Why We Aim for 100 Trials of Speech Sound Targets
When your child is working hard to master a new speech sound, it can feel like progress happens slowly or unpredictably. One day the sound is there, and the next day it’s gone. What many parents don’t realize is that one of the biggest drivers of progress is simple: repetition. Lots of it.
You may hear your child’s speech therapist mention “getting 100 trials” after a session. We aim for this number because it provides a high amount of focused practice in a short period of time. That level of repetition can lead to faster carryover of your child’s speech sound targets.
I'm Brittany, a speech-language pathologist at Metro Therapy. Today, I want to talk about why we aim for 100 trials of speech sound targets during sessions and how you can do this at home.
What “100 Trials” Means
In our sessions, we often use 100-trial challenge sheets along with other fun activities to motivate kids to get a high number of repetitions while still having fun.
A trial is one attempt at saying a sound, word, phrase, or sentence. When we say “100 trials,” we simply mean 100 repetitions of your child’s speech sound target. Here’s a simple example:
If your child says “sun” one time, that’s 1 trial
If they say “sun” ten times in a row, that’s 10 trials
If a session includes ten sets of ten repetitions, that adds up to 100 trials
High repetition helps the brain and muscles learn new speech patterns more quickly. Think of it like practicing a physical skill — the more accurate reps your child does, the faster the new sound “sticks.”
Ways to Aim for 100 Trials at Home
If you want to aim for a high amount of practice at home, you can find some free 100 trial speech sound challenge sheets online with a quick Google search. Or you can try some of these activities at home:
Dab-and-Dot markers: Let your child make 100 dots on a sheet of paper—one dot for every repetition.
Coloring challenges: Use a coloring page and have your child color 100 small items or shapes.
Build a tower: Give your child a paper cup or block to add to a tower each time they say their speech sound target. You can also add one cup/block for every 10 repetitions.
Roll a die: Have your child say their target word, phrase, or sentence the number of times shown on the die, then draw that many circles on paper to track repetitions.
Use an abacus: You or your child can slide over one bead for each repetition—or slide over groups of 10. A standard abacus has 10 rows of 10 beads, which makes reaching 100 quick and easy.
Need More Guidance? We’re Here for You
I hope you found these tips for completing 100 trials of your child's speech sound targets at home helpful. With fun activities and consistent repetition, your child can make faster progress while enjoying the process. And if you need more advice, reach out to our team at Metro Therapy at 763-450-9400 today.
