---
title: Syllable Sorter
description: "## Purpose **Syllable Sorter** presents written **polysyllabic** words (words with more than one syllable) with the syllables **jumbled up**. The user has to **sort**the syllables into the **correct order.** As you **touch** each syllable to place it, you **hear** the…"
url: "https://cuespeak.com/docs/syllable-sorter/"
updated: "2022-08-31"
category: Therapy Modules
---

# Syllable Sorter

## Purpose

**Syllable Sorter** presents written **polysyllabic** words (words with more than one syllable) with the syllables **jumbled up**. The user has to **sort**the syllables into the **correct order.** As you **touch** each syllable to place it, you **hear** the audio for that syllable. This means that this module can help not only with **spelling** but also with awareness of the **sound structure** of the words, as the relationship between the **written** and **spoken** forms of the word is constantly being **reinforced** as the task is performed. This can result in **spoken word production** occurring as a by-product of the spelling task.

![](https://cuespeak.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/SyllableSorterParachute.jpg)

## Why two pictures?

Like the QA module, ****Syllable Sorter**** is designed to allow you to create therapy **hierarchies**, not just in terms of the **complexity** of the word or phrase to be **spelt,** but also in terms of the **stimulus**. The ultimate aim is to move **beyond picture naming** (see “why move beyond picture naming?”)

To this end, every spelling task in **Syllable Sorter** includes a **question**. As in QA, there is **one picture** to support **understanding** of the question and **another** picture to represent the **answer**.

## Configuring the format

By **hiding** or **showing** either or both of these pictures, you can **manipulate** the task to create **hierarchies**. For example, you could begin with the equivalent of simple **picture naming**, showing just the target picture, then introducing the **question** together with the target picture, and finally **removing the target picture** altogether. At this point the user is required to answer a questions **without the support of a picture to represent the answer.** This takes us closer to the context in which word-finding occurs in a **real-life setting**.

**Format SyS1** shows the **target picture** and **plays the audio**. Thus it requires syllable sorting to**dictation** with a picture present, making it (for most people) the **easiest** Syllable Sorter format.

![](https://cuespeak.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/SyllablesorterTelevision.jpg)
Screenshot of formats SyS1, SyS2 and SyS3

**Format SyS2** also shows the target picture, but here you hear a **question**, in this case “What do many people watch in the evenings?”. The question serves to give extra **semantic facilitation** to aid the sorting task.

**Format SyS3** presents the target picture with no audio to help. This is the equivalent of pure written picture naming.

![](https://cuespeak.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/SySTelevision.jpg)
Format SyS4: question played, target picture hidden

Format SS4 **hides** the **target picture**, and asks the **question** in audio form, e.g. “What do many people watch in the evenings?”. The **picture** on the **left**side of the screen is designed to**aid understanding** of the question, but it also introduces an element of **contextual competition** (see the **article** on contextual competition).

![](https://cuespeak.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/SyS-no-pic.jpg)
Screenshot of format SyS5 (sorting to dictation) and SyS6 (sorting in response to question)

**Format SS5** **hides both pictures** but plays the **audio** of the answer, making it a pure **writing to dictation** task.

**Format SS6** also **hides both pictures**, but this time presents the audio **question**, making a task of **answering a question** with a written word or phrase.

![](https://cuespeak.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/SyS-both-pics.jpg)
Format SyS7

**Format SS7** shows **both pictures** and asks the **question**. As in SS4 above, the picture on the left serves both to **aid understanding** of the question but also to introduce some **contextual competition**.

As with all modules in Cuespeak, the **sequence** of formats (1-7 here) is **not**intended as a prescribed **hierarchy**, since different people will benefit from different types of help.

## Configuring the content

**Configuring the content** works by including in your exercise only the questions that **match** the **criteria** you specify. As you configure, you will see the **number of questions** (displayed on the black bar at the top of the exercise settings screen) **falling** with each new specification. However, because this module contains around 500 questions, it can be configured quite heavily and still retain substantial amounts of content.

In just a few seconds you can configure Soundspell to work on spelling anything from **common everyday words** through to complex, **high level vocabulary**, using the following settings:

***Target type:*** This refers to the **grammatical class** of the **target words**. Most targets in this module are **nouns**, but there is also a reasonable number of **verbs**. For most users it’s fine to **leave** this field **unconfigured**, since most people will want to work on **all**grammatical classes.

***Word frequency***: Allows you to select **more common** (“high frequency”) words and phrases or **less common** “low frequency” ones.

***Sets***: Allows you to select the **topic area** the questions will cover, such as news & current affairs, health or travel. You can also use it to select sets of **20 common words** to work on intensively – the same sets as in the **QA** module.

***Number of letters:*** For most users this can be left **unconfigured**, since the next field (**number of phonemes**) is far more significant in this module in terms of **word length**.

***Number of phonemes***: In this spelling task, each tile represents a single **phoneme** (speech sound). For this reason, number of phonemes is a more significant variable here than number of letters (above), which would be a major variable in other spelling tasks. You can limit target words to those containing as little as **two** phonemes, such as “shoe” or “key”. NB you need to select ***all*** the numbers you want, e.g if you want words of ***up to*** 3 phonemes you need to select **1 2 and 3**.

![](https://cuespeak.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Sys-settings.jpg)
Syllable Sorter: content configuration options

***I******nclude clusters***: Allows you to remove words beginning with ***consonant clusters*** such as **br**ead or **sn**ow. This will only be an issue for people focussing on **saying** the target words as well as spelling them.

***Initial & final sounds:*** This allows you to include only target words beginning with a specified **sound** (**phoneme**). You might want to do this if you want to focus work on **particular sounds** or temporarily **avoid** problematic ones. You can control both **word initial** sounds and **word final** sounds in this way. Be aware that this applies to sounds, **not to letters**. So for example if you select the sound **/s/** you will get words such as “cereal” or “ceiling” as well as those beginning with the letter S.

***Number of syllables:*** This allows you to specify the **number of syllables** the target words should have. You need to select **all** the numbers you want, e.g. If you want to work on words of 1, 2 and 3 syllables, you need to select all three of those numbers. If you want to work specifically on syllable structure, you might prefer to use the **Syllable Sorter** module.

***Number of words:*** By default Syllable Sorter delivers only **single words**, since these make the most intuitive sense in this module. However you can **reset** it to include **phrases**.

***Stre******ss position:***Some people with aphasia have particular difficulty with words in which the **stressed syllable** is **not the first** syllable, e.g. “ba**na**na”. This will only be an issue for people wanting to say the words as well as spelling them.

***Question complexity: language***: Unlike most controls in this section, the question complexity filters allow you to adjust the complexity of the **question** rather than of the answer. This one controls the complexity of the**language** used in the question, both in terms of **syntax** and word **frequency**. It is a **subjective** measure only. NB You need to select ***all***the levels you want, e.g. if you select “moderate” this will exclude “easy” questions unless you also select “easy”.

***Question complexity: knowledge required***: This allows you to control the level of **general knowledge** required by the question. **Easier** questions cover very **familiar**, everyday material, while **harder**questions cover more **specialist knowledge** such as you might find in a **quiz**. In some cases questions have been rated as “difficult” on the basis of the **cognitive reasoning** they require as much as actual knowledge. NB You need to select ***all***the levels you want, e.g. if you select “moderate” this will exclude “easy” questions unless you also select “easy”.

***Custom format settings***: This section contains two useful options:

![](https://cuespeak.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/SyS-with-blank-tiles.jpeg)
Syllable Sorter with blank tiles, wo work on sound sequencing

1. **Show tile content from outset:**Turning this **off** make the spelling tiles **blank**. This is useful for working on**sound sequencing**. For more details see *sound sequencing: spelling with blank tiles.*
2. **Requires correct phoneme & grapheme**: Some words contain **multiple instances** of the **same syllable** representing **different sounds**. For example, in the word “**BANANA**” the **first** **NA** syllable sounds different from the **second NA**. By default, Cuespeak will **not** insist on these letters being placed in their precise corresponding positions. The result is that the duplicate letter sequences may **sound out incorrectly** when touched. If you want to **change** this to insist on correct placement of duplicate tiles, turn on “r**equires correct phoneme and grapheme**“.