H Words for Speech Therapy: Fun & Effective Word Lists for Speech Therapy

Charlotte Witts
Speech Language Pathologist
01/27/25 | Last modified: 05/26/25

When children struggle to pronounce the ‘h’ sound and words with ‘h,’ they often replace it with sounds that are easier to articulate (such as /d/) or omit it entirely. For example, they might say “appy” instead of “happy” or “dat” instead of “hat”. 

While this is usually one of the earliest sounds to be mastered, some children can find it challenging due to speech delays or hearing problems. 

In this speech therapy article on ‘h words’ we’ll provide everything you need to improve your child’s articulation, build their confidence, and support their language development. You’ll also find comprehensive word lists, games, activities, and books to help them have fun as they learn. 

Word list: /H/ Word List

Here’s our comprehensive list of h words for you to use for home or professional speech therapy. 

We’ve included words that feature the h letter at the beginning (initial) and middle of the word (medial), so your child can get plenty of articulation practice to help grow their fluency and confidence. 

Work through these lists slowly with your child, starting with the shorter ones, then moving onto the more complex as you see your child’s pronunciation of h words improve. 

Note that we have excluded those ‘h letter words’ that do not produce the /h/ sound, including /th/, /ch/, and /sh/. These are distinct sounds in speech – visit these specific pages for guidance. 

H Word Lists by Syllables

Here’s our list of h words, divided into how many syllables appear in the word and whether the sound appears at the beginning (initial) or middle (medial) of the word. 

Start with those h words that contain just one syllable to help your child focus on the articulation of the sound itself and build their skills. Then, help them further improve their skills by looking at those longer, more complex words. 

By doing this, you can help them improve their pronunciation, rhythm, fluency, and speech while also boosting their phonetic awareness. 

Initial h by syllables (at the beginning of the word)

Medial h by syllables (in the middle of the word)

Further /H/ Word Practice: Short Phrases and Sentences

Practice makes perfect! 

That’s why, in this section, we’ve shared carrier phrases, short phrases, and sentences that can help your child grow their skills, pronounce h words more accurately, and boost their confidence and fluency. 

First, we share carrier phrases – those easy ‘insert the word’ structures that can kickstart your child’s fluency and provide real-life, in-context phrases and sentences for extra practice. Provide them with plenty of praise and encouragement, using the patented Forbrain headset for further reinforcement. 

Carrier phrases 

Carrier phrases are used widely in speech therapy to help bridge the gap between practicing single words and forming sentences. Simply choose a phrase, insert an ‘h word’ of choice, and practice as many times as needed. 

Here are some of our favorite carrier phrases here at Forbrain: 

• “I see a…”
• “I found a…”
• “I want a…”
• “He found a…”
• “She found a…”
• “I have a…”
• “He has a…”
• “She has a…”
• “I like to…”
• “He likes to…”

For example, you could create phrases like these:

• “I want a HOLIDAY.”
• “I like HIKING.”
• “She eats HONEYDEW.”
• “I see a HEDGEHOG.”
• “I found a HIDEOUT.”
• “He has HAMMERS.”

Short Phrases with H-Words

Here’s our list of short phrases with h words, divided into initial, medial, and final positions. 

Short Sentences with H Words

Here are some short sentences that can help your child practice h words in context before tackling those more complex, self-generated sentences. 

We’ve included a variety of h words where the sound appears at the beginning (initial) and middle (medial) of the word so your child can improve their pronunciation, further boost their confidence, and develop speech fluency. 

H Word Reading Practice

Holly the hedgehog had a happy day ahead. She was walking uphill when she saw a hole in the ground. “What’s that?” she wondered. She hurried over to check and found a hammer lying beside a wooden box. She tried to lift the box, but it was too heavy.

“I need help!” Holly called out. Her friend, Hank the hamster, heard her from the hilltop. He ran down to her and said, “Let’s pull together!”

They both tried lifting the box, and together, they opened it. Inside, they found a bundle of honeycomb, shining brightly. “What a find!” Holly laughed. “It’s a beehive! We did it, Hank!”

With their new treasure in hand, they headed home, happy and proud of their hard work.

The Helpful Horse

Henry the horse lived in a cozy housekeeper’s home near the greenhouse. 

Every morning, Henry would gallop out of his stable and head to the doghouse in the garden. He loved to help his animal friends!

One day, Henry saw a pothole in the path, so he decided to fill it up with leaves and dirt. He then noticed the sandhill by the boathouse was looking a little dry. Henry quickly grabbed a firehose from the housekeeper’s shed and watered the hill.

After his work, Henry decided to visit his friend, the groundhog, who lived in a treehouse near the playhouse. The groundhog was busy digging a hole, so Henry helped him by bringing over some fresh hay from the hayloft.

As the sun began to set, Henry walked back to his manhole and sat on his favorite whalebone.
He smiled, feeling proud of all the good deeds he had done that day. Henry was always happy to help his friends, no matter how big or small the task was.

Games & Activities with H Words 

Here’s our selection of the best games and activities you can play with your child to reinforce what they’ve learned in speech therapy, boost their confidence, and have fun! 

Mystery Sound Hunt

• Select 10-20 child-friendly nouns for objects in your home from the h word list we shared earlier and print them out on cardstock. 
• Hide these cards around the room.
• Tell your child to search for the cards and then pronounce the words that appear on them correctly.
• Give plenty of encouragement and praise. 

Silly Hat Story Chain

• Tell the child that you’re going to create a silly story together using h words. 
• Collect several different fun hats and then decide what category of word each hat will represent. (For example, one hat can represent animals, another actions (verbs), and another places, and so on.) 
• Your child needs to pick a hat and then think of a word with the h sound. (For example, if they pick the animal hat, they could say the word ‘hippo’ or ‘horse’.)
• Start to create your silly story together using these words. 

Bubble Pop Pronunciation

• Print the list of h words, then select approximately 10-20, depending on the age of your child. 
• Find a bubble wand and give it to your child. 
• Tell your child to pick a word and pronounce it out loud. If they get the word correct, they can blow bubbles and then pop them. 
• If the bubble lands on them or a nearby object, they must use the word correctly in a sentence. 

Hop & Say Challenge

• Select approximately 10 h words from the list we provided earlier and print them on large pieces of paper or cardstock.
• Place these words on the floor in a hopscotch pattern. 
• Tell the child to hop from one word to another while saying each word out loud. 

Read books

Reading is known to promote child literacy, boost their imagination, and help them develop confidence with their use of language. We’ve gathered together a list of our five favorite books to share with your child and help them fall in love with reading while practicing h words. 

• Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
• Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss
• Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion
• Hen Hears Gossip by Megan McDonald
• The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton

What is a /H/ Sound and How to Pronounce It?

The h sound is a sound that appears at the beginning of words like ‘hat’ and ‘happy’ and in the middle of words like ‘ahead’ and ‘beehive. In the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), it’s written as /h/ and is a voiceless glottal fricative.

While this is usually one of the earlier speech sounds to be mastered (usually occurring by age 3), many children struggle to pronounce it. This can happen because of difficulties with control over the speech muscles, airflow control problems, or trouble hearing the sound correctly. 

Instead, they may omit this sound completely from words (saying “appy” instead of “happy”) or replace it with another sound like /d/ (hat becomes ‘dat’). 

We’ve shared h word lists, phrases, sentences, games, and books that can expose your child to this sound in different contexts and within words that differ in complexity to help grow their pronunciation skills. 

How to Pronounce the /h/ Sound

As mentioned above, the h sound in words like ‘happy’, ‘hello’, and ‘hill’ is a voiceless glottal fricative

This means that when you pronounce this sound, your vocal cords do not vibrate (voiceless), the sound is produced by airflow passing through the open vocal cords (glottal) and the air moves freely through the mouth without being stopped by the tongue or lips (fricative).

Follow these steps to pronounce the h sound accurately: 

• Open your mouth slightly.
  
• Keep your lips and tongue in a relaxed position.
  
• Gently release air from your lungs.
  
• Your vocal cords should not vibrate- the sound is made by air passing through the glottis. 

Need more help? Watch this child-friendly video from Peachie Speechie for more detailed guidance on pronouncing ‘h word’ sounds. 

How to Help Your Child Produce the /h/ Sound Correctly

You can help your child practice and master the ‘h sound’ in a few simple steps. Here’s how to do it:

1. Sit with your child in front of a mirror and ask them to watch as you say the simple h word ‘hello. ’ 

2. Tell them to watch your mouth closely to see what your lips and teeth are doing, then copy you as they look into the mirror.

3. Then, take a small piece of toilet paper and hold it lightly over your mouth. Pronounce the h sound again and ask your child to watch your magic trick. The paper should gently lift as you say the word. 

4. Next, encourage them to place their hand on your throat to see if you are moving your vocal cords. They should see that you aren’t. 

Finally, encourage your child to copy everything they have seen you do and practice making the h sound while they look into the mirror. 

You can practice this as many times as needed, repeating the same word or moving onto other one-syllable h words as their articulation skills improve. 

Using Forbrain to Practice H Words

By regularly incorporating these h-word lists, games, and activities into your child’s routine, you’ll see noticeable improvements in their pronunciation of this sound, confidence, and overall language skills. 

For optimal results, practice this sound for at least 10 minutes a day, using the scientifically proven Forbrain headset to accelerate results.

This innovative speech therapy tool leverages advanced technology to retrain the brain’s auditory feedback system, improving sound recognition, pronunciation, and vocabulary while also strengthening cognitive skills.

Designed for comfort and ease of use, Forbrain is highly recommended by speech therapists and parents and offers a non-judgmental environment for practice and growth. 

Discover more about how Forbrain can support speech therapy here.

Final Words

Your child can improve their pronunciation of h words by using the comprehensive h word resources we’ve shared here. 

Use the h word lists, phrases, sentences, games, and books with your child to help them improve their articulation skills, boost language awareness and literacy, and grow their confidence while having fun.