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Forum -> Parenting our children -> School age children

R sound

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Kumphort

Thu, Feb 26 2015, 11:48 pm

My dd 5 3/4 has been having problems with her R sounds. She came home complaing that girls in her class were making fun of her
Until what age is this considered normal?
What are some at home activities we can do to practice the r sound?
Any suggestions for YouTube videos? We started looking recently but it's hard to weed out the good ones.
Thanks

FranticFrummie

Fri, Feb 27 2015, 3:15 am

The trick is to catch them making the desired sound, and then teach them how to control that sound.

I did speech therapy with a little boy who has severe impediments. I found out that he could imitate a lion, so he could go "Grrrrrrrr!" I got him to do that several times with a great deal of enthusiasm.

The next step is to add it to words that begin with R. He likes rabbits, and it made him sad that he couldn't say that, so we started out with "Grrrrrrrrrrrabbit!" Shorten the "grrrr" part a bit at each repetition, and when you feel like that's going well, try taking the G off of the front, and go "rrrrrrrrabbit". Now shorten the R sound until it sounds like a normal "rabbit".

This boy also had a really hard time with the "SH" combination. I had a sea shell that he really liked, so I told him if he worded really hard he could keep it (he kept calling it a "sell".) I got him to put his finger to his lips and tell someone to "be quiet, like Shhhhhh!" and we got the right sound. Then we went to "Shhhhhell", and eventually with a lot of practice, we got "shell", "shoe", "shower", and many others.

You'll have to repeat the exercises every day, until you don't notice any more lisping. It takes a while for the tongue to get used to having to work to get the words out right, but once the training is there it will be second nature.

Try it yourself before you spend money on expensive therapy!

Kumphort

Fri, Feb 27 2015, 6:56 am

Thanks for that. I am trying rod find tips before going a therapist route

amother

Fri, Feb 27 2015, 7:13 am

I am a speech therapist who specializes in articulation in the school age population. Based on most developmental norms, the /r/ sound is fully developed by age 6, the earliest. At this point, your child is still appropriate for his age. Unless the sound is coming in on its own, and you are just facilitating it by finding one that he does well and practicing, you will probably need to use a speech therapist. Unlike the classic lisp that a parent can just remind the kid to keep his tongue behind his teeth, the r has many types of productions (blends, prevocalic, many variations of post vocalic) and is produced in the back of the mouth, making it difficult for the child and parent to see what they are doing to help fine-tune the sound.

amother

Fri, Feb 27 2015, 8:21 am

My DD who is turning 5 next month also does not say R. She replaces them all with W. Her teacher told me it's normal and she won't qualify for therapy until after six, but I don't want to wait that long. I don't think she'll learn to say it until she is taught, because she didn't say "k" or hard "c" until she was 3, she was replacing them with "d" or "t" and I spent 2 months actively teaching her. (I told her she needs to keep her tongue down to say "c," bought a pack of button candies, put one on her tongue every day and practiced saying all kinds of C words. I would also purposely pronounce words wrong in a joking kind of way and had her correct me. She caught on within a couple of weeks, and the rest of the time I was just reminding her when she slipped, until she changed the habit.

Unfortunately it's harder to explain how to pronounce the R. I tried the "let's be pirates/wild animals" thing. Didn't work. She's still replacing with W. I guess I can teach her to replace "aw" with "er" but the R at the end will still be silent. I figure it's OK if she drops Rs at the end and even middle of words, we're in NY anyway so it can slide as part of the accent if the rest of her speaking is solid. But she needs the R at the beginning of words...

I listened to girls in her class and it seems like 80% of them already have the strong R sound. Too strong actually, like they over-enunciate it. So it's certainly common to already have it at age 4, which worries me.

Kumphort

Fri, Feb 27 2015, 4:47 pm

Glad to know I am not the only one dealing with it. I know it's nkt delayed not to have that sound yet. Just if its coming to the point where other girls Her age are making fun of her I feel bad

I was really looking for more tips on how to do more at hoem therapy

amother

Sat, Feb 28 2015, 9:04 pm

A new amother
Also looking for links to good articulation videos

amother

Sat, Feb 28 2015, 9:34 pm

amother wrote:

My brother replaced an R with a W and it stopped on its own when he was 4 and a half (my mother was told to wait until age 5). She never tried to pressure him into saying an R sound.

R is a difficult letter to say, although there are young children with a strong R.

anon b/c I've spoken about this irl

amother

Sat, Feb 28 2015, 10:22 pm

My son always had trouble with his R's as well as a slight stutter. I kind of ignored it hoping he'd grow out of it. Now he's 17 and still very self-conscious about his speech (and many other things). Wish I had addressed it earlier...

It's not like his speech is totally unclear but it was something we could have dealt with earlier.

Good luck to you.

asd3

Sat, Feb 28 2015, 10:27 pm

My 71/2 yr dd doesn't say r and the school speech therapist said its still normal for a little while longer and they don't work on it until third grade

amother

Sat, Feb 28 2015, 10:30 pm

Sorry to hijack, but my son has trouble with the chassidish reish. Any tips?

amother

Sat, Feb 28 2015, 10:39 pm

Kumphort wrote:

Apparently the R is hard even for therapists to teach. I don't get why they wait so long though, there's so much more risk of it becoming habit and harder to correct! Clearly since so many kids have the sound earlier, it's possible to each earlier, so why wait?

Here is a link to a speech therapist who explains her techniques for teaching R. http://www.playingwithwords365.....ound/

I think I may try the lollipop trick, since the button candies worked so well to teach C and K.

imasinger

Sat, Feb 28 2015, 10:41 pm

My DS, age 8, still has trouble with the pronunciation. I hav been repeatedly assured by his speech therapists (who work on the more important nonverbal and overall commnication issues) that this problem will resolve itself in due time, and that there are more important things to focus on in child development and education.

EsaEinai

Sun, Mar 01 2015, 3:17 am

I just started speech therapy for my dd and the therapist recommended an app called articulation station. You can download the "p" sound (I think) for free, and then purchase the individual letter your child has issues with for $3.99. You might want to check that out.

Kumphort

Sun, Mar 01 2015, 9:23 am

Have you tried any of the sounds? The r sound is 7.99
Want to hear some feedback before I go ahead. We quickly looked at the p sound but so far only saw a matching game which didn't teach sounds

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