How to teach T and D and R to 5yo

amother

Mon, Nov 27 2023, 12:07 am

Dd5.5 has been approved for speech therapy, but apparently there is a crazy long wait in my area, and this issue does not seem bad enough to go too far. I was hoping maybe someone with experience or education can help me help her at home in the meantime.

In both Hebrew and English, she says "k" instead of "t" and "g" instead of "d". It seems like she can't even hear the difference, even though her hearing test was fine B"H. She says "gaggy" instead of "daddy," and the other day when she said it I was like "Say DaDDy" with your tongue right behind your teeth. And I think she kind of fixed it, but I can't really tell either. But she first fixed the first D and only when I pointed out the second D she was like "Oh, they're both that?" Meaning she thought it's Daggy.

So is that the correct way to teach "d"? The tongue is behind the teeth? And what about "t"? Same thing? A year or so ago I tried to get her to do that, and she said it feels like a balloon is in her mouth when she uses her tongue like that. (Also "th") How can I help her to learn these sounds correctly and also to feel comfortable speaking that way?

In addition, all of my children (up to age 9) say "r" like "w". They do "reish" correctly in Hebrew, but they can't do "r" for some reason. I've shown them in the mirror and encouraged very pursed lips, but it doesn't come out quite right. I've been told they don't even bother here in Israel with "r," but if there's a simple way for me to help them, I'd love for them to sound a bit more grown-up when speaking English. Thanks for any advice or experience you can share!

amother

Bone

Mon, Nov 27 2023, 12:27 am

Hire a private speech therapist in the meantime. If that’s too $$$ which it was for us we paid for a couple sessions so we could learn the tricks and method for teaching and even the games for homework so you can still be working on it while you are on the waitlist.
Most SLP’s will tackle the sounds that are most behind (that they should have mastered younger) first and not touch th or r yet. Can’t learn all the sounds at once I believe.

amother

Mon, Nov 27 2023, 12:46 am

amother Bone wrote:

That's a good idea that I didn't consider, thanks. Did you tell the therapist from the start that you just want a couple of sessions? Or just tell her thanks, we're done for now? Did she expect to be doing 12 sessions or whatever?