If you are an SLP, chances are /r/ articulation therapy can be some of the trickiest speech therapy sessions you teach. It can not only be difficult for students to produce the /r/ sound, but carryover can be a beast, as well. In this article, you’ll learn more about what to do before you try for /r/ in isolation. These ideas will establish a firm foundation as you move on to producing that tricky /r/ sound next.
Complete a Thorough Speech Sample
It’s likely your student has /r/ in some contexts. In which case, your job to work on production of /r/ will be much easier, because you’ll be able to shape the /r/ sound.
I like to start with a speech sample. For me, this ideally means a 5-minute speech sample. That said, I’ve had days where a 2-3 minute sample is all I’ve had time for.
Getting my student talking helps me hear their productions in context. Some questions I might ask (this article is getting published in the winter, so these are a few of my common winter questions):
Winter sports like skiing and snowboarding are popular. Which one would you want to try or NOT want to try? Give me a few reasons why.
Some people like the snow and some don’t. Do you like the snow, and what are 3 reasons why you like or don’t like snowy weather?
Colder weather means many of us are staying indoors more this season. What are three indoor activities you’d like to do (besides watching shows or playing video games) and why do you like them? (I don’t discourage shows and video games, but if you aren’t familiar with whatever they prefer, it’s hard to keep the conversation going, so I keep it out of my speech samples).
Of course, you can ask any speech sample questions you’d like, but I hope these suggestions are helpful if you need some ideas to get started.
Complete an /R/ Probe
Completing a word-level /r/ probe can give you some excellent information about which word positions and contexts your students can produce /r/. Perhaps they only produce /r/ at the beginning of words, but don’t have vocalic /r/. Perhaps your student can produce /r/ following alveolar sounds (like s, z, l) but not in other contexts. Perhaps your student can produce /r/ in the middle of words, but not at the end. Knowing this information is critical to planning effective /r/ therapy. Make sure your probe includes many contexts of /r/ (including all the forms of vocalic /r/) and includes /r/ in all word positions (initial, medial, final and blends). You can purchase an /r/ probe on Teacher’s Pay Teachers, or I also like the Entire World of /r/ articulation screener.
Use Consistent Terminology for Your Student (Such as: tongue sound, lip sound, strong r, the old way)
Using terms I’ve discussed with the student and consistently using those terms (even before production of the /r/ sound) has helped me be more effective in my /r/ speech therapy sessions. Here are some examples of terms I like to use, and how I explain them to students (when applicable):
side lateral margins: OK, this is a term I use only with myself and other SLPs, but understanding this has helped my /r/ articulation therapy. This describes the back sides of the tongue (near the molars) which must be lifted to produce a retroflexed or bunched /r/. Understanding that making this “hamburger tongue” is essential for articulation therapy has really helped me cue my students and watch for tongue placement.
tongue sound: /r/ is a tongue sound. Your tongue curls up just behind a place called your alveolar ridge. Can you make a fast /t/ sound? How about a clicking sound? Wonderful! That means your tongue can lift to make an /r/ sound. The tongue hovers just behind your alveolar ridge.
lip sound: /w/ and /o/ are lip sounds. They like to sneak in when we make the /r/, but now that we are producing /r/ in a new way, we need to make sure we aren’t making a lip sound!
lip rounding: lip rounding and lip sounds go a bit together. If your lips are rounded they are in a round shape (thus the name) and are pushing out a little bit. To make the /r/ you may want to focus on “smiling lips” or “square lips” which helps a lot!
tongue sounds: /r/ is a tongue curling sound, much like the /t, d, s, or z/ sounds. There’s more to it than that, and we’ll talk about that soon. But I may remind you to make a tongue sound as we work together, this is so that we can make /r/ in a new way.
strong /r/: some people call this the “new way” but I like to call it the strong /r/. Why? Well, your tongue is a muscle, so much like you can curl your arms to work your biceps, we need to have tension in your tongue and make it strong. Your new sound will be a strong /r/ that has tension - meaning you are flexing your muscle. If you try to use your jaw or lips to make the sound, I’ll remind you about your strong /r/.
the old way: how you make the /r/ sound now isn’t wrong, it’s just the old way. I may remind you that you’ve done a sound the old way, but I want you to start listening to when you make the sound and telling me if your sound is a strong /r/ or if it is produced the old way.
Get those lips out of the way (lip retractor, tongue depressor, pretend superglue)
You may notice that at the start of /r/ articulation therapy, the jaw tends to clench. This is because students are trying to reduce the amount of space between their tongue and the roof of their mouth. This maladaptive behavior results in a bit of a strangled sound. You may also get a lot of exaggerated lip rounding or lip closing as the student tries to produce the /r/ sound and just can’t get it - they may do more of what doesn’t work before they figure out how to make a strong /r/ sound.
Here are a few tricks I use:
lip retractor: these u-shaped pieces of plastic place the lips in a smiling position so you can see what the tongue is doing.
tongue depressor: use a tongue depressor on it’s widest side between the molars so that your student doesn’t shut their mouth or clench their jaw while making this sound, and so you can see what their tongue is doing.
pretend superglue: This trick may sound a bit odd at first, but it has really worked for me. I got this tip from another SLP (I can’t remember who, but wish I could credit them!). Tell your student that you have a bottle or magic pretend superglue spray. This spray is going to help them make their /r/ sound. It will freeze their lips in place so that they won’t be able to move them while making an /r/ sound. Then you’ll spray the pretend superglue which will “freeze” their lips. Then you can say a magic word together and - hooray! - their lips are unfrozen.
Green and Yellow Activity (discrimination)
Can your student hear the difference between a strong /r/ and an /r/ produced the old way? Can they hear it in you? How about in themselves? I have a sheet of paper I laminated, one side is red and one side is green. You could use this or just verbally state if the sound is the old way or a strong /r/. I like to use a sheet of paper or a red and green square on a google doc so the student can move their mouse or tell me which color, just because it makes the process faster. As you do this discrimination activity make sure you produce a variety of /r/ sounds (in word positions and types of /r/ including vocalic and blends). Make sure the student discriminates productions and also find out if they can discriminate their own productions. If they can’t, you may want to try focusing on that first for a few sessions - your next sessions will go much more smoothly if you do this first.
Want to get started now?
I’ll be publishing more posts in the future about production and cues to get students saying their strong /r/ sound. I’ll also be writing more articles in the future about carryover for the /r/ sound. For now, if you have students you are working with and you need some /r/ materials, here are a few units I recommend for students who are already at the sentence level or above (these include vocabulary and comprehension questions and are perfect for groups):
/r/ readings with a landforms theme targeting science standards
r readings bloodsuckers bundle
I hope you learned something new from this article or were reminded of some /r/ articulation tips you haven’t tried in awhile. Remember:
by completing a thorough speech sample, we learn more about how and when (and if!) a student is using the /r/ sound
completing a /r/ probe before we work on production will also make /r/ articulation speech therapy sessions be a lot less frustrating and more productive
use consistent terms with your students when describing the /r/ sound (“lip sound” “tongue sound” and a “strong /r/” are some of my favorites)
get your students lips out of the way by asking them to smile or by using some of the tips above
practice discrimination and see if your student can discriminate your productions as well as their own productions, either as old way /r/ sounds or strong /r/ sounds
Working on the /r/ sound is one of the trickiest sounds to work on in speech therapy. Remember to give it time. If it’s taking time, chances are - you are doing it right, it’s just going to take longer than you think it will. Onward and upward!
