AHHHHH!!!! The /r/!!!!!!!! Includes a *FREEBIE*!
As SLPs, I would venture a guess that we ALL have at least one if not several students who are working on articulation of /r/. As a relatively new SLP, this sound can be frustrating for the student, the parents, and sometimes me!
Some tricks that I’ve used recently include:
*For the “ar” variation: have students place a hand horizontal just below the chin. Instruct them to make sure the jaw comes down and hits their hand, which sometimes helps achieve the jaw depression that is necessary for correct production.
*For the “or” variation: I’ve had students put a DumDum lollipop just inside their mouth and instructed them to make sure no part of their mouth touches the lollipop. The “or” requires the lips to be rounded and pretty wide open to sound correct. I’ve also had students look in the mirror and make sure their teeth don’t touch when producing these words.
I have spent a lot of time researching how to help students produce the /r/. Dawn Moore M.A. CCC-SLP from www.expressionsspeech.com is a great resource! The “help line” on www.speakingofspeech.com is also my go-to whenever I’m stumped!
Lots and lots of drill is necessary in order to remediate the /r/. For that reason, I’ve continued my “cupcake” theme with a prevocalic and vocalic /r/ sort. This document includes words with vocalic /r/ variations: prevocalic r, ire, air, ar, or, ear, and er. Included are yellow cupcakes for sorting purposes. There are 24 green cupcakes for each of the /r/ variations, which gives you a total of 168! The words are written, which means this is more appropriate for older children, but perfect for the drill that this sound requires. You can choose to sort 2 or all of the variations! See below:
If you’d like this “sweet” activity, you can get it here for a low price! Remember, you get 168 cupcakes!!
I also have posted 12 of the “er” cupcakes as a freebie here!