New Way to Teach R

Hi all,

I know I have tons of R students on my campus and I'm always looks for new/faster ways to help them achieve correct production. 

I wanted to share some information I learned from the CEU as it has really made sense/helped with a lot of my students that none of my other tricks for placement have worked for. It's called R Made Simple: https://www.northernspeech.com/coarticulation/r-made-simple/

Basically, the presenter has divided the R sound and all of its variations into three types (instead of the million I always tell my students there are): Ups, Downs and Slides.

Up Sounds

•    Sounds classified as UP sounds allow placement of the tongue in a cupped and retracted so that the sides of the tongue touch the upper molars and the tip of the tongue is elevated but not touching the roof of the mouth – No Movement Needed

·    Because the tongue is not needed for production of these sounds the tongue can be placed in an ‘r’ ready position during the preceding UP sound. 

• This simplifies motor planning for the student. Ex. Frog- already in position for ‘r’ during the preceding Up ‘f’ sound

Down Sounds

•       For the production of Down Sounds, the tongue moves from behind the bottom teeth to the correct placement for ‘r’ – One Movement 

• The student recognizes that the vowel sound is heard before the ‘r’ and that the tongue is not in the correct position for the production of ‘r’

•    The student must articulate the vowel and then move to the correct placement for ‘r’.

•     This results in one simple movement for all diphthongs (‘r’ controlled vowels) that had previously been taught separately!

Slide Sounds

•       For production of the Slide Sounds, the tongue tip is on the alveolar ridge or between the teeth then slides to the placement for the ‘r’ – One Movement

•       When ‘r’ follows a Slide sound, the tongue must slide (retract) for the production of ‘r’.

Up Sounds: – b, c, f, g, h, k, m, p, q, r, v, w,

Down Sounds: – a, e, i, o, u, x, y

Slide Sounds: – d, j, l, n, s, t, z, th, sh, ch

Some of my students now refer religiously to this list to help them know what to do with their tongue before producing the R. 

This CEU course has some other cool tips too. I got a free code to watch the course but if you have a lot of R kids, it may be worth paying for as well.

I'm happy to talk more to anyone who is interested about how I've been using these tips in speech!

Ali Lawrence