Getting on the same page as parents when it comes to articulation therapy is challenging, and this is especially true when it comes to complicated sounds like R. As much as we want to educate parents, who has time to thoroughly explain co-articulation and motor requirements, let alone diving into secondary issues like phonemic awareness?
Concepts that are elementary to us can be hard for others to grasp in the short time we have to offer explanations.
That’s why you’ll find Making R Elementary, Dr. Watson valuable. I break R therapy down into these four easy, relatable concepts:
Why R is complex
Take advantage of these explanations to help you get on the same page with parents.
— Useful Links —
Impossible R Made Possible Video Course
R Parent Videos for Home Practice
Music: Simple Gifts performed by Ted Yoder, used with permission
Thewapy. Thewapy is what bwings us together today. That bwessed pwofession where we changed the wives of childwen forever. Okay, if you don’t know The Princess Bride, you’ve been hiding under a rock for far too long. Go watch it now, and I’ll wait for you. And watch for the Impressive Clergyman with the speech impairment.
Therapy is indeed what brings us together today for episode 65 of The Speech Umbrella podcast. We’re talking about R therapy today because it is not uncommon to have particularly challenging R cases, ones that resist remediation. And then we feel like our profession is more of a curse than a blessing.
I named this episode Making R “Elementary, Dr. Watson”, and not just because I love Sherlock Holmes. When it comes to R, what seems elementary and crystal clear to one person can be as murky as mud to another in much the same way Sherlock Holmes made these brilliant deductions while Dr. Watson was scratching his head and ten steps behind him.
This can be a real problem when we are trying to get everyone on the same page about R. By everyone. I mean the families, the parents of the children, the speech therapist. All of us need to be understanding how to support the child. The problem spreads out in all directions. The SLP talking to the parent, and she’s talking about concepts that are elementary to the therapist but unfamiliar to the parent, or a parent feeling that a little thing like the R sound is quite elementary. And so once the child can say R in one word, why not in every word? What’s taking him so long? Even an SLP experienced in R talking to another SLP who doesn’t have that R skill set yet can result in miscommunication. So how do we all get on the same page?
For you SLPs listening today, I know how hard it can be to find time to explain to families all about R. This podcast can help you get on the same page with them. Also, I’m going to share a terrific R program with you, if you feel you need to up your game in R therapy. For families tuning in, you can come away with a greater appreciation of every step your child makes towards mastering R, and a better understanding of how to cheer them on.
This is what I’m going to cover today. R is a complex sound. So how was it complex? What does this mean? And we’re going to talk about a fancy concept, co-articulation, which just adds to the complexity. We’re going to talk about secondary issues that come along with someone who needs to learn how to say R.
I’m going to talk about training ourselves to hear what is right instead of what is wrong when a child is learning how to say R. And finally, we’re going to talk about my program for teaching R, it’s called Impossible R Made Possible. So stay tuned for a special offer at the end of this podcast.
So let’s talk about the complexity of R. R is a complicated motor movement because it has three places of articulation. So that means your tongue and your lips and your jaw are all moving and it’s kind of like rubbing your stomach and patting your head at the same time. You ever tried to do that?
Okay, think of R like that, only you’re doing three different things. Unrelated tension often gets in the way. So I’m going to take singing for example, if you’ve ever sung a song and tried to go really high. You might’ve felt some tension in your throat and a voice teacher would say, okay, sing that high note but for goodness sake, don’t let your throat get tight, just make it come out easy. Just use your breath. And you’re like, well, that’s easy for you to say.
Well, it’s easy for us to say to that child, well, don’t let that tension get in the way, but it’s hard for him. The tension transfers to their neck, sometimes their cheeks, their lips, everywhere but where it should be, because we do need a little bit of tension in the tongue. But learning where to put the tension in the right place and not to use too much is really tricky. That very first R sound they say, without any distortion, so precise and so clear, is so important. It’s the cornerstone for everything that follows.
So if the SLP says, hey, guess what? They said their very first R today, celebrate this. This is huge. Okay. So let’s talk about co-articulation, which just adds to the complexity of R. You might be thinking, what is co-articulation? Well, it’s the articulation of two or more speech sounds together so that one influences the other.
Take the sound oy, for example, we’re really saying, oh, and then we’re saying E, O-E, but we speed it up, we get real fast. Oy. And we’ve created a new sound. It’s still fluid and it’s so meshed together that the O affects the E, the E affects the O, it happens so fast. You’re not even thinking them as a separate sound.
Sometimes we SLPs, we’ll talk about the many sounds of R, and what we mean by that is that we have some vowels that influence R and vice versa. We have some co articulation. When we say sounds like air and I or an or, it can be really tricky to coordinate timing or breath for these vowel Rs. So while your child may have learned to say R at the beginning of a word, like in the word rabbit, he may have to learn an additional skillset to say a vowel R in a word like higher. Now R is also in consonant blends, words that have DR in them, or TR, or GR, like dragon and truck and great. That also requires co-articulation.
And I’m not done yet. We also have a special group of words we call the hardest R words. Those are generally words with combinations of R or L or W like world Or pearl and we save them until the very end of therapy because the co articulation of them is so tricky. By now you might’ve caught on that R is just a hot mess of co-articulated sounds, which is why we need to celebrate the small wins with our clients and children. A small win might be learning to say R at the beginning of a single word. Or it might be learning to say all words that begin with R and a certain vowel like rot and robin and rotten and rock. Another small win might be starting to co-articulate R blends like the D R in dragon.
Let’s talk about secondary issues. If a child is past the age when most children learn R, say fourth grade and up, they will likely have developed some coping mechanism. Unless they’re entirely unaware of their R errors, which is another issue, it’s probable they’re dealing with their speech difference in some way.
And it might even be unconscious on their part. But they may not listen to themselves carefully or they may have decided that’s just how they are, especially if they’ve had previous unsuccessful R therapy. They might have just given up and have chosen to believe that they’re going to speak that way.
Some even avoid using words that have R in them, and I have a podcast about this, where a former client of mine shares his experience when he avoided using R because they didn’t want to hear how he sounded. And that podcast is episode 19, called Peaceful Speech. Whatever coping mechanism they’re using, it’s a wall that doesn’t come down overnight. Because now we have a mid speech therapy, we’re asking them to pay deep attention to how they sound and it can be very hard for them to hear their own errors. Most of my R clients actually need to practice this as a separate skill from learning to say R. Learning to hear their own errors is a great step, so celebrate that.
Another secondary issue can be lack of phonological awareness, which means they struggle to recognize where sounds are in words. And if this is an issue, it also needs to be worked on as a separate skill before all of these skills can come together and integrate. Sometimes we have to break them up and work on them separately.
Okay, let’s talk about hearing what’s right more than what’s wrong. And I’ve got a story about this.
I had a client who was staying with extended family for the summer and with his parents’ permission, she sought out speech therapy. And he needed to work on R. During our initial conversation, she described his main problem being that when he said or, it sounded like err. Now while his or sound was certainly distorted and really odd sounding, it turns out he wasn’t saying any R sounds at all. So I needed to start him with something easier than the freakishly hard co-articulated O-R sound.
And when he figured out how to say R at the beginning of a word, it was a great dancing in the aisles celebration moment, for him and me at least. His relative was less than impressed and while she acknowledged he was saying R now and again, she referred back to what she considered the real problem, his O-R sound.
And that’s when I realized we weren’t on the same page at all. You see as a speech therapist, our ears are super tuned into hearing every correct pronunciation. Sometimes parents and other relatives only hear the wrong ones, those are the ones that stick out to them and they don’t get how often the child is succeeding. And because of that, they withhold celebrating until the child is much further down the therapy road. In their mind, they’re thinking we’re going to celebrate when they sound just like me, when their R sounds just like mine do. But celebrating the small wins is so much more effective. It’s the small wins that will get your child to the finish line. The small changes are very, very meaningful.
It’s not uncommon for children to have persistent R problems into their teens. I know this because a lot of them end up at my clinic. And most of them have been in speech therapy for a number of years, but have been unable to master our, because therapy was only effective to a point. It’s sad, but true that SLPs often don’t get sufficient training to treat R in their university courses. And that was my situation several years ago, until I finally figured out all the pieces I was missing and put them together in an online video course. I named it Impossible R Made Possible, cause some Rs just seemed impossible to me to correct.
I’m here to tell you that no matter your previous training or lack thereof, you can absolutely learn to treat R effectively. The video course has footage of me working with clients, and with some of them I actually caught on video tape me eliciting their very first R sound, which is so exciting. SLPs who have taken the course love the client videos. That’s one of their favorite things about the course. But there’s a whole lot of other great stuff with it.
The whole program is a systematic step-by-step approach that will have you loving R therapy because you’ll be so good at it. Don’t be surprised when parents come knocking at your door because they have finally found an SLP who can treat R and get this long-standing, ever present problem in their life solved.
This podcast is releasing on August 10th, 2022. So school is just around the corner and I know you’ll soon be gearing up for those R kiddos if you work at a school, maybe even now you’re thinking if a particular R student that seems to be stuck. Well, Impossible R can help you get them unstuck and moving forward.
Normally, the R course is $49.99, the associated workbook is $59.99, or both of them together is $99.99; but for the months of August and September of 2022, I’m offering a 10% discount on any R product on thespeechumbrella.com. Use the coupon code elementary at checkout to get the discount. Go to thespeechumbrella.com/r-course to find out more about Impossible R Made Possible.
This course, Impossible R Made Possible, is all about mastering simple foundational skills for R, so that the complex skills like co-articulation take care of themselves. It’s a life changer, because it turns out that R really is elementary once you understand the foundation. Thanks so much for tuning into The Speech Umbrella podcast and have a great rest of your summer. Join me next time as we talk a little bit more about R.
I am a therapist and entrepreneur, clinic owner, published author, and creator of speech therapy materials.
The Speech Umbrella is run by Denise Stratton, Reach out with any questions.