Making the sound “R”: how to teach a child to pronounce a naughty sound

Expressing your thoughts clearly and coherently, having good diction and making a pleasant impression on the audience is important not only for TV presenters, tour guides, lecturers and other representatives of “speaking” professions. A person suffering from speech impediments most often has complexes about this. And this self-doubt is transmitted to the interlocutors.

A burring manager cannot avoid ridicule from his subordinates behind his back; a lisping employee is unlikely to be sent to serious negotiations. In order for your child to grow up successful, it is important to take care of the correct formation of his articulatory apparatus during childhood. BrainApps specialists will talk about how to teach a child to pronounce the letter r.

Main causes of difficulties

Moms and dads who were able to teach their child to say the letter r breathe a sigh of relief: the most difficult sound “gave up.” And difficulties with it are due to various reasons:

• The child imitates the elders, and some household members themselves pronounce r poorly.
• The baby has hearing problems, so he does not know how to pronounce the letter r.
• There are physiological problems that interfere with the correct pronunciation of the letter r by your child: phonetic-phonemic underdevelopment of speech, namely rhotacism or pararotacism, short frenulum. Such difficulties may be associated with incorrect movements of the tongue, lips, cheeks, and characteristics of the chewing muscles.

To understand what is the cause in your case, the child must be shown to a speech therapist. A good specialist will easily identify why the baby is burring and draw up an action plan. It will include specific recommendations for parents and exercises for the child.

Sound differentiation

In order for [p] not to conflict with other consonants, especially sonorous ones, it is necessary to automate not only the difficult sound, but also its combinations with others. So, to differentiate “r”, words that differ by one letter are used. Pairs of words suitable for differentiating “r”:

• Rye is a lie
• Varnish - cancer
• Laz - once.

During the day, diction exercises should take about 20-30 minutes. It is more effective when this time is divided into short episodes, games, entertaining tasks of 5-7 minutes. For a child from 3 to 7 years old, it is much more interesting to play and communicate with adults than to perform meaningless repetitions, so give preference to play methods. Children's poems, a comic rhyme and a logarithmic song on the topic of the lesson are also suitable.

Advice. Play metagrams : how, for example, can you make a sea out of a river? Very simple: [river]ka - [hand]ka - bow - puddle - bed - vine - pose - along [ra] - mountain [ra] - mountain [re] - sea [re]. At the same time, you can count within ten: how many steps did it take for the transformation? How many attempts did it take to find the chain?

Incorrect sound pronunciation must be corrected and correct pronunciation must be corrected soon, but not quickly. If you intend to correct your child’s speech on your own, then act consistently and methodically. In order not to get lost in the modern flow of information, at each stage, check the recommendations of trusted sources: consultation with a speech therapist, specialized literature or official publications of child psychologists.

Try to choose the right time for the lesson - when the child is in a good mood and ready to cooperate in the game. It is better to talk with him about sounds while studying books and fairy tales, exercises with cubes, a box of letters and the alphabet. Explain that the tongue should be taught to work, like any other muscle, without stopping training, as in sports. The fact that the tongue is a muscle can be a big discovery for some reason!

If it doesn't work out. Preschool children are not always amenable to learning and training. When something goes wrong, parents should not panic or become nervous in front of their children. Stop the activity, calm down and return to your beloved cub in a good mood.

Another important piece of advice: eliminate a bad example or draw the child’s attention to the fact that imitating such an example is bad. Sometimes children stop burring when they realize that it causes ridicule and excessive attention.

Important! Is it worth instilling in a child a sense of shame for his mistakes? Of course not! Instead of making a remark like “You’re wrong again,” turn the situation into a joke. Many phrases are remembered by the whole family and turn into fun memories. Here are examples from recent practice: coach Vareny Nikanaevich (Valery Nikolaevich), grandfather Usran (Ruslan).

What is considered normal?

The trembling consonants “r” (hard) and “ry” (soft) are correctly pronounced in a certain way. If a child speaks the letter r normally, then he has:

• Half-opened lips or open in such a way that the next sound (mostly a vowel) can be pronounced.
• The tip of the tongue rests against the alveoli behind the upper teeth.
• Air passes calmly between the palate and the back of the tongue.
• Loose teeth.
• The lateral edges of the tongue are tightly adjacent to the upper molars.
• Vibration of the vocal cords occurs.
• Tongue vibration is achieved due to the air flow during exhalation.

If you lift the middle part of the back of the tongue towards the palate and move the tongue forward a little, a soft “r” will be born.

Levina's method

Rosa Evgenievna Levina created her own method in 1965, which consisted of articulation exercises for setting the letter R. At the beginning of the lessons, the fricative R is achieved, which does not have a characteristic vibration.

• The second stage is training the sounds Zh, Sh. You need to move your lips apart, but without rounding them. In this case, you need to pull out the sound Zh and move the tip of your tongue to the top.
• At the first stage, the exercises are aimed at obtaining the fricative "P" without vibration after achieving correct articulation.
• To obtain P, D is used, which must be pronounced while exhaling. The mouth should be open and the tongue connected to the upper gums.

Variants of the incorrect letter p (according to the observations of a speech therapist)

If we paraphrase the classic, we can say: “The correct pronunciation of the letter r is the same for everyone, but if it is incorrect, the sound r sounds differently for each child.” Speech therapists counted more than twenty problematic variants of pronunciation of the letter r. The most common are the following:

• The sound just disappears. The child does not say “road”, but “dooga”.
• Guttural sound. Your child's pronunciation of the letter r this way would not be considered a problem if he were a resident of Germany or France. This abnormal sound occurs if the soft uvula (soft palate) vibrates, and not the actual tip of the tongue. If you open your mouth wide and pull “r-r-r-r-r” for a long time, then in the end the same guttural sound will sound. It is impossible to pronounce the letter r correctly this way.
• The letter r is pronounced nasally. It seems that a child with a runny nose can say the letter r like this.
• It comes out “rl”, because children pronounce the letter r in their own way - a lateral vibration of the tongue occurs.

Speech therapist and kindergarten

If kindergarten teachers or a primary school teacher notice a child’s diction, insufficient clarity of speech, or peculiarities of sound perception, do not neglect organized additional classes within the educational institution. In a separately formed group, where all children have speech disabilities, it is much more comfortable for them to study without embarrassment and fear of making mistakes.

The speech therapy lesson is structured so that every child takes maximum participation in it. Usually, at every stage from the organizational moment to physical education, a full-time speech therapist uses special games and exercises that help children relax and learn to speak in a new way.

Improvement in diction in a healthy and normally physically developed child occurs after the first lessons. But you need to teach him not only to mechanically reproduce sounds, but also to understand the meanings of words, to sense the difference in meaning. This will speed up and enrich the learning process.

7 tasks for developing correct pronunciation

What can you recommend to parents whose babies are just beginning to pronounce their first words? Do exercises that will help prevent possible problems with the letter r.

"Cuckoo-clock"

You can teach your child to pronounce r using this exercise. Ask your baby to open his mouth wider. After this, the tip of the tongue should be placed on the upper lip, and then hidden behind the central upper teeth, touching the tubercles. Outwardly, it resembles a cuckoo peeking out of a clock and hiding back.

"Tremors"

If you try to pronounce the sound r, you will feel a tremor on the tip of your tongue. To teach your child the correct formation of this sound, you can use this exercise. The tip of your tongue should alternately touch the upper and lower lips. At the same time, you need to release air through your mouth. It turns out that the tongue begins to tremble. And this is what we need.

"Funny face"

To stimulate the muscles that are responsible for the trembling of the tongue, you need to perform the following actions. Invite your son or daughter to stretch their lips into a smile (as much as possible). At the same time, while smiling, the child needs to lightly bite the tip of his tongue. This task must be done 12 times.

"Little Horse"

An effective method for stretching the hyoid ligament is to click your tongue. The sound made when doing this exercise for the letter r will resemble the clatter of a horse's hooves. The tip of the tongue is pressed against the palate and a clicking sound is made. Can be performed 25 times.

"Drummer"

When a child does not say the notorious letter r, the problem may be due to insufficient flexibility of the tongue. The following exercise will help prevent this phenomenon. Invite your baby to open his mouth a little and pronounce the sound d. He should hit the alveoli with his tongue.

"Toothbrush"

This simple exercise will help your child pronounce the letter r. You need to move the tip of your tongue along the inside of your teeth, as if you were brushing them.

"Sucker"

The tongue should be raised to the palate and “glued” as if it had a suction cup. At the same time, without changing the position of the tongue, you need to open and close your mouth.

The listed exercises will help children pronounce the letter r correctly, as they will benefit the development of the speech apparatus.

Soft “r” - [r']: [r']aba, [r']is, words [r']

Experts say that once the hard “r” is mastered, there are no more difficulties with the soft one. If it can take 5-6 lessons to practice a hard “r”, then one is enough for a soft one. The rest of the time before school, it is important for parents to work together with their child to automate all the sounds of the alphabet as a whole.

When pronouncing a soft [r'], the position of the tongue changes slightly - its back rises slightly higher to the palate, moves forward to the dentition, and the corners of the lips stretch a little wider than when pronouncing the same sound hard. It’s better to start mastering [рь] with letter combinations and syllables.

1. Start with the syllables in order of complexity: [ri], [re], [rya], [re], [ryu]. For children with good musical abilities, it is quite possible to sing this sequence in scales.
2. Secure the result. Repeating one syllable at a speed is an excellent game for developing diction in preschool children: ri-ri-ri, re-re-re.
3. Find the words. Ask your child to choose words with these syllables, for example: rhyme , repka , ryabchik , reva , ryusha.
4. With paired consonants: d/t, b/p, g/k: d rema , d ryably , tri , rag pka , t ry m, charging.

Already at this stage, everything will work out well for the baby, since the main - solid - sound has already been established. It's time to move on to words and sentences to automate pronunciation. When working with a preschooler, you should not tell him about hard and soft sounds: just offer to compare the “r” in the words “pencil” and “spine.”

Exercises to consolidate the skill

A skill is a result of learning, a stable automatic performance of an action. To automate a skill means, through repeated repetition and training, to bring it to a state where it is performed “without thinking.” To do this, it is not at all necessary to train the child with the same exercises. Oral folk art has a wealth of didactic material.

Warm-up

To warm up, remember all the syllables: [ra], [rya], [ro], [re], [ru], [ryu], [ry], [ri], [re], [re]. Repeat points 2, 3, 4 for all of them and start entertaining games with words in sayings, proverbs, tongue twisters and tongue twisters!

Little secret. Stock up on balloons! Children love them very much. Inflating balloons promotes lung development, acts as a breathing exercise, improves voice, and strengthens the muscles of the cheeks and lips.

Use growling words

Proverbs and sayings are an excellent reason to discuss moral issues with your child and work on educational topics, and the repetition of growling and hissing will happen by itself. For example, suggest discussing the following popular sayings:

• You can’t even pull a [fish] out of the pond without t[ru]d.
• Where it’s thin, that’s where it [tears].
• [Re]ka begins with [ru]cheka.

Tongue Twisters

Forcing your preschooler to do anything is not an effective strategy, but involving him in competition is a great idea. Why not use pre-prepared task cards for a family r-battle?

Take for example the story about “Karl and Clara” or “Grass in the Yard”.

Tongue twisters starting with “R” are not uncommon in specialized literature and manuals for parents. Use any of them or these examples about birds:

• The pea[re]pellings were [hidden] from the [children].
• T[ri] so[ro]ki-ta[ra]t[or]ki ta[ra]t[or]or on g[or]ke.
• To catch a smart s[or]k is a hassle, and a s[or]k is a s[oro]k.

Pure talk

Unlike tongue twisters, the pure twister technique does not imply speed: you need to pronounce it in such a way as not to make mistakes in sounds, clearly pronounce each syllable and sound. Explain the task to your child and come up with a reward for clear speech. Here are a couple of examples to get you started:

• The baby pig is chewing a carrot. B[ra]shek b[ra]nku g[ry]zes [ra]nka.
• In the d[or] on the [sidewalk] t[ri] friends were [draw]ing. She froze at [the] war: “K[ar]! [Ra]z[ris]ovan [tro]tu[ar]!”

The importance of exercises for automating the letter r

There are many exercises to help teach a child to pronounce the letter r. We have given only a few examples. Don’t forget about such useful speech development activities as learning tongue twisters, reciting poetry, and retelling literary works.

After the child begins to say the letter r, it is useful to consolidate the skill. To do this, you should perform special automation exercises with your child. They include the pronunciation of straight syllables with the sound r, then words, phrases and sentences. For example: “I’m picking tomatoes in the garden. You are picking tomatoes in the garden. You... They...". In this way, correct pronunciation is brought to automaticity. It is better to carry out exercises with a child in a playful way, without coercion or persistence.

How to conduct a speech therapy warm-up

All classes with a speech therapist or at home should begin with a warm-up. It has a number of tasks:

• develops motor skills and articulation;
• improves lower diaphragmatic breathing;
• develops oral and nasal pronunciation of individual sounds;
• activates the muscles of the palate, tongue, and pharynx;
• the child's voice and ability to speak with expression are assessed;
• a sense of rhythm is developed;
• improves the musculature of the articulatory muscles.

Here you can use various tongue twisters, rhymes, and children's songs.

Patiently and consistently

Many factors influence a child’s speech culture. Including the general situation in the family. More often, those children who grow up in an atmosphere of love and attention speak well.

Exercises prepared by BrainApps specialists can be performed for preventive purposes. If a problem exists, then consultation with a specialist is mandatory. By bringing a child with problems pronouncing the letter r to a speech therapist, you can receive individual recommendations and act in accordance with them. Approach this process patiently and consistently.

Do you need help from a speech therapist?

Teaching your child to pronounce the sound R correctly on your own is quite possible. But an initial consultation with a speech therapist will not be superfluous. A specialist will help you correctly determine the cause of pronunciation difficulties, and will also offer optimal options for forming clear and intelligible speech.

How a speech therapist can help a child:

• determine the specific cause of the child’s speech impairment;
• will study the symptoms and structure of speech disorders;
• will create an individual system of corrective influence on the speech apparatus.

The first visit to a speech therapist usually occurs at the age of 2-3 years; it is included in the routine examination before going to kindergarten. Almost always, in conjunction with a consultation with a speech therapist, the child is examined by a neurologist to rule out disorders in brain development (dysarthria, dyslalia, bradyllalia, etc.).

Voiced and voiced sounds

In addition to the fact that consonant sounds can be hard and soft, they are also divided into voiced and voiceless. Tell your child that voiced sounds consist of voice and noise, while deaf sounds consist of only noise.

Write down and pronounce first the unvoiced sounds - [K], [P], [X], [C], [Ch], [S], [T], [F], [Sh], [Sh]. And then study the voiced ones together - [B], [G], [D], [F], [Z], [V], [Y], [L], [M], [N], [R] .

Of course, just writing out and studying sounds is quite boring. Older children will be able to sit still while learning these rules. And for very young curiosity seekers, you can show the following suggestions:

• “The Lion and the Toad Have Many Friends.” In this sentence all consonants are voiced.
• “Styopka, do you want a cheek? - Ugh!" But here, on the contrary, every consonant sound is dull.

These sentences are not at all difficult to memorize. They will help the baby classify consonants into voiced and voiceless.

The main types of violations when pronouncing the sound “r”

There are two types of incorrect pronunciation [r]: pararotacism and rhotacism.

Pararotacism comes in seven types and is a replacement of [r] with consonants [v], [d], [g], [y], [l], [l'], [r'] (one type - one consonant), Moreover, the replacement of [p] with [p'] or [p] with [l'] is subsequently reflected in the letter.

Rhotacism is divided into twelve types depending on the specifics of pronunciation:

1. The pharyngeal (pharyngeal) child pronounces [r] hoarsely due to the passage of an air stream through the back wall of the pharynx and the root of the tongue.
2. Nasal (nasal) - an air stream passes through the nose, resulting in a specific wheezing sound.
3. Laryngeal - vibration is formed due to vibration of the closed vocal folds.
4. Protoric (single-beat) - the pronounced sound resembles [d], to pronounce [r] the baby articulates correctly, but vibration occurs only once or does not exist at all. The child cannot make a growl [rrrr].
5. Bilabial is also called curly, as it is formed due to the vibration of the lips when releasing a stream of air. The pronounced sound is similar to [prr], which riders use to stop horses (hence the name “coachman”).
6. Buccal - the child pronounces [r] using the cheeks and lateral areas of the tongue.
7. Nasal is one of the types of rhotacism that can occur with anatomical pathology in the form of shortening of the soft palate. Vibration is formed with the participation of the pharynx and the back of the palate.
8. Interdental - the baby says [r], placing his tongue in the interdental space.
9. Lateral - vibration is carried out by the side of the tongue. Very often, such a defect in sound production can be heard if there are problems with the anatomical structure of the oral cavity. When a child begins to pronounce [r], he combines “r” and “l”, as a result of which he pronounces [rl].
10. Velar - when the baby tries to pronounce [r], the palate vibrates as air passes. As a result, the sound is not formed correctly. Such pronunciation is otherwise called burr.
11. Uvular - is a kind of “rumble” from the throat pronunciation, such a defect is otherwise called “French r”. Sound distortion occurs due to vibration of only the soft reed.
12. The sound [r] is not pronounced by a child, for example, fish - yba, crayfish - ak, coachman - kuche, crab - cab.

Please note that we teach the child not to pronounce the letter “er”, but the sounds [p] and [p'] (“ry”).

Most often, the reason why a baby says [r] incorrectly is glottal, lateral, nasal, coachman, slit and protoric rhoticism. Other types are relatively rare and in most cases are the result of anatomical problems in the oral cavity and heredity.

Classification of sounds by hardness and softness.

15 consonant letters in the Russian language form pairs of sounds based on hardness and softness. We include the following consonants among them: B, V, G, D, Z, L, M, N, R, P, F, K, T, S and X. From these letters, form the corresponding pairs of hard and soft [b ]—[b'], [c] – [c'], [d] – [g'], [d] – [d'], [z] – [z'], [p] – [p' ], [f] - [f'], [k] - [k'], [t] - [t'], [s] - [s']. These are all paired sounds. They form pairs based on deafness and voicedness. And the remaining sounds [l] - [l'], [m] - [m'], [n] - [n'], [r] - [r'], [x] - [x'] - respectively, without a pair, because they do not have a pair in terms of voicedness and deafness.