By Pam Marshalla
Q: Can you give me ideas about how to help a boy who is making R out his nose? He has no other velopharyngeal problems. This is what I do: Use a tube that stretches from the child’s mouth to his ear. Teach him to listen to the oral sound of several vowels. Then stretch the tube from his nose to his ear. Teach him to hear the nasal sound that emerges when he says M, N, and Ng. Then…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: I have a client who makes a nasal sound for L and R. He has no other nasal problems. What can I do? This is all a matter of ear training. This is a client who can move his velum, but he has a habit of lowering it when he makes certain sounds, in this case, L and R. In other words, the client does not have a velo-pharyngeal insufficiency or incompetency. He simply has a habit of lowering…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: I read your explanation on how to teach a child to say R without nasality. I used a tube to help him as you suggested, and he now understands the difference between oral and nasal sounds. However, he still cannot produce the vocalic /r/ without it sounding hypernasal. I have tried everything and I was wondering if you have any suggestions! You have to tell him NOT to say R. Instead, have him say his nice oral vowel with…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: I have one student who makes /r/ in her nose. It is very nasal. Advice? Your client should be able to do the following because he is only hypernasal on one sound. That means that he is not structurally hypernasal (velo-pharyngeal insufficiency), nor does he have a motor speech disorder that causes him to be functionally hypernasal all the time. He simply has a habit of directing sound out the nose instead of the mouth when he says /r/….
By Pam Marshalla
Q: I have a preschool student who produces vocalic /r/ with more of a [ng] phoneme. If I address it, what can I do? There are always several ways to attack a question about articulation therapy. Let me offer two basic ideas to try: Normal Path of Development You could teach the client to substitute w/r instead if she can do a /w/ correctly without nasality. Teach her to say “Rabbit” as “Wabbit” and so forth. That puts her development…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: In your book, Successful R Therapy (pg 62), I read about how to help a client with hypernasality on R. That helped a lot. But I need help with the actual teaching part. How do I get the student to say the R without the nasal sound? Your client first needs to discover that sound comes out his nose and mouth differentially, and he needs to control this as he makes R. Use a flexible tube about 18 inches long and…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: I have just picked up a young man of 14 years with a moderate degree of learning difficulties and a range of speech difficulties. He is in special school but has received very little direct therapy. He has a particularly hyponasal quality, and some hypernasality too. Would you view this as a priority? He is interested in singing and has been unmotivated by therapy, possibly due to its repetitive nature. He wondered if this might be a way to…
