By Pam Marshalla
Q: I have read “Successful R Therapy” and am wondering, do you work on Consonantal R or Vocalic R first, and why? I tend to work on Vocalic R with a retroflex R first because I like to teach the contrast between Ah (Jaw low, mouth open, tongue low) with R (jaw high, mouth almost closed, tongue curled up and back). I also find that starting with a big Ah and teaching the client to prolong it helps him hear…
By Pam Marshalla
Several questions have come in recently about how to get rid of hypernasality on a specific phoneme, particularly the hypernasal R and the nasal snort on one or more of the sibilants. I’d like to address these questions together… We are talking about clients who produce nasal emission on one or more specific phonemes in the absence of more generalized hypernasality. These clients sniff, snort, or allow some nasal sound to escape during production of their error phoneme(s). Peterson-Falzone and…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: I have an elementary age male client that was attaining an adequate R, but then we had scheduling problems and he lost it. I cannot get it anywhere now. Help! When I have a client like this, I start from scratch. I assume they can do nothing that I worked on with them, and I re-visit all we have done before. Slow way down. Do not assume any generalization. Review, review, review what he could already do and solidify…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: What is the secret for vocalic R? I have students who can produce prevocalic R very well yet when it comes to Ar, Or, and Ir, and so forth, they flounder. Any tips for this? The key to mastery of vocalic R first is to realize that tongue position for prevocalic R and postvocalic R are exactly the same. The difference is in the transitions movements. Transitions Movements When we produce a prevocalic R at the beginning of a…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: I struggle with a student who can say the R sound correctly in the prevocalic position but not unless I correct her. I say, “What’s a wabbit?” and then she corrects herself. She has been in therapy for a few months. Should I film her? And what else can I do to help her? If the R sounds correct, you are doing fine! She is on her way. Filming is always a great idea to help clue kids in…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: Can phonemes like R and S be taught to adults? I have received an unusual number of questions recently about the effectiveness of articulation therapy with adults. Where is this notion that articulation therapy cannot be done with adults coming from? Articulation therapy is EASIER with adults because they can understand what you are talking about and they usually are highly motivated to change. The only time this is not the case is when the adult client has a significant…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: My four-year-old client substitutes E for final Er, as in teachee/teacher. Have you seen this before? Should I be extra worried about it? To me this is just another minor problem with R. Nothing special just not very common — kids screw up R in more ways than are imaginable! The kids I have seen like this correct their errors easily. Most of their families thought the error was very cute and were sad to see it go!
By Pam Marshalla
Q: My client adds E after all vocalic Rs. Example: She says “deer” as “Deer-ee”. Is this an oral-motor problem? What can I do? If your client has a correct R in some contexts but not others, then this is no longer about oral motor skill. She already can attain an R position. This is a problem of auditory discrimination. For some reason, she needs the E after the R to make the R correct in the vocalic position. Teach…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: Do you have any tips on how to help a student produce the Spanish R trill? Two methods I have used- Start with a lingua-labial raspberry and then have the client pull the tongue in. Say the word “butter” with a clear D– “Budder”. Say it while making the tongue-tip linger on the palate longer. There also are YouTube videos about how to do this 🙂
By Pam Marshalla
Q: I have been working with a child for a year and a half and R has been very resistant to improvement. I just stumbled upon a good R in STRI-words like “strike”, “stripe”. Yet he has problems doing what you call “lerring” [sliding back-and-forth between L and R]. Why do you think this is? R can be a grand mystery and you never know what pattern will cause it to sound right. Just go with whatever works. It could…
