By Pam Marshalla
Q: I have several students that have distorted /r/’s and short lingua frenums. I am having trouble and would like some advice. We cannot teach what I call a “Tip R” (the Retroflex R) with a short lingua frenum, but we can teach a “Back R.” However, the Back R is more difficult to do for most students. I would continue with the Back R with an emphasis on the Butterfly Position as described in my book Successful R Therapy, but…
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: Where do you get the very specific word lists you use for the articulation training you describe for R and the Lisps? You are talking about organizing word lists by vowels when working on phoneme R or the sibilants. I use a variety of dictionaries, thesauruses, and rhyming dictionaries. I also use the popular book called 40,000 Selected Words: Organized by Letter, Sound, Syllable by Valeda Blockcolsky, Joan M. Frazer, and Douglas H. Frazer. I always keep on hand a…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: My 12-year-old son cannot say R, however I am not so sure if that is the only problem. Many people do not understand him, a great crisis for him as he starts junior high this fall. He talks very fast. We tried a home program, but I really don’t know what I’m doing. Help! Your letter points directly to the articulation crisis occurring in this country: Many SLP’s are graduating from universities with absolutely no idea how to fix…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: How do you get a client to stop puckering, pursing, retracting, and tensing the lips when learning R? To get rid of lip interference when working on R (or any other sound) you need a way to hold the lips back. The child can use his fingers or a Lip Retractor. Fingers: Have the client use his own fingers to pull back the lips.Have the client place one or two fingers inside his mouth at the corners of the…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: You use the term “Butterfly Position” in Successful R Therapy. Is this something new? Did you make this up, or does it come from somewhere else? I made up the term “Butterfly Position” in 1978 during a workshop I was teaching. I have used the term ever since in workshop handouts and books I have written. The “Butterfly Position” refers to the ability to shape the tongue into a position that has a low midline and high sides. This…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: Is there a website or document that describes the problem of pronouncing R’s as W’s? My friend’s 7-year-old daughter has this speech problem and she is now having reading difficulties. I feel the school has not diagnosed this because both parents are from Puerto Rico and the teachers probably think it’s an accent. I recognize the problem because my brother had it, and it was also not diagnosed because my parents are German and everyone just assumed it was…
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: It seems that children have an easier time understanding the Tip R. However, I know therapists that teach the Back R and seem to like it. Which method do you have more success with and why? In my book, Successful R Therapy, I state that the Tip R is much easier. It is easier to see, describe and understand. And it requires a more primitive movement pattern. Simply curling the tip up and back is something that babies do while vocalizing. I…
