Articulation practice

Articulation errors (or difficulties producing a sound) can occur in many children.  The best advice I can give parents is, practice makes perfect!  Once your child knows how to correct their speech error, they should be encouraged to practice, practice, practice.  Below are some highly mispronounced sounds.

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Did you know there are over twenty ways to pronounce /r/?  This sound can be challenging because it is not easy to see others make.  The /r/ is produced when you are able to lift the back of your tongue up in the back of your mouth.  Try it out- pretend to gargle and "feel" or sense where your tongue is.  Once you can get your child to "feel" the tongue in the back of the mouth, then you can start practicing this sound combined with vowels such as "ear", "air", "or", "ur", "ire". I like to call this the "rake" because children need to remember to pull their tongue back and up or "rake" their tongue up.

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This can be nicknamed the "tongue cooler" because you need to stick your tongue out to create this sound.  Be mindful that there is a quiet "tongue cooler" in words such as "thumb", "throw", "thought" and a "noisy tongue cooler" which occurs in words such as "the", "there", or "this". The noisy "tongue cooler" is "voiced", which means that your vocal folds vibrate while making this phoneme.  Help your child "feel" the difference by having them feel your throat as you produce the quiet and noisy tongue coolers.

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I like to call the /s/ the "snake" because it needs to hide behind your bottom teeth. Make sure that your child has their teeth together and that the air coming out of their mouth is in the middle and not the sides.  Sometimes students have a difficult time  keeping their tongue back and not between their teeth.  To discourage this, have your child bite down on a  straw or a toothpick between their teeth at the same time as making the /s/.  By holding the straw or toothpick they will be unable to stick their tongue out and still produce the /s/ correctly.

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Making the /z/ sound is just like /s/ except that you add what is known as "voice" or "voicing".  What that refers to is that your your vocal folds in your throat are vibrating. I refer to this sometimes as the "noisy snake" to differentiate from the /s/. Follow the same instructions for /s/ however, have your child feel your throat  and later theirs while making the /z/.  They should be able to feel nothing for /s/ and then vibration for /z/.

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While reading books highlight words that have the sound you are targeting. Model the words in books that have the targeted word and have your child repeat the word.

Play this game and keep the targeted sound in mind while listening to your child.  This game is fun because once you start playing you will be pleasantly surprised by the frequency that the targeted sound will appear during this game.

While playing make the number your child rolls be: the number of times they say a word, the words you will include to make a silly sentence, or  the words that they need to think of that start or end with the sound.

Photo copy pictures of words to play games such as "Memory" or "Go Fish" using cards that elicit the sound you are working on

 

When your student becomes more adept at their sound, have them correct you!
Play a game where you mispronounce the phoneme and have them correct you.

 

When your child is increasing their accuracy, set a time that you expect them to really focus on using their targeted phoneme.  Perhaps this time is a 5-10 minute drive everyday before soccer practice.  Build this into your daily routine to encourage generalization when you child is ready.