Virtual Speech Articulation Practice

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.

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. 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". A (z) is listed if the word is produced with a /z/.

the
with
they
that
this
their
other
there
then
them
these
than

as (z)
his (z)
is (z)
this 
was(z)
said
use (z)
these (z)
so
some
has (z)
first
see
its
years
most

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.

from
for
are
or
word
were
their
your
other
there
her
number
first
water
more
write
work
years
part