Anyone with a kid who can't pronounce R?

[julesmama3]

My son is 9 and has been working with a speech therapist for about a year and a half roughly once every other week for an hour. He is now able to say the sound at the beginning of the word ie road, rabbit etc, but not at the end of the word (pitcher, corn, star)

 

Has anyone had a child who eventually was able to say the ending sound at this late age? Should I quit therapy? Should I get more therapy??:confused:

[Faith]

I couldn't pronounce my R's. I had speech therapy for awhile but I just grew out of it and was able to pronounce it just fine at some point. It's been awhile.

[LunaLee]

Ds had troubles with his 'r's and 'r' blends-people always ask(ed) him if he's from New York:). He still struggles a little with the ending 'r', but it mostly just sounds like he's got an accent, not that he can't speak correctly. He had therapy starting at age 9ish and after about a year and a half his therapist basically said that they corrected his initial 'r' problems, but that the way he speaks is just his speech pattern and in years to come he will most likely grow out of it.

 

I wouldn't quit the therapy unless your therapist has advised you to do so, I'd keep plugging along until he gets or they think he's gotten it.

[Farrar]

 

Has anyone had a child who eventually was able to say the ending sound at this late age? Should I quit therapy? Should I get more therapy??:confused:

 

Only you know the answer to that. But I don't think it's that late an age. They say that it's not until age 8 that most of these sounds settle so if your son was just slightly behind the curve, 9 doesn't seem like so late.

 

My son is 6 and struggling with r, l, th, f, and w. Oy. We've not gone for therapy because I see him improving. We just quietly work on it a little every day and he's motivated to do it. Initial sounds have come before final sounds for us and I understand that's common.

 

If the therapy is expensive, someone here once mentioned a curriculum for speech therapy and you might look for that. But if your insurance pays it or most of it or it's through the school system, I would just keep at it. Obviously, he's had progress, which is great.

[stripe]

I would also be interested to know to what degree this depends on accent and bilingualism. However, as my child is a native English speaker, I am not entirely sure this applies, but in some words my son speaks like my non-native speaker husband (in others, not).

[Karen in CO]

I couldn't pronounce my R's. I had speech therapy for awhile but I just grew out of it and was able to pronounce it just fine at some point. It's been awhile.

Me too. I was in speech therapy when I was in elementary school because of R, H, and W sounds. I eventually outgrew it.

[GVD22]

Yes, my 10 yo ds, has gotten better in the last few years. He still sounds like he has a northern accent with some words though which is hilarious since we're southern folks.:lol:

[Karen A]

Couldn't say my Rs as a child. Had speech tx in public school for 4 years, without obvious effect. In 5th gr. went to Christian school with no tx, but by 8th grade I had "outgrown" it. Occasionally there is a word I still think I don't pronounce great, but others don't hear it.

 

--Karen

[Bokons]

My 8yos has always had some trouble prounouncing his r's and r blends, but he has gotten better on his own. We've had some family and friends asking us why ds has a British accent, lol.

[Momling]

I had trouble with Rs and gave up speech therapy after a few years. I think I do okay with them now. Or maybe people just assume I'm from Boston?

 

'R' is particularly hard because in American English, the actual articulatory movement that your tongue has to do is not consistent among speakers. I don't remember the details of the study, but I remember reading that (based on x-ray or MRI) there are at least 8 different tongue placements for the 'r' sound in English.

 

Personally, if your son isn't bothered by his speech, I wouldn't worry.

[Penny_P]

DS 9 attends speech therapy at ps 2x week, 20 minutes a pop. He is still working on the beginning R sound. The therapist sent home work I'm supposed to do with him every day. Are you working with him at home?

[julesmama3]

Thanks for all the replies, it's encouraging to know he has time for improvement and could eventually grow out of it.

 

Thanks for the reminder of homework. We've not seen the therapist in a few months because of summer vacations and now scheduling conflicts and I've honestly forgotten to have him practice daily.

 

We pay out of pocket because the ps said he wasn't outside the curve when we originally had him tested 2 years ago. I suppose we'll plug along and hope eventually the ending/ blends click like the beginning sound has.

 

thanks again!

[Pamela H in Texas]

I haven't read the thread, but....

 

I would keep with the therapy for now. And I would definitely talk to the therapist about whether she believes he could be rehabilitated.

 

My son is 15 and doesn't have the middle/end r sounds either. We stopped therapy at almost 14. By that time, the therapist told us that improvement was probable but complete remediation wasn't a guarantee. This was even more of an issue as my son was a reluctant client (stating it mildly) and refused to practice to the degree necessary to get the best possible outcomes, esp if it wasn't going to get him all the way.

 

BTW, most people just assume he's from another country.

 

ETA: I had a friend whose dd was 8 when I met her and her "accent" was very thick. They had never done any therapy with her. By 12 or so, you couldn't even tell she ever had that issue. One of her other children had a similar issue and also did fine without therapy.

Edited September 28, 2010 by 2J5M9K

[Giraffe]

I couldn't say "r" sounds and was in speech therapy in K-1st grade. If I get excited or upset I go back to saying "w" sounds instead of "r"s. Hope that made sense.

 

To the poster who asked about accent and bilingualism - my DH is a non-native speaker and DD cannot say "r" in his language, Turkish. I cannot say a proper "r" in French or Turkish, but instead fake my way through it with a "l" or "d" slurred sound. DD has picked up this trick but isn't as good at slurring, which is how I hide what I'm doing. Not good, because it actually changes the word or verb tense in some cases. I think she'll grow out of it. DH isn't so sure. She's only 3 so we're watching and waiting.

[Dandelion]

My DS still struggles with pronouncing the "r" sound. He had a year of speech therapy which ended about 1.5 years ago because our new insurance company wouldn't pay for it. The speech therapy helped him correct several speech/articulation issues (he had quite a long list of them when we started) but the "r" problems lingered...

 

So I'm very happy to hear that this cleared up on its own for so many of the people who responded! :)

[dripdripsplat]

Okay, so one day we're in the car as a family, playing "I Spy", when it comes to my dd's turn (she's 6 at this point).

"I spy, with my little eye something beginning with W."

"Wheels... White... Women..... Woman....... Weather........ Water...........?"

Now, we live in the middle of no where, in the desert, so there really isn't much out there other than cars, streets, and cactus. We're all at a loss, and finally she says...

"You give up?"

There's a resounding "Yes..."

And she says, "Wadio Towa"

My son immediately starts telling her that "Radio Tower" begins with an R, to which she responds, "Nuh-uh. Listen... wa-wa-wadio towa"

 

We laughed so hard for so long. To this day we still tell people who comment on her "accent" about this story.

 

I don't know how it happened, but it seems that she genetically contracted my Massachusetts accent (which I lost looooonnng before I even met my dh). So all of her R's are W's. For the most part though, it really isn't a problem... Except if she is helping her brother study for his spelling test... Then it turns comedic very quickly! I suppose that one day she'll outgrow it, but I kind of secretly pray that she doesn't - it brightens even the gloomiest day.

[krisperry]

My son was in speech for a year and could never produce an r sound, even in isolation. Much less at the beginning, middle, or end.

 

He spontaneously began saying the r a few weeks ago. He will be 8 soon. So younger than your son but our speech person thought he might never get it at all given he made very, very minimal progress after weekly visits + homework.

 

The curriculum that I've seen for the home use is this one:

Super Star R & L

[jentancalann]

My son was in speech for a year and could never produce an r sound, even in isolation. Much less at the beginning, middle, or end.

 

He spontaneously began saying the r a few weeks ago. He will be 8 soon. So younger than your son but our speech person thought he might never get it at all given he made very, very minimal progress after weekly visits + homework.

 

The curriculum that I've seen for the home use is this one:

Super Star R & L

 

We use this. My ds is almost 10, and w/ my slp friend's help and this curriculum, he's getting pretty good at everything but the "or" sound. Hopefully this will come along in time. The issue I'm having is trying to get him to carry it over into everyday speech. He thinks it sounds funny and won't say r's correctly "in public" (his words). I'm happy to hear of everybody's success stories!

[linders]

DS7 drops his r's on the end of words. I recently was asked if we were from Boston (no, from Washington State and now in South Carolina). A friend who is a speech specialist told me to quit worrying.

[Carpe Diem]

I've worked as a certified Speech-Language Pathologist for the last 20 years. When kids with /r/ problems are referred I always secretly groan inside because it can be very difficult to correct. The difficulty lies in that there are 21 variations of /r/. Traditional treatment strategies don't always work. I have found great success with a product called The Entire World of R by Say It Right. This is the only product that I know of that assesses all 21 variations.

 

Perhaps you can look into this product and ask your therapist if he/she would consider using it. Also, I would think an increase in frequency of treatment to once a week for 30 minutes would be advantageous if you can swing the travel.

 

Your son has prevocalic r's so he is making improvements. Does he have r blends? Those should come easily. AIR, IRE, ER, OR, EAR are the vowel type r's that are more difficult depending on the child. I find the ER to be the most difficult of all. Once a child can say one type the therapist can use that to encourage other r types.

 

Talk to your therapist. I would suggest not giving up yet. Good luck.

 

HTH

[Carpe Diem]

Now that he is 9 he may qualify for speech therapy through the schools. When he was 7 he didn't qualify because /r/ isn't expected to be at maturation yet.

 

HTH