/r/ Remediation

My daughter who is a Special Ed. Resource Specialist has a co-worker with a 7th grade son who was not using the /r/ sound. He had spent years in therapy in elementary school without success. She asked me if I would see this student.

Two months later after weekly 20 minute sessions, he is using /r/ in conversation. There are many reasons for the change in his behavior. In our initial session, I asked him to show me how he makes the /r/ sound. He used a retroflex /r/ and the sound was distorted. I explained to him that there are different ways to make the /r/ sound and that the most efficient is the back or bunched /r/ where a slight pull back of the tongue in the proper position leads to the correct /r/ sound. Using the SATPAC Approach (which includes the 6 elements of facilitating contexts, co-articulation, natural prosody, normal rate, non-words and many repetitions), he used a facilitating context for /r/ which was EERGA. Including a multimodality approach where he listened, felt and saw his correct/incorrect /r/ productions using a mirror and a flashlight, he was able to develop some consistency. First he used an infant tongue depressor under his tongue to move it back and bit an infant tongue depressor with his side teeth to stabilize his jaw which was moving when he made productions. Over time, he was able to say EERGA without the push stick keeping the tongue up on the top teeth and keeping his jaw stabilized just by watching it in a mirror.

We proceeded through the SATPAC Program with the Establishment Phase, using the /r/ sound in one context (EERGA). Then he did the Practice Phase using the postvocalic /r/ in many varied non-word contexts with each of the 5 lists systematically more difficult than the previous list. Finally, he moved to the Generalization/Transfer Phase using real phrases, sentences and transfer into conversation. When he was using a consistent postvocalic /r/, I had him practice prevocalic /r/ beginning with ER (e.g., ER Rat, ER Ramp, etc.). After a little bit of practice, the ER went away and he said the prevocalic words normally. He practiced faithfully a few minutes averaging 5 days a week.

To view my techniques in more detail, you can view my free CEU presentation and receive the free CEUs or just view it as you like.

Stephen SacksSATPAC Speech

Workshops- I will be doing two workshops in So. Cal October 3rd and 4th. Registration will be $59 or $159 with the purchase of the SATPAC Program (normally $150). I’m also bringing Pam Marshalla to Texas for 2 dates in early 2015 and in St. Louis/Kansas City in the fall of 2016. Pam will be presenting on Carryover Techniques in Articulation and Phonology (details to come).