How to Teach Vocalic R Using Coarticulation in Speech Therapy

I work with preschoolers with speech sound disorders most often. A lot of them come to me with tons of sounds and phonological processes that we need to address. And the R sound is usually one of them, of course. I have figured out over the years that if I address the R sound early, it is so much easier to remediate. So although it may not be the first thing we address, I definitely make it a point to stimulate that R sound with my preschoolers in speech therapy.

I can usually get a pretty good prevocalic or initial R using facilitative contexts and all the cues! Once I have a good initial R sound, I move right into trying to shape the vocalic R sound from that using the coarticulation strategy.

To me, this just makes sense. Why let a child over use and habituate an incorrect motor pattern if I can get in there and remediate it?

So in this blog post I’m going to give you a step-by-step guide for how I elicit the vocalic R sound in speech therapy using coarticulation.

Disclaimer: This works often with my clients. However, there is always going to be that one client that it doesn’t work with. Start here though, and see if it works! Please note, I will be using prevocalic R and initial R interchangeably in this blog post.

What is coarticulation in speech therapy?

Coarticulation is the idea that speech sounds are influenced by the other sounds around them. Sounds can be affected by the other sounds that come BEFORE them or AFTER them. To use the coarticulation strategy in speech therapy, the speech language pathologists uses other sounds around the target sound (sounds a child can already produce well) to help facilitate or influence the correct production of the target. The speech therapist carefully chooses facilitative contexts that will help get the articulators in the right place for the target sound.

How to elicit the vocalic R sound using corarticulation in speech therapy

How do I use coarticulation to teach vocalic R?

You will be shaping vocalic R from prevocalic/initial R. The student who is appropriate for this technique already has a good initial R, but is struggling with the vocalic R. So, we are using that initial/prevocalic R to help get the articulators in the right spot for the vocalic R.

When using this technique, have the child say a vocalic R word immediately followed by a prevocalic R word. So say the word “car” immediately followed by the word “red.” Then, you will eventually fade out the production of the prevocalic R word (in this case, “red”).

To start, make sure to choose a prevocalic R word that helps your client get his/her best R sound. I have a few initial R words that I like to try because they are the best as far as facilitative context for getting that good initial R. They are R words followed by unrounded vowels of various heights. To see my choice of initial R words, click here.

First, have the child say the ENTIRE prevocalic R word after saying the vocalic R word. I like to “hold out the R” that I am blending (e.g. carrrrr -> Red).

Then start to fade out production of the entire prevocalic R word. Do this in two steps if needed. Step 1, when the child gets to the prevocalic R word, have the child say the initial R normally and whisper the end of the word (e.g. so normally say the R for “red” and whisper “ed”). When this technique seems pretty easy, move to step 2. Now have the child start to say the prevocalic R word but omit the ending altogether (e.g. say ”R” for “red” but don’t complete the word). You can still drag out the R to help establish that placement for the R sound (e.g. carrrr -> R).

Have the child say the coarticulated “words” - the vocalic R word and the beginning of the initial R word - faster and faster, decreasing the amount of time the R is held out, until it basically blends into one word (“car”).

Tell me more about choosing targets…

Definitely in the beginning when using coarticulation, I carefully consider facilitative contexts for ALL of the words I am going to be using (the vocalic R words AND the initial R words). I want to set my student up for success. I don’t want to make this task any harder…

I choose initial R words with highly facilitative vowels. This means NO rounded vowels - no words like “rope” or “room.” What vowel specifically helps a child is going to be case by case, but I find a lot of success with high vowels like in the words “read” (present tense) and “red.”

When possible, I choose vocalic R words that are one syllable and that don’t have other sounds in the word that will make the final R sound more difficult to say.

HELP! I need some place to start with target selection!

Vocalic R coarticulation in speech therapy | teach the R sound

Don’t worry! I got you. I created a resource for coarticulation of vocalic R. When I created this resource, I wanted to make sure I had all the options to trial when using coarticulation. You never know which context is going to be the best for your particular student. So, I made sure to include initial R words that each have a different vowel sound!

I also included visuals for the two levels of production I describe above. Level 1 cards from this resource have the entire prevocalic R word written out so the child knows he will be saying the whole word. Level 2 cards helps you fade out the prevocalic R word by visually showing a large, bold initial R and then faint, dotted line letters for the rest of the word. This is a visual cue to remind the child to ONLY say the beginning R sound. And then…I even threw in some sentence strips if you want to increase complexity just a little more!

You’ve got this!

So that’s my step-by-step guide for how I teach the vocalic R sound by shaping it from an initial R sound using coarticulation in speech therapy! This is usually the way I go about it, but I always like to point out that every child is different. Please send me an e-mail with any questions or tips of your own! I love to chat speech sound disorders!

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