5 How parents train their children to pronounce the letter "r" so they don't get slurred

Young children generally have a little trouble pronouncing the letter "R" and distinguishing it from the letter "L" because their lips are not as obvious as the letters "B" or "M", which they can easily follow. That's why when they want to say something that contains the letter "R", for example, "My game is broken!" which usually comes out of their mouth is "My game is broken!".

However, don't let your child continue to slurp into adulthood. Besides being able to make it difficult for him to communicate, lisp that is carried over to adulthood can also make children feel inferior when they have to talk to other people. Let's read these tips, so that children don't keep slurred!

So that children are not slurred, what should parents do?

Young children should be able to pronounce the letter "R" fluently when they are 5 to 7 years old. However, if your little one is already 5 years old and is not yet fluent in saying "coiled snake over the fence", you don't really need to worry too much.

You can help him practice pronouncing the letter R with the following tips so that your child doesn't slurred until he grows up.

1. Teach how to place the tongue when pronouncing the letter R

The letter R is indeed very difficult for children to pronounce compared to other letters. It is different from the letter B which is easy to follow because it is very clear that the movement of the lips is visible, which is to fold the upper and lower lips inward.

When the letter R is pronounced, children usually make the sound "el". This difficulty is caused by the difficulty of the child to grasp and see how the tongue moves when the letters are pronounced. Plus, it's also hard for you to explain how to pronounce these letters.

Help your little one pronounce the letter R by demonstrating raising the upper lip by placing the tongue against the roof of the mouth. Then ask him to move his tongue. Make sure the sound is slightly vibrating. So, you can train children to pronounce these letters in easy words, such as "wheel", "hair", "neat", or "broken".

2. Mimicking the sound of objects

In order to pronounce the letter R fluently, you must trick the child as often as possible to pronounce this letter. For example, when playing while imitating the sound of the object. Some of the object sounds that you can insert in the game include:

The sound of “grrrrr…” from the sound of a tiger
Sounds "bang! bang! bang! " of the sound of gunfire
The sound "brem brem brem" from the sound of the motor engine
The sound of "riru … riru …" came from the sound of the ambulance
A “brr… brr” sound from the sound of the washing machine or fan
A “kriing…” sound from the phone or bicycle bell

3. Sing

There are many children's songs that use the letter R in the lyrics, for example, songs Kring Kring There is a bicycle, cut the duck goose, my hat is round, I wake up, or my balloon.Training children to talk while singing must be very fun and easy for children to follow.

4. Brushing your teeth

In addition to training children to pronounce the letter R with games, you can also do cleaning activities, you know. For example, when you shower and brush your teeth. After brushing your teeth, the remaining lather should be rinsed off with water.

So, when gargling, you can train your child to vibrate the throat to produce an R sound.

In addition, gargling also trains the flexibility of the muscles in the mouth. To be more optimal, when gargling, face the child in front of the mirror so that he can see how he is vibrating and moving his tongue. Be careful when you train your child with this method so that he doesn't choke.

5. Ask a doctor for help

If the previous method did not work, you need to consult a doctor. Maybe the doctor will give a special tool on the child's tongue to make it easier to pronounce the letter R. The doctor may also recommend that you and your little one follow speech therapy so that the child doesn't slurred again.