5 Steps to Vocalic R in 1 Session
If you’ve got students like I do, who have mastered prevocalic or initial R, but are struggling to get vocalic R, you know how frustrating it can be.
Over the years, I have developed a few tools I love to use for vocalic R, as well as a 5-step session routine that has been working very well for me.
Step 1: Educate
Students, families, and teachers often do not understand that prevocalic R and vocalic R are so different. I think it’s very important to educate the students that while prevocalic R may now come easily for them, vocalic R is practically a different sound.
I have visuals of the different types of R sounds that I use, which you can get FREE here.
Step 2: Review and Reinforce
Later in the session, we will use coarticulation to turn those great prevocalic Rs into vocalic Rs. But, before we do that, I love to review the strong vocalic Rs with my students to remind them how their “good R” sounds and feels and build that muscle memory.
You can use so many activities for this part, but I like to keep it drill-heavy and maximize repetitions. Super Duper cards would be great for this, but I also love these No-Print Flashcards by Speech Therapy Plans. I can pull them up on my laptop or iPad, and the students feel like they’re playing a game rather than just doing drills.
Step 3: Coarticulation
This is perhaps the most important step and the one that will develop over the course of a few sessions. In this step, I help students use coarticulation to make those vocalic Rs. Simply, they will take a prevocalic R word and follow it with a well-developed vocalic R word.
FATHER + RED = “fatherrrrrrred”. Over the course of a few sessions, we will fade back that second word until (hopefully) we are just left with a beautiful rhotic R at the end of the first word.
I have created Vocalic R Elicitation Webs specifically for this technique. It includes different webs for each of the vocalic R sounds as well as detailed instructions for use.
Step 4: Vocalic R Practice
Now that we have spent some time slowly shaping our vocalic Rs, I like to end the session by switching the activity away from the web and doing some practice with other words. This will still be drills, but as it will be a more difficult sound (than the prevocalic R) I will be moving more slowly and providing much more modeling and cueing to the students. I like to keep the web I used handy to refer to it and remind them to use articulation.
In fact, the webs mentioned above come with a blank version that is perfect for this activity. You can write the words you use right on the web as you use them.
Again, I love the No Print Flashcards by Speech Therapy Fun for this, but I do like to mix up the activities a bit, so I often use pages from Peachie Speechie’s I Can Say R Workbook, which is a great resource.
Step 5: Vocalic R Analysis and Fine Tuning
Lastly (and I may not add this step in until we’ve had a few sessions already), I like to have students start to really dive into the different vocalic Rs.
In the past, I’ve had students develop some great rhotic vocalic R sounds, but the vowels have been slightly distorted or not differentiated, so “shirt” and “short” sound really similar.
I developed this Vocalic R Minimal Pairs Sorting Activity, which has students differentiate between the different vocalic R sounds. It comes in three differentiated versions, so it’s great for any level.
Over the course of a few sessions, I do less of the education aspect and more of the practice with vocalic R. I use coarticulation less and gradually fade to just the vocalic R sound.
However, I almost always do a quick warm-up with prevocalic R. I want the students to be reminded each and every session of how a true rhotic R feels, and while I may spend less time on this step over time, I almost always use it as a quick warm-up.
Hope this helps!
