Anyone have ideas on speech excercises for a 6 yr old child with an impediment (L's, R's, Y's...)?

Question

I am a parent volunteer at a school. One of the children I work with has difficulty pronouncing some letters correctly. I do not think he sees the school pathologist, but I was asked by his teacher to work with him. I don't know the reason for why he does not see the pathologist (I don't know the parents), but since I have no experience in this field, I was hoping for some advice so that my time with him will be actually benificial. When he's focused on repeating something (like arrrgh for r's and la la la for l's), he can pronounce r's and l's pretty good. I only see him once a week, so what can I show him to work on between my visits too?

Answer 1

In my opinion, children at this age are not developmentally ready to say the /r/ sound. L's are a little easier to teach because the child can actually 'see' where his/her tongue should go in order to say the /l/ sound. You and the child should sit in front of a mirror and have him/her to imitate what you do with your tongue by raising it to the roof of your mouth behind your upper teeth. If that doesn't work try a tongue depressor and have the child to reach up with his/her tongue and hold it there for a second or two. Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Remind him to say "er" before a word beginning with "r"--like "er-right," er-read," stuff like that.

The kid might be trying to talk too fast, get too much out at once--might need to slow down.

Answer 3

therasymplicty.com offers some great techniques and tasks. I find flash card games work well. You might want to consult the speech pathologist in the school for ideas, but he should be seeing her/him anyway.

Answer 4

Clear speech is typically fully developed by 7.

In any case, if you were asked to work with him, usually the child does not have the muscle control needed by the tongue.

Use a mirror at all times...he needs to SEE what it looks like when you make the sounds and when he makes the sounds.  Let him feel your throat an cheeks when you make different sounds.

L: skinny pretzel stick - have him hold the stick with the tip of his tongue on the teeth.  Have him say the /L/ sound.

Y: I am assuming that /Y/ sounds like the /L/ as in "the sun is lellow" - Have him put his finger on his tongue to hold it down.  Practice say the SOUND /L/ over and over.

R: This letter is mastered usually by 7.  Does it sound like a "w" - like "wabbit" - he needs to see the proper tongue position and have the appropriate air flow.

Overall exercises for the tongue/air flow:  have him use a skinny straw (coffee stirrer) to blow a feather or mini marshmallow to a designated spot.  If he has bangs, have him direct his air flow to blow his bangs.  If no bangs, a paper crown and with an attached feather will work.

Talk to the speech therapist at the school, he./she should have some ideas as well.

Answer 5

He is not seeing school pathologist because the school doesn't want to help. They are putting their job off on you so they can get out of doing their job, FOR FREE