The Best Activities to Target The R Sound

Oh, the /r/ sound. If you work with speakers of non-Bostonian American English, you know that this sound can be tricky. Besides the two major production types- Retroflex and Bunched- you also have prevocalic and vocalic /r/ types. Also, as Dr Wayne Secord notes in his formative textbook Eliciting Sounds: Techniques and Strategies for Clinicians: "The articulation of /r/ is highly variable..." Understatement of the century, right there. 

I've worked with many students and clients on that pesky/r/ sound, with parents who report that others think their child is speaking in a  Boston or Southern accent, or is British. Over the years, I've compiled a list of my favorite go-to resources and elicitation techniques for /r/, since many clients work on it for quite a bit of time. 

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