My Favorite Easy Strategy for Vocalic R.

I used to dread treating that tricky vocalic r. And now it has become my favorite sound to treat. My favorite vocalic R activities have become those that use the coarticulation strategy. It has turned my attitude around about remediating an /r/ sound in speech therapy.

The Coarticulation Strategy

Coarticulation is the idea that the sounds you produce are impacted by the other sounds around them.

Children who can produce words with pre-vocalic /r/ sounds like “run” but cannot produce vocalic /r/ sounds like “car”, “store” or “dear” can really benefit from this strategy.  It uses the phonetic context of the activity to your advantage.

Take the prevocalic /r/ skill they already have and use the coarticulation strategy to teach vocalic /r/ sounds in the final position.

The great news is that this strategy can be used with all the vocalic /r/ sounds including ear, air, ire, air, or and er.

Start with Two Word Level or Phrases

I start with a student who can say the prevocalic /r/ at word level.  Then I use the strategy to put two words together.  First the vocalic /r/ word and then the prevocalic /r/ word.

In this example “ear-red”.  Have your student sustain voicing between the two words. I ask them to focus on the second word because that is the one they can produce correctly already.

Phrase Level

I like that the phrase level uses realistic phrases that are more functional and not nonsense combinations.  I have a deck of Boom Cards with phrase level for ear, air, ire, ar, or and er sounds linked in the image below.

Sentence Level

Next I move to sentence level. 

Bonus Carryover

I stay on one vocalic /r/ sound until the student has consistent success.  An added bonus of using the coarticulation strategy has been that I frequently see carryover to other vocalic /r/ sounds that I have not targeted.  Who doesn’t love that?

I re-screen all the vocalic /r/ sounds to check for progress in other sounds before I choose the next vocalic /r/ sound to target.

Check out some of my best selling vocalic R resources on TpT

Vocalic R resources were the first items in my TpT store.  They really are my favorite.

You will find Boom Cards and Printable coarticulation resources in my store.

What other SLPs have to say about my coarticulation resources.

⭐️ “These are great with my older students. Having the functional coarticulation phrases is a great way to practice the /r/ sound. I use these a lot.”

⭐️ “Fantastic coarticulation resource! This has been an invaluable tool to use with my articulation groups. Thanks so much!”

⭐️ “This resource was motivating and engaging for my students. They had been struggling with correct production until I learned about co-articulation. This product is perfect!”

⭐️  “Excellent resource to facilitate vocalic /r/ in students who have mastered pre-vocalic /r/!!!! I had great success eliciting various vocalic /r/ words!!!!!”

Does this strategy work for every student?

No strategy works for every student but I have had great success using it with many students. It is my go to strategy to try first as long as the student can produce the prevocalic /r/ sound at word level.

Want some free coarticulation resources for vocalic /r/?

Check out these free resources below.