I ran across this interesting article in Advance Magazine for Speech-Language Pathologists. It’s an interesting intersection between history, lingusistics, speech and the /r/ sound. Researchers from Baylor University used historical recordings to trend pronunciation of /r/ and peg such pronunciation to social status and education. Students at Baylor University, in Waco, TX, haven’t been minding their P’s and Q’s...

Are you a parent looking for more information on the R sound?  Are you an SLP that would like a concise reference handout for parents and teachers on the production of /r/, especially vocalic /r/?  Here’s a link to a short article that I guest wrote for MommySpeechTherapy.com that contains some of the basics that you might be interested in.  Click on the link to view: Correcting the R Sound: A Primer for...

Does anyone know of an American SLP working in England? How would you solve this problem? “My husband and I, and both children, are American. However, we moved to England in 2006 and have been here ever since. Our kids have been in our local London neighborhood school for four years now. I suspect that something about the timing of our move affected my son’s speech and basically did away with his /r/ sounds! He was 3 1/2 years old...

We absolutely loved this movie. What a treat to view such an engaging story, especially one that highlights the importance of speech and the impact that professional speech-language pathologists can have on the lives of their clients. I saw this review recently by Tim Mackesey, CCC-SLP, BRSFD and though it spot on. With permission we share it here: The King’s Speech is a must see movie. King George VI, with a severe stammer, was forced...

Ah, the tricky /rl/! Research shows that the /rl/ combination is the most frequently misproduced sound, almost 3x more likely to be incorrect than /ear/ combinations. Why? 1. The /l/ in /rl/ is sometimes called the “dark” /l/, because its production occurs completely inside the mouth (thus no visual cues) 2. The /r/ and /l/ are both liquids or guide sounds, thus they are both complex and changing to descrivbe and produce. 3. The...