What To Do If Your Child Cannot Pronounce The Letters R And S?

When a child learns to talk, she often has trouble pronouncing certain sounds, so she can’t pronounce the letters R and S, for example. Here are a few tips to help her.

Should I be concerned if my child cannot pronounce the letters R and S?

It is important to know that there is no specific time limit in which children learn to pronounce certain letters or words.

In fact, this difficulty has become so common that specialists have given it a name, dyslalia.

Dyslalia refers to difficulty pronouncing certain sounds – consonants and/or vowels – due to structural defects in the organs involved in speech.

In addition, these sounds can be confused in speech due to incorrect articulation.

These types of speech problems have several possible causes, such as the following:

• Lack of maturation of speech organs due to excessive chewing of bottles or pacifiers.
• Inability to talk through, diseases related to hearing loss, malformation of the speech organs, difficulty breathing.
• Development delays.
• Multilingualism.
• Difficulty with fine motor skills.
• Difficulty with the perception and acquisition of movements.

Is it possible to prevent dyslalia in children?

Unfortunately , dyslalia usually results from external problems that are often beyond the parents’ control.

However, there are several ways to try to prevent dyslalia. For example:

• Teach your child to breathe through her nose and blow her nose.

• Give your little one solid foods that require her to make an effort to chew.
• Check your child’s ear canal and hearing regularly.
• Play sound recognition with bells and instruments.
• Practice your child’s speech organs, with onomatopoeia and drawing faces.

People who are in constant contact with a child can use these methods to try to prevent dyslalia such as teachers, cousins, siblings, etc.

Not only can these techniques help you notice changes in your little one’s pronunciation, but you can also take quick action when a problem arises.

If your child can’t pronounce the letters R and S, how do you improve?

There are several pronunciation and articulation techniques that can improve problems with pronouncing the R and S sounds:

Take a deep breath

Before starting to speak, pronounce and articulate, the child should prepare her vocal tract with deep breathing exercises.

These exercises also help a child become more aware of her facial muscles and relax her.

Another benefit of these exercises is that it allows a child to fully focus on her tongue.

This makes it easier for her to move her tongue correctly and to obtain correct pronunciation of words and sounds.

Lead by example

If a child cannot pronounce the R and S, it is often because she has not noticed the difference in her articulation. Nor has she learned how to properly generate the sounds.

However, you can help significantly reduce this problem by showing your child how to do it.

You may need to exaggerate the articulation and sound of these letters so that your child can better perceive them.

Tongue Exercises

The tongue is a muscle. And just like any other muscle in the human body, it requires care and training to function adequately.

There are numerous exercises you can do to ease the movement of the tongue. Here are a few examples:

• Moving the tongue while chewing food.
• Touch each tooth with the tip of the tongue.
• Stretching or folding the tongue quickly.
• Stick out the tongue and pull it back in.

Take advantage of available materials

Today there are many interactive materials for the little ones. You can find books, videos and applications that can help your child learn to speak and also pronounce words correctly.

Using these tools properly will not only improve your child’s speech, but your child will have fun in the process.

Remember that the aspect of fun makes any learning process easier! So what are you waiting for?