At 9-10 months of age, children begin to pronounce your first words. During the process they learn words in an evolutionary way and some phonemes are not the best for them to learn during their first steps. "Mamama, papapa, tatata ..." are some of the sounds that begin to incorporate and among them the letter "r" can be difficult to pronounce.
With each year that progresses they begin to incorporate more sounds and form much more complex word structures. They need a complex learning of execution for many sets of syllables, especially the locked ones, and let's not say the most common of all: the pronunciation of the "r".
Why are you having trouble pronouncing the "r"?
It is a fairly common fact in children who already begin to pronounce these types of words with the letter "r" already this phenomenon is called rotacism. The problem is when children have problems pronouncing this phoneme correctly, producing the dislalia.
This fact may be temporaryWell, there are certain letters that can also be complicated, such as "d" and "z". Over time, children acquire dexterity and correct this defect as they practice and sharpen their ears.
Your mispronunciation may be derived from a poor placement of the tongue in combination with air, causing it to not be pronounced correctly. Another reason is when children have used the pacifier for a long time, which has been able to influence as a precedent. But above all, never think that it is a psychological delay.
The incorrect pronunciation of the / r-rr / together with other phonemes can be observation sign from 5-6 years, where the most common is to consult a specialist. The most suitable person for this type of case is a speech therapist, who will do some exercises and adequate orientation to the problem.
How to teach my child to pronounce the "r"
Simple exercises can be done at home so that we can stimulate its pronunciation. It is recommended to first do breathing exercises where the child must inhale the air through the nose and exhale through the mouth in a slow and short way. You can also breathe in and out through your mouth by blowing three times.
Another exercise is doing exercises with the parts of the mouth: move the tongue from one side to the other, stick the tongue out of the mouth as far as possible, move the tongue in a circle over the lips and try to touch the upper part behind the upper teeth.
At home you can practice words that contain the letter “r”, you can use tongue twisters, repeat words with this sound over and over and above all teach how you do it step by step and in slow motion. We offer you an orientation video that teaches you how to practice the "r", it is one of many that you can find on this platform, see all that they can offer you.
Reading also has its implication in this learning, there are written and oriented books for them to learn the kids to pronounce correctly. 'Books to talk to the erre', 'erre que erre', 'Rigoberto's railway'.
Play with your child to the sound of the "r" with objects and toys that may contain the phoneme. Words like ferrrrrocarrrrril can be given a lot of emphasis to be pronounced; guitarrrrra, rrrrrueda, or the sound of the engine itself (rrrrrrr) when you go to play with your tractors, trucks or cars.
It's of vital importance emphasize the correct pronunciation of words and above all in correcting rotationalism. Children will begin to read and write and for this they must know how to pronounce correctly this will greatly facilitate their proper writing. In addition, at reading time, they can get stuck with words, which makes it much more difficult for them to understand the reading.
It is important to control this small obstacle, if not and take time to control it can be rooted and then it is more difficult to fix it. Unintentionally it can have an impact on creating low self-esteem in the child and can create stammering.