Children and rhotacism (inability to produce the "r" sound)

[Alton Turner Blackwood]

My dad and sister, as well as my wife's mother have this and over the last few months we came to the realisation that our four year old also suffers from this.

Over the past weekend she asked me "Daddy why can't I say 'r' like Jamie" (who is her friend and my neighbour's daughter). And I kind of fumbled around to get her an answer.

My biggest concern is that it might affect her self confidence. I don't know if I'm overreacting or not, my wife seems to think so

Is there anyone here who has a kid with rhotacim, and if so, how do you manage it?

 

[Electric]

Reprint the dictionary without R's, $$$$

 

[rorz0r]

1. epint the dictionay without 's
2. ??????
3. POFIT!

 

[Alton Turner Blackwood]

Shut up, you two clowns

 

[isie]

My dad and sister, as well as my wife's mother have this and over the last few months we came to the realisation that our four year old also suffers from this.

Over the past weekend she asked me "Daddy why can't I say 'r' like Jamie" (who is her friend and my neighbour's daughter). And I kind of fumbled around to get her an answer.

My biggest concern is that it might affect her self confidence. I don't know if I'm overreacting or not, my wife seems to think so

Is there anyone here who has a kid with rhotacim, and if so, how do you manage it?

Out Eldest Daughter could not pronounce her R's - We did a little checking and apparently its quite common for kids and most grow out of it - so we left it did not want to put pressure on her and make her lose confidence.
when she was about 4 a few family members (my brothers, sisters cousins etc) had kids and all of them named their kids with names starting with R. It really bothered her that she couldn't pronounce their names correctly - and she took it upon herself to try and get it right. So after a month or 2 of repeating round the rugged rocks, ran the ragged rascal - and repeating their names and anything she could find with an R. She managed to get it right.

now our second daughter has the same problem, we going to do the same thing let her decide when she is ready.
and if it doesn't fix well there are plenty of adults who speak that way.

 

[Alton Turner Blackwood]

Out Eldest Daughter could not pronounce her R's - We did a little checking and apparently its quite common for kids and most grow out of it - so we left it did not want to put pressure on her and make her lose confidence.
when she was about 4 a few family members (my brothers, sisters cousins etc) had kids and all of them named their kids with names starting with R. It really bothered her that she couldn't pronounce their names correctly - and she took it upon herself to try and get it right. So after a month or 2 of repeating round the rugged rocks, ran the ragged rascal - and repeating their names and anything she could find with an R. She managed to get it right.

now our second daughter has the same problem, we going to do the same thing let her decide when she is ready.
and if it doesn't fix well there are plenty of adults who speak that way.

Thanks

I suppose we should give her a couple of more months, after which I'm going to try and help her. I can't remember precisely when, but at this age our other daughter could pronounce all her letters already.

 

[MagicDude4Eva]

Don't give her a couple of months. Find a speech therapist which has experience in dealing with rhotacism - it is quite common and there are a number of speech exercises which will get rid of the issue very quickly. Last thing you want is your kid being teased for month until you realise that you will need to find a specialist in any case.

Unless your kid wants to be like Barry Kripke, I would rather take immediate action.

 

[Enzo Matrix]

Unless your kid wants to be like Barry Kripke, I would rather take immediate action.

U mean Bawwy Kwipke

 

[Electric]

I agree, send her to speech therapy for a while.
Medical aids often cover it as well.
Rather be proactive than sorry later in life when you disown her.

 

[syntax]

My dad and sister, as well as my wife's mother have this and over the last few months we came to the realisation that our four year old also suffers from this.

Over the past weekend she asked me "Daddy why can't I say 'r' like Jamie" (who is her friend and my neighbour's daughter). And I kind of fumbled around to get her an answer.

My biggest concern is that it might affect her self confidence. I don't know if I'm overreacting or not, my wife seems to think so

Is there anyone here who has a kid with rhotacim, and if so, how do you manage it?

I cant pronounce R's, never caused an issue for me.
Dont think i would worry too much about it

 

[isie]

Thanks

I suppose we should give her a couple of more months, after which I'm going to try and help her. I can't remember precisely when, but at this age our other daughter could pronounce all her letters already.

From you first post maybe you can try and help her she noticed it as a problem -so talk to her if she wants to try and go for speech therapy? It was an option for us we set a time for her (of course we didn't tell her that) if she didn't come right by then we would go the therapy route.

But i still think if they speak that way its cool anyway.

 

[Sinbad]

Vewwy well! Welease Wodewick!

 

[Polymathic]

get your child to practise doing raspberries
[video=youtube;R3oQFa-SqfM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3oQFa-SqfM[/video]

 

[bin3]

I had it: did speech therapy for a few months when very young. Easy to fix, but I would also recommend seeing a speech therapist for a bit - the younger the better.

 

[Electric]

mmmig has the right idea.
Youtube vids of actual speech therapy exercises.

 

[supersunbird]

I had the issue when I was a kid, until say age 8 or 9, same with shoelaces, just couldn't figure them out no matter what rabbit went into which hole how many times.

Just grew out of it (and suddenly one day I could tie shoelaces too), now my r's are almost excessive but I can say Rooiribbokram with the best of them.

 

[bokdrol]

Make an appointment with a speech therapist, but I don't think you need to worry too much. Many children struggle with "r"s and she is only 4.
As long as she is not made to feel selfconscious about it. I went to a speech therapist in primary school, for a very faint lisp. Until then, I had never even realised there was something "wrong" with me. I suddenly became very self conscious and "aware" of the "problem".

 

[Cameronkk]

[video=youtube;ld3A3QCpXd4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ld3A3QCpXd4[/video]

 

[rorz0r]

So which bright spark put an R in "rhotacism" and an S in "lisp"?

 

[bokdrol]

[video=youtube;ld3A3QCpXd4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ld3A3QCpXd4[/video]

That makes sense. Anyway, in certain areas of the Cape (Swartland etc), the "brei" (sp?) is quite normal....