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

[bokdrol]

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

+1

 

[Mila]

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?

How old?
I was 6 before I could say it... and not every time.

 

[Electric]

That doesn't make the brei acceptable.

 

[Batista]

Flied lice you plick!

 

[Alton Turner Blackwood]

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.

Yeah, like I said, my dad and sister speaks like that and we've never had an issue with it.

get your child to practise doing raspberries
/snip

Blocked here at the office, will check it out later. Thanks

How old?
I was 6 before I could say it... and not every time.

She's four.

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

My paternal family are from Oudtshoorn. Around there you need to look really hard for someone who can say 'R'

 

[dudewotevr]

Why would anyone ever choose to not be able to pronounce R? Laziness?

I couldn't, and guess what I went to speech therapy during Primary School until I could. It's really simple.

 

[ponder]

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 had this as a kid and to top it all off my name starts with a 'R' and my surname also contains a 'r' so I could not even pronounce my own name/surname

I eventually grew out of it at some stage (before school). You could try a speech therapists and I'm sure there are things you can practice to help you along.

Good luck.

 

[zizo911]

I was 13 before ib learnt b how to say r

 

[ponder]

I was 13 before ib learnt b how to say r

I see you still have some lingering grammar issues though

 

[Paul_S]

What is it called when someone can't pronounce "th"?
I come across plenty of Afrikaaners who replace the English "th" with an "f" sound.
It also appears to be harder for kids to pronounce than R's in my opinion.

e.g.
"I'm going with mom to the shops." becomes "I'm going wiff mom to the shops."

 

[isie]

What is it called when someone can't pronounce "th"?
I come across plenty of Afrikaaners who replace the English "th" with an "f" sound.
It also appears to be harder for kids to pronounce than R's in my opinion.

e.g.
"I'm going with mom to the shops." becomes "I'm going wiff mom to the shops."

Th-fronting
Or for those that have it V-Fronting

 

[Bobbin]

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.

One day I actually forgot how to tie shoelaces (Obviously having done it every morning for school many many times). That was a bloody strange experience. Hands just froze and I didn't know how to anymore. Had to relearn it.

 

[FrankCastle]

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

is that Ying Yang?

 

[Arthur]

First thing is don't make a big thing of it, especially not to your child. Don't constantly draw your child's attention to this issue. It's not a big deal! Really.

Next, consult a speech therapist. Talk to the teachers and find out if this is affecting the child's interaction or self-confidence. At that age the last thing you want is to be conspicuously different, especially if that difference is also perceived as a deficiency. It's worth going to some lengths to ensure the child doesn't get that impression, and the surest way of raising anxiety in the child is if the child knows it worries you. So stop worrying about it, at least don't show your own worry, else the child will inevitably pick it up and really develop a problem.

Fortunately modern speech therapy knows how to resolve these issues, so get an expert involved.

It'll quickly sort itself out.

 

[HavocXphere]

Do you mean can't pronounce "r" at all or just not the Afrikaans "rolling R" thing?

 

[proxilin]

Do you mean can't pronounce "r" at all or just not the Afrikaans "rolling R" thing?

Would also like to know.

Being Afrikaans, I couldn't say the Afrikaans "r" until about a month before I had to go to grade 1. Apparently teachers in the preschool told my parents to send me to speech therapy, but they figured you must leave a child to be a child, and that I will come right in my own time, which I did.

Either way, I was blissfully unaware of this, and I think all my parents did was to encourage me to say words with r's. So maybe just try some subtle "home therapy" first by saying words with r's in a playful manner, with no pressure on her to get it right. Just tell her everyone gets it right at different times, kind of like getting grown up teeth. You can consult a speech therapist a bit later if it looks like she won't get it right.

 

[supersunbird]

And apparently I "hold the pen wrong" and got a lot of grief for it in primary school and I still do hold it that way, just feels natural to me, funny thing is my female cousin who grew up mostly in New Zealand holds its the same wrong way!

 

[Arthur]

Clearly a gene.

Several in my family have the "cold boerewors causes hiccups" gene.

 

[Alton Turner Blackwood]

Do you mean can't pronounce "r" at all or just not the Afrikaans "rolling R" thing?

Neither. My first language is Afrikaans and my wife's English, so we speak both languages to them. For example: "I really want to dress, eat bread and then run down the road" would become: "I healy want to dthess, eat bthead and thun down the thoad".

The 'r' sound is completely absent from her vocabulary...

An Afrikaans example: "Dit reen hard, hoor julle?" = "Dit heen had, hoo julle" - I have to add though that since we're colourd and living in CT the Afrikaans isn't really an issue as the colourds here don't give a hoot about the 'r' sound anyway

First thing is don't make a big thing of it, especially not to your child. Don't constantly draw your child's attention to this issue. It's not a big deal! Really.

Next, consult a speech therapist. Talk to the teachers and find out if this is affecting the child's interaction or self-confidence. At that age the last thing you want is to be conspicuously different, especially if that difference is also perceived as a deficiency. It's worth going to some lengths to ensure the child doesn't get that impression, and the surest way of raising anxiety in the child is if the child knows it worries you. So stop worrying about it, at least don't show your own worry, else the child will inevitably pick it up and really develop a problem.

Fortunately modern speech therapy knows how to resolve these issues, so get an expert involved.

It'll quickly sort itself out.

I appreciate the advice, thanks. I've never really drawn her attention to it (I try very hard not to), but as a parent, I just get uncomfortable whenever she asks me questions about it.

Clearly a gene.

Several in my family have the "cold boerewors causes hiccups" gene.

True, half my father's family "brei"

 

[Sinbad]

Clearly a gene.

Several in my family have the "cold boerewors causes hiccups" gene.

My wife gets hiccups from boerewors too. Hot or cold. Weird.