Is it common to spontaneously resolve for children without therapy?

[AnnaKeymaster]

Preschoolers usually master R on their own. If speech is not sounding normal, get a hearing test done! For children who are thumb sucking, help them transition to a different form of comfort. You can ask them to copy you saying minimal pairs like red – wed, ring – wing, car – caw, he – here. This helps them hear the difference. If they have normal muscles, no congestion and good listening skills, they usually learn R without help.

Children in the primary grades need help. Get a hearing test done! Get medical treatment for anything that causes congestion. Look for allergies, dairy intolerance, asthma and so on. My therapy method is highly successful with this age group.

Older children, teens and adults are much harder to help. The speech patterns are very embedded. You will find that they don’t lift their tongue tip and they hardly open the lips. Stay with consonantal R and a mirror as long as it takes. It may take four months of daily practice before your hear a clean R sound. My method makes it easy to hang in there. Don’t advance to vocalic R, phrases or sentences until you get tongue tip elevation.

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