Some little ones, when they start talking, may have trouble pronouncing the letter r. This is known as rotacism.
When a child learns to speak, he naturally acquires the ability to pronounce different phonemes. They start with the simplest ones (“gu gu” “mamamama”, “papapa”, “tata”), and each year they incorporate new sounds until they reach the most difficult ones such as the “fr” “dr” or “rr”. In the case of speech, first we learn to place the tongue, lips and teeth, then to move them to articulate the sounds and finally we manage to carry out these movements automatically.
Do you have to go to a specialist?
Specialists recommend patience, as each child evolves at his own pace, and many eventually end up speaking well. In any case, if after 5 years you notice that the child does not master all sounds, it is advisable to go to a specialist with whom to perform stimulation exercises. You must take into account that at this age children begin to strengthen their social relationships at school, and language is essential for development. They also begin to learn to read and write, and problems they have in oral language can be projected in writing.
Stimulation at home
Help your little one improve his pronunciation with these exercises:
1. Tell him to breathe in through his nose and puff out his cheeks with a loud puff.
2. Vibrate the lips imitating the sound of a motorcycle.
3. Observe movements in the mirror with the lips and tongue: small, stretched lips, open and closed mouth, tongue up-down-right-left, tongue touches the teeth above, tongue touches teeth below, tongue rises to the ceiling from the mouth.
4. Make clicks with the tongue (like the horse).
5. Articulation point position: With teeth ajar, position the tip of the tongue behind the upper teeth.
6. Articulation mode: in this position, pressing the lateral edges of the tongue on the inner side of the upper molars, expels the air above the tongue.