The letter r can be hard to pronounce, and some children never quite learn how, but a new tool could help:
Conventional speech therapy is often effective at helping to resolve speech errors from sounds that are made with the lips, such as “p,” “b,” “m” and “v.” Children can look in a mirror and imitate a therapist’s lips. But more complex sounds like “s,” “l” and “ch” are harder to fix because they involve movements of the tongue hidden inside the mouth.
Experts say “r” has a particularly complex tongue shape. Using ultrasound biofeedback allows children to see and visualize the tongue as it moves, something not possible in traditional speech therapy. Also, unlike other speech sounds, “r” isn’t always produced the same way; there are many different tongue variations that produce the same sound.
For some children, part of the problem may be an auditory-perceptual problem that makes it difficult for them to hear the difference between correct and incorrect “r” sounds, Dr. Byun said. Ultrasound images “replace the auditory channel with the visual channel,” she said.
To use the technology, an ultrasound probe is dabbed with gel and placed under a child’s chin. Sound waves capture real-time images of the tongue, which help patients and therapists see the outline of the tongue’s shape and position.
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Among the most common tongue shapes for producing the correct “r” sound is the bunched “r,” where the tip of the tongue is pointed down or forward and the bulk of the tongue is raised up near the hard palate. Another is the retroflex “r,” where the tongue tip is curled up and slightly back.
In both these cases, parts of the tongue are doing different things at the same time. Generally the tongues of people who don’t pronounce the “r” sound correctly are making simpler or undifferentiated shapes.
“It’s a complicated sound to make. It requires some difficult and coordinated movements with the tongue,” said Jonathan Preston, an assistant professor in the department of communication sciences and disorders at Syracuse University. “Ultrasound makes it more obvious since people can visually adjust and they can learn to adjust in real time,” he said.
I worked for a bit on a pre-tech solution to this.
Theory said that some of the difficulty in dyslexia was feedback systems failure — mismatch between saying and hearing — so introduce a feeling-in-the-mouth to hearing feedback system, and solve problems.
I have tutored individuals from Vietnam, China, and Japan on English pronunciation. R is particularly hard for them.
This probably would have helped.