Tips to help children pronounce r and s

The difficulty in correctly pronouncing certain sounds or groups of sounds is known as dislalia and can affect any sound, consonant or vowel. Not all sounds are acquired at the same age and this must be taken into account to not worry too much or force the children to articulate them ahead of time.

The difficulty in correctly pronouncing certain sounds or groups of sounds is known as dislalia and can affect any sound, consonant or vowel. Not all sounds are acquired at the same age and this must be taken into account to not worry too much or force the children to articulate them ahead of time.

For example, it is normal for a child at three years to say 'data' instead of 'rat', because the 'rr', is usually the most complicated sound and is usually the latest to appear in the sequence of the development.

The sounds that have the most difficulties in children

Generally the sounds that produce the most problems are those that are acquired later as the r, s, l, z, ch , being the most complicated to pronounce. The causes that may be behind a poor articulation of one or several sounds can be many:

- The immaturity of the articulatory organs: children who have barely chewed or who have continued to use a bottle or pacifier after three years.

- Organic problems related to hearing loss, lingual frenulum, respiratory problems, anomalies or malformations of the speech organs ...

- Children with durative delay.

- Bilingualism, environmental deprivation, overprotection (imitate their children's language ...) Falta - Lack of fine motor control.

-

Perceptual errors and difficulty imitating movements. - The presence of disability, etc.

Tips to prevent problems in the child to make a sound

Some tips can help us prevent joint defects: Hab - Habitúa your son to breathe through his nose, teach him to clean the mucus sounding.

- To strengthen the articular organs it is advisable that children take solid foods that require some effort when chewing.

- It is advisable to do a

hearing screening

whenever speech problems are detected. - Play with him to recognize sounds

, to differentiate from each other (bell, car, instruments, parts of the body ...) Ejerc - Exercise the organs of the joint: play to move the tongue (take it out, put it, raise it, lower it ...), grimace with lips, blow, gargle ... -Play to imitate onomatopoeias: animals

, sounds of the environment (pon-pon, hahaha, rig-ring ...)

The involvement of teachers, speech therapists and family will be fundamental to detect any speech alteration and to make the most convenient intervention in each case as soon as possible.