As parents, we all want to help our children communicate clearly and confidently. For children working on their speech sounds, the articulation hierarchy is a powerful tool that guides their progress step by step. At Valued Voices, we use this structured approach to help children master their speech sounds in a way that feels fun and empowering, so they stay motivated and excited to learn.
The articulation hierarchy is a step-by-step process that helps children learn to produce specific speech sounds correctly. It starts with the simplest tasks: like saying a sound by itself, and gradually moves to more complex tasks, like using the sound in full conversations.
Here’s how the hierarchy works:
Isolation: Practicing the target sound all by itself (e.g., saying “s” without any other sounds).
Syllables: Adding the sound to simple syllables (e.g., “sa,” “so,” “su”).
Words: Using the sound in single words. This step also focuses on the position of the sound, whether it’s at the beginning (e.g., “sun”), middle (e.g., “basket”), or end (e.g., “bus”) of the word.
Phrases: Practicing the sound in short phrases (e.g., “a sunny day”), while continuing to target the position of the sounds.
Sentences: Using the sound in full sentences while still paying attention to its position.
Structured Conversation: Practicing the sound in guided conversations where the child knows they’re working on it.
Spontaneous Speech: Using the sound naturally in everyday conversations without reminders.
At each level, we carefully target the position of the sound (beginning, middle, or end) to ensure the child can use it correctly in all contexts. This step-by-step approach ensures that your child builds a strong foundation before moving on to more complex tasks.
Every child is unique, and their progress through the articulation hierarchy depends on where they’re starting. Some children may need to spend more time mastering a sound in isolation, while others might be ready to practice it in sentences or conversations. At Valued Voices, we tailor our approach to meet your child where they are, ensuring they feel supported and successful at every step.
Why Is the Articulation Hierarchy Important?
Builds Confidence
Starting with simpler tasks allows children to experience success early on, which boosts their confidence and motivation.
Promotes Mastery
Each level ensures that your child has fully mastered the sound in one context before moving on to the next.
Provides Structure
The hierarchy gives a clear plan for progress, making the process more organized and effective.
Encourages Generalization
By gradually increasing the complexity of tasks, the hierarchy helps children use their new skills in real-life situations.
Making Practice Fun and Empowering
At Valued Voices, we believe that learning should be fun! We incorporate games, activities, and creative exercises into therapy sessions to keep your child engaged and excited about practicing their sounds. When children feel empowered and enjoy the process, they’re more likely to stay motivated and make meaningful progress.
While therapy sessions are essential, consistent practice at home is just as important. Home practice reinforces the skills your child learns in therapy and helps them progress more quickly.
To make home practice easier, we recommend using resources like our Articulation Activity Book. It’s filled with fun, interactive exercises designed to target your child’s target sounds at various levels of the hierarchy. From word games to sentence-building activities, it’s a great way to keep practice engaging and productive. If you are looking for support with /s/ or /r/, we have guidebooks for those too that pair great with our Articulation Activity Book.
Tips for Successful Home Practice
Keep It Short and Fun: Aim for 5-10 minutes of practice a day to keep your child engaged without overwhelming them.
Focus on the Right Level: Practice at the level your child is currently working on in therapy, whether it’s isolation, words, or sentences.
Incorporate Practice Into Daily Routines: Use everyday moments, like mealtime or playtime, to practice target sounds naturally.
Celebrate Progress: Acknowledge your child’s efforts and successes, no matter how small. Positive reinforcement goes a long way!
The articulation hierarchy is a powerful tool for helping children improve their speech clarity, and when paired with consistent practice at home, it can lead to incredible progress. At Valued Voices, we’re here to support your child every step of the way, making the process fun, empowering, and tailored to their unique needs. Book your complimentary consult here.
If you’re looking for a way to support your child’s practice at home, be sure to check out our Articulation Activity Book. Together, we can help your child find their voice and communicate with confidence!
Sholeh Shahinfar is the Founder of Valued Voices, a licensed Speech Language Pathologist, Child Communication Specialist and Certified Oral Motor Therapist. She is passionate about uplifting children’s voices in the world and inspiring self-expression. In her free time, Sholeh embraces a vegan lifestyle, loves going to the ocean, exploring nature with her pup Kobe, practicing yoga, traveling, and spending time with her loved ones.
What are the stages of gestalt language development?
If you are curious to learn more about the six stages of gestalt language development, please click the button below.
As a Speech-Language Pathologist, I hear a familiar question from parents almost every single week. They want to know why their child struggles to pronounce words like “rabbit,” “car,” or “red.” Instead of a crisp /r/, the sound often comes out sounding like a /w/ or a vowel.
If you find yourself navigating this exact journey with your child or student, you are definitely not alone! The /r/ sound is notoriously one of the last and most difficult speech sounds for children to acquire. It causes headaches for kids, parents, and even seasoned therapists. It often requires months of dedicated, strategic practice to master.
Understanding why this specific sound causes so much trouble is the very first step toward helping a child succeed. In this blog, we will explore why the /r/ sound is so elusive, break down the complex motor coordination required to produce it, and share practical insights on how to support your child’s speech development effectively.
Most speech sounds give us easy, obvious visual clues. When a child learns to say /b/, /p/, or /m/, they can look in a mirror and watch their lips press together. They can easily copy what a therapist, teacher, or parent is doing right in front of them. The visual feedback makes the learning process straightforward and intuitive.
The /r/ sound is entirely different and can be almost invisible, making it even more to difficult to describe!
The Invisible /r/ & Motor Coordination
Because the /r/ sound is produced entirely inside the mouth, it remains practically invisible to the naked eye. A child cannot simply look at an adult’s face to understand where their tongue should go. They only see the lips slightly apart, which gives them absolutely no information about what the tongue, jaw, or vocal cords are doing behind the scenes. Without that visual roadmap, children often guess where to place their tongue, leading to the common “wabbit” substitution.
Beyond being invisible, the /r/ soundrequires an incredibly high level of complex motor coordination. Producing a clear /r/ demands that different parts of the tongue do different things at the exact same time. The back of the tongue must widen and elevate to touch the back teeth, while the root of the tongue retracts. Meanwhile, the vocal cords vibrate, and the lips maintain a neutral or slightly rounded position.
Asking a young child to coordinate all these microscopic muscle movements simultaneously is like asking them to pat their head, rub their belly, and hop on one foot while reciting the alphabet. It takes immense precision, strong muscle memory, and significant practice to get it right consistently.
Different Ways to Produce the /r/ Sound
To make matters even more complicated, there is no single “correct” way to shape the tongue for the /r/ sound. Speech-language pathologists generally recognize two primary methods for producing a clear, accurate /r/. Finding out which method works best for an individual child involves trial, error, and expert guidance.
The Bunched /r/ Method
The bunched /r/ is the most common way native English speakers produce the sound. In this position, the tongue pulls back and bunches up like a mountain in the middle of the mouth. The sides of the tongue elevate to press firmly against the insides of the upper back teeth. The tongue tip drops down and points toward the bottom of the mouth. This creates tension in the back of the mouth, which helps produce the resonant /r/ quality we expect to hear.
The Retroflex /r/ Method
The retroflex /r/ is a different way to produce the /r/ sound. For a retroflex /r/, the tongue tip curls up and points backward toward the roof of the mouth, just behind the alveolar ridge (the bumpy part behind the upper front teeth). The back of the tongue still needs to widen to stabilize against the back molars. Some children find this curled position easier to visualize and physically achieve.
Relying on the Wait and See Approach
A major misconception surrounding the /r/ sound is that a child will simply “grow out of it” if given enough time. While some children do eventually correct their pronunciation independently, many require targeted, professional intervention.
Waiting too long can actually allow the incorrect tongue placement to become a deeply ingrained habit. When a child spends years saying /w/ instead of /r/, their brain strengthens that specific neural pathway. Breaking a habit that has been practiced thousands of times over several years makes therapy much harder down the road. Early intervention and targeted strategies always yield the best results.
Another frequent hurdle is relying on the wrong cues. Telling a child to “just try harder” or “say it like this” rarely works. Because they cannot see the correct tongue position, simply repeating the word louder or slower will only frustrate them. They need specialized auditory, tactile, and visual cues to guide their mouth into the right posture. If they do not know how to physically move their tongue into the right spot, no amount of repeating the word “run” will magically fix the error.
Proven Strategies for Eliciting the /r/ Sound
Success in articulation therapy heavily relies on having the right tools. As an SLP, I have seen firsthand how a slight adjustment in teaching methods can lead to a massive breakthrough. You need a structured approach that breaks the sound down into manageable, bite-sized steps.
Before a child can produce the sound, they must be able to hear it accurately. Auditory discrimination involves training the child’s ears to hear the distinct difference between their incorrect production (like “wake”) and the correct target word (“rake”). SLPs often use listening games where the child acts as the “teacher,” giving a thumbs up or thumbs down when they hear the adult model the sound correctly or incorrectly.
SLPs use tools like tongue depressors, lollipops, or even dental flossers to provide tactile cues. Touching the sides of the child’s tongue and then touching their upper back molars gives them a physical sensation to match. We also use hand gestures to mimic the shape of the tongue, helping the child visualize what needs to happen internally.
Once a child successfully produces the /r/ sound by itself, the journey continues. We must systematically train the brain to use that new motor pattern in connected speech.
Making Practice Fun and Engaging
Therapy progresses through a specific hierarchy. We start with the sound in isolation, move to syllables, progress to simple words, advance to short phrases, and finally tackle full sentences and conversational speech. Children need engaging, repetitive practice that doesn’t feel like a chore. Incorporating board games, silly challenges, and high-interest reading materials keeps their motivation high while they build their new muscle memory.
Mastering this sound does not have to be a stressful, exhausting guessing game. If you want a clear, step-by-step approach to achieving perfect pronunciation, you need strategies tested and proven in the clinic.
You need a comprehensive roadmap that breaks down exactly how to elicit the sound, which cues work best, and how to practice effectively at home. That is exactly why I put together a comprehensive resource tailored specifically for this exact challenge.
If you are ready to stop feeling stuck and want to help your child or student finally achieve that confident, clear /r/ sound, you need the right tools in your hands.
Sholeh Shahinfar is the Founder of Valued Voices, a licensed Speech Language Pathologist, Child Communication Specialist and Certified Oral Motor Therapist. She is passionate about uplifting children’s voices in the world and inspiring self-expression. In her free time, Sholeh embraces a vegan lifestyle, loves going to the ocean, exploring nature with her pup Kobe, practicing yoga, traveling, and spending time with her loved ones.
What are the stages of gestalt language development?
If you are curious to learn more about the six stages of gestalt language development, please click the button below.
As one of the most common sounds in English, the /s/ sound plays a vital role in how clearly our children communicate their thoughts, stories, and needs. If you’ve noticed your child struggling to produce a crisp /s/, perhaps substituting it with a “th” sound, you’re not alone. This is one of the most frequent concerns families bring to our practice.
At Valued Voices, we believe in empowering the whole family. You are your child’s most important communication partner, and with the right guidance, you can transform everyday moments into powerful opportunities for growth. This article will shed light on why the /s/ sound can be tricky and what professional guidance looks like, setting the stage for the comprehensive support found in our dedicated ebook.
Mastering the /s/ sound is a significant developmental milestone. Its correct production is essential for much more than just a handful of words. Think about how often we use it: to form plurals (books), show possession (daddy’s car), and in common verb forms (she runs). A persistent challenge with /s/, often called a lisp, can impact a child’s overall speech intelligibility, making it harder for friends, teachers, and even family to understand them.
While every child develops on their own unique timeline, difficulties with the /s/ sound that continue past early elementary school can sometimes lead to feelings of frustration or self-consciousness. Providing targeted support helps build not only clearer speech, but also greater confidence.
The Challenge Behind the “Snake Sound”
Producing a clear /s/ is a feat of motor precision. It requires the brain to tell the tongue, jaw, and lungs to work together in perfect harmony. The tongue tip must lift toward the bumpy ridge just behind the top teeth, creating a narrow channel for air to flow through. It’s a delicate balance that can easily go off course.
Common error patterns include:
A Frontal Lisp: The tongue pushes forward between the teeth, turning words like “sun” into “thun.”
A Lateral Lisp: Air escapes over the sides of the tongue, creating a “slushy” or wet-sounding quality.
Correcting these patterns isn’t as simple as telling a child to “keep your tongue in.” It requires a systematic approach to retrain the oral motor patterns your child has become used to. This involves teaching them to feel and understand where their tongue should be and how the airflow should feel, concepts that can be incredibly abstract for a child.
You Can Help, But Where Do You Start?
As a parent, your instinct is to help. You might model the sound, play “I Spy” with /s/ words, or gently correct your child. These are wonderful, supportive instincts! However, without a clear, structured plan, progress can feel slow and frustrating. You might wonder:
“Am I doing this correctly?”
“What if my child just gets more frustrated?”
“How do I move from making the sound by itself to using it in sentences?”
“What are the best games and activities to keep them motivated?”
These are the exact questions that led me to create a complete, family-centered resource. While basic tips can provide a foundation, true mastery comes from a step-by-step process that builds skills progressively, ensuring your child experiences success along the way.
Your Complete Roadmap is Here: The Ultimate /s/ Sound Ebook
We’ve poured our clinical expertise into this comprehensive ebook to give you the confidence and the exact methods needed to guide your child effectively. This is far more than a simple list of words; it’s a strategic roadmap that takes the guesswork out of speech practice.
Inside this essential guide, you will discover:
Step-by-Step Instructions: Clear, illustrated guides on how to teach correct tongue placement and airflow, the building blocks of a perfect /s/.
A Full Practice Hierarchy: Learn how to move systematically from single sounds to syllables, words, sentences, and finally, to spontaneous conversation.
Dozens of Engaging Activities: Access printable games, stories, and activity sheets designed to make practice fun, not a chore (found in our Articulation Activity Book).
Expert Strategies: Uncover advanced techniques for tackling stubborn lisps and ensuring the new /s/ sound carries over into everyday life.
Stop searching for scattered tips and start a proven journey. Empower your child to speak with clarity and confidence. Your family’s path to mastering the /s/ sound is just a click away.
Sholeh Shahinfar is the Founder of Valued Voices, a licensed Speech Language Pathologist, Child Communication Specialist and Certified Oral Motor Therapist. She is passionate about uplifting children’s voices in the world and inspiring self-expression. In her free time, Sholeh embraces a vegan lifestyle, loves going to the ocean, exploring nature with her pup Kobe, practicing yoga, traveling, and spending time with her loved ones.
What are the stages of gestalt language development?
If you are curious to learn more about the six stages of gestalt language development, please click the button below.
Have you ever wondered at what age your child should be making certain sounds? Or maybe you have wondered why your child is mispronouncing some sounds but not others. Maybe others are having a hard time understanding your little one, and you are left wondering what you can do to help improve your child’s speech. At Valued Voices, our self-created Articulation Screenerhelps answer these questions for you. Articulation screeners are a great tool used by Speech Language Pathologists (SLPs) to identify which sounds your child can or cannot say and to determine if your child’s errors are developmentally appropriate or if they can use some support in the area of speech sound production. It is important to note, that a screener is a not a standardized evaluation, if this is needed, your SLP will certainly guide and support you in this direction.
Before we get into the details of articulation, articulation therapy and tips to support your kiddo, please understand that there are several other factors that can impact speech intelligibility, including but not limited to, hearing loss, oral motor deficits, sensory issues, and apraxia of speech. We will not be addressing any of these in this article.
Does your child have difficulty saying certain sounds? Is your child’s speech difficult to understand?
Children who demonstrate difficulty producing particular sounds and have difficulty being understood by others would likely benefit from a type of speech therapy referred to as articulation therapy.
Articulation is part of the “speech” side of speech and language therapy that involves the movement of our articulators (i.e. lips, tongue, teeth, jaw) to form speech sounds. Articulation disorders are characterized by the inability to properly form speech sounds, and can include one or more of the following production errors:
Substitutions: “tat” for “cat”
Omissions: “uh” for “up”
Distortions: “thoap” for “soap”
Additions: “buhlack” for “black”
Different sounds are acquired at different ages of acquisition, meaning each sound is expected to emerge and be mastered by a certain age. For a free copy of our speech sound chart, sign up for our email list today!
What is a Phonological Process?
Phonological processes are patterns of sound errors that children use to simplify speech as they are learning to talk. Complex words are simplified in a predictable way until the coordination of the oral motor muscles (i.e. tongue, lips, jaw, teeth, palate) develops to articulate clearly. For example, your child may produce “banana” to “nana” or “bue” for “blue.”
Phonological processes are considered age appropriate, until they persist beyond a certain age. For example, if your 5 year old still uses the phonological process of “fronting” (saying “tootie” for “cookie”) that would be considered delayed since most children eliminate that process by the time they are 3.5 or 4 years of age Further, a phonological delay may be considered if your child is using patterns of speech that are not expected in speech development.
If your child is using multiple phonological processes together, this usually decreases your child’s intelligibility, making them difficult to understand. Depending on the severity of your child’s overall intelligibility, this can result in in frustration, decreased motivation to communicate, and low self-esteem. An SLP can guide you and your little one by giving you strategies and exercises to help and to empower your child’s voice, because every voice deserves to be acknowledged.
If you’re uncertain how intelligible your child should be based on their age, take a look at our chart below. As always, keep in mind, milestones are meant to be a guide to support you and your kiddo. Each child has their own set of unique strengths and ways of developing.
Articulation Delay or Phonological Disorder?
Sometimes, it can be tricky to know if a child presents with an articulation delay or a phonological disorder, both of which are considered speech sound disorders. To put it simply:
Articulation disorders manifest when a child has difficulty producing a certain sound (or sounds) and can be remediated by addressing the sounds in error.
Phonological disorders are more complex, they are patterns in a child’s speech used to simplify speech sound production. Many children with phonological disorders present with unintelligible/unclear speech as they often present with multiple speech sound errors and phonological processes.
So, to sum it up:
A speech sound disorder is considered an articulation disorder when:
Speech sound errors persist beyond the average age of mastery
Intelligibility is mild to moderately impacted
A speech sound disorder is considered a phonological disorder when:
Phonological processes persist beyond the average age of elimination
Phonological processes/patterns are used that are not usually seen
Intelligibility is highly impacted due to use of multiple phonological processes
Remediation or therapy for each speech sound disorder will vary depending on each child’s case. Typically, children with an articulation disorder respond well to articulation therapy where sounds in error are targeted one or two at a time. Now, let’s dive a bit deeper!
What Does Articulation Therapy Look Like?
The first thing we want to know is what sounds is your child having difficulty with, most parents usually can list this without a problem. Here comes an extra layer: do you know what position of the word (beginning, middle, or end) your child is having difficulty with and do you know what sound they are substituting in its place? With a screener and/or formal articulation evaluation, an SLP can help answer these questions for you. But what’s next? Here are a few things we need to know:
Stimulability: Is your child stimulable for the sound given a direct model, meaning if they say “tea” for “key” and you give them a model for /k/, can they produce the sound with direct imitation? If so: CELEBRATE! This is a huge first step. If your child cannot imitate the sound, no need to worry, that just means we will have to do a little extra work with the articulators (tongue, lips, jaw palate, teeth, etc.) to get them just in the right spot, this is referred to as elicitation.
After a sound is learned, meaning your kiddo can imitate the sound, then practice the sound in isolation. Practicing a sound in isolation means saying the sound without adding a vowel. So, in our example above, your child is no longer producing “kuh” but they are just producing /k/ in isolation. Once your child can successfully repeat the sound with 90% accuracy, over a few times of practicing, you can move on.
After the step of isolation, move the target sound to syllables. This means that you are putting vowel sounds before and/or after the target sound, make sure to use all the vowel sounds-long and short. I always start where my kiddo is most successful. Taking our example target sound /k/, here is what this may look like:
o Initial Syllable Production: kee, koo, kay, ki, etc.
o Medial Syllable Production: akee, okoo, eekay, ooki, etc.
o Final Syllable Production: eek, ook, ak, ik, etc.
Once your kiddo can say the sound in syllables, you can move onto sounds in words, again, we are targeting all positions that are in error.
From there, you can move onto sounds in phrases, sentences, stories, conversation and finally…GENERALIZATION! Generalization is when your child uses their target sound across all contexts of language and with various communication partners.
How do I Support My Kiddo’s Speech at Home?
Articulation practice is all about teaching new motor patterns of our mouth, and to establish a new motor pattern you need daily practice! Spending 5-10 minutes a day, every day to practice these new motor patterns can significantly increase your child’s progress with their articulation skills. Below are some fun and engaging ideas to work on your child’s speech skills at home or on the go when they are not in speech therapy:
I Spy: This is a fun way to work on a target sound or sounds, while keeping it engaging for your kiddo! This is a great game to play in the car, on a walk, or in the comfort of your home.
Charades: Take turns acting out target words and guessing what the word is, this is great articulation practice!
Crafts: Make a craft (painting, necklace, flower crown, superhero cape, etc) and for each piece of the craft, practice your target sound.
Flashlight Search: Tape target words to the wall, turn off the lights and use a flashlight to find the words.
Roll-A-Dice: Roll a dice and say your target word that many times (you can use include this trick for any of the activities suggested here).
Scavenger Hunt: Search your home, park, restaurant, store, or car for things that include your target sound! Take a picture or draw the item to create your own sound book or self created worksheets! Then, practice the entire list including all your speech sounds.
Stacking Cups: Tape target words into cups and build a tower, see how many words you can say and cups you can stack before it falls down!
Bowling: Tape target words to the bottom of bowling pins or plastic cups and say the words that you knock over!
Basketball: Write down targets on a piece of paper, say the word, crumple up the paper and toss it in the hoop. If you want to bump it up and have your kiddo work on the next level (word, phrase, sentence, conversation), you can make those worth more points!
Picture Collage: Cut out pictures from magazines of things that include your kiddo’s target sound.
Mystery Box: Place items or photos that include your child’s target sound in a box, shake it up, describe it and have your kiddo guess what the object is using correct articulation.
Categories: Pick a category and name as many items in that category as you can that contain your target sound.
Go Fish: Use target sounds, making two copies of each word and play Go-Fish while your kiddo practices their target sound (you can use the same cards to play Memory too!)
Board Games: You can use any board game and practice target sounds on each turn.
Books: Using books is not only a great way to work on target sounds, but it is great way to work on language skills too!
Equally, if not more important than the fun games, is making sure we understand a few key elements that are necessary in establishing articulation practice at home:
Make speech therapy practice as part of your daily routine
Keep it short, aiming for 5-10 minutes a day. If you get at least 3 good practice times in over the week, you are significantly boosting your child’s progress towards their goals.
Frequency over duration! Three times a week for 10 minutes is better than one time 30 minutes.
Make it fun! Get the entire family involved or make it a special time with you!
Meet your child where they are at. Articulation is a hierarchy and so it is important you be practicing at just the right step for your child. If your child is in speech therapy, be sure your SLP is guiding you on exactly what level you should be practicing at home.
I always explain to families that although articulation seems simple, it in fact includes many layers and nuances that can make it quite complex. As always, if your child is having difficulty in this area, consult with a professional for some added support and see if speech therapy is right for your child.. Every child’s voice deserves to be heard and acknowledged, and with your help and support I know they will!
Sholeh Shahinfar is the founder of Valued Voices, and a licensed Speech Language Pathologist, Child Communication Specialist and Certified Oral Motor Therapist. She is passionate about uplifting children’s voices in the world and inspiring self-expression. In her free time, she loves going to the ocean, exploring nature with her pup Kobe, and spending time with her family and friends!
