Recently, more and more children are appearing who are unable to pronounce the letter “R”. Many parents ignore the problem, believing that it gives their child a certain charm. However, the baby himself often has a different opinion. Such children become objects of bullying and jokes from classmates. How to help a child cope with a problem?
- Why is clear speech so important?
- Why can't people pronounce "r"?
- Exercises to eliminate burr
What is burr?
Burr is a speech defect in which the pronunciation of the sound “r” is impaired. Or rather, it is distorted, replaced by other sounds, or absent altogether.
The most difficult words for burry people are words with the letter “r”:
Instead of “r”, a burry person pronounces the sounds “g” (kran-kgan), “d” (red-kdasny), “l” (steam locomotive), “y” (fish-yyba), “v” (steep- kvutoy), “y” (lynx-yys) or skips completely (ruka-uka).
And I must say, this does not have the best effect on the quality of life due to emotional discomfort.
Why is this happening? Why do people burr?
Why is clear speech so important?
In the early stages of growing up, a child needs a team, and due to a slight defect, the baby may feel like a stranger among his peers. Everything heats up in adolescence: many guys find burr funny, so they never miss the opportunity to somehow offend the poor guy. Finding himself in such a situation, a teenager forms new complexes that he may never get rid of.
Burr will affect an adult no less seriously. Yes, usually at this stage people stop openly throwing insults, but ridicule behind your back does not go away. A slight defect can seriously hamper career advancement. Some doors will remain closed altogether, since many professions are speech-demanding.
There is a misconception that problems with the letter “r” are solved exclusively in childhood. This is not entirely true. Defects can be “treated” at any time: even an elderly person can stop burring if they make an effort.
Causes of burr
Burr speech can have different reasons:
- Atypical structure of the oral cavity, for example, insufficient length of the frenulum, protruding lower jaw, inert tongue. This disrupts the functioning of the articulatory apparatus and the person burrs at the letter “r”.
- Organic hearing impairment. Hearing loss leads to underdevelopment of the motor side of speech and incorrect pronunciation.
- Heredity. There is an opinion that there is a high probability of inheriting such a defect from parents.
- Psychological. As a result of severe stress or an unforeseen situation, a malfunction of the body may occur and the pronunciation of certain sounds may change.
- Social. If parents do not pay attention to how the child speaks and do not take timely measures to correct speech impairment, burr can remain with him for a long time.
Why can't people pronounce "r"?
Problems with pronunciation can be caused by several factors, but there are only two main reasons:
- Articulatory. This problem is caused by incorrect articulation. When pronounced correctly, the sound “R” should be made with the tongue, not the throat. It is necessary to form your lips into a smile, opening your jaws. The tip of the tongue should be fixed behind the upper teeth. Now you need to try to make the sound “R”. It’s unlikely to work right away; it’s better to practice for a few minutes. If there is no result, there is a direct path to a speech therapist.
- Physiological. It occurs when there is a small frenulum under the tongue. The best solution would be to remove it. The operation is simple and is performed hundreds of times every day.
You can fight a physiological defect in another way. If a person is afraid to undergo surgery, it is worth trying to stretch the frenulum. This is not so simple and will take time, but such a measure will avoid “bloodshed.”
What to do if you burr?
A specialist who can really help cure burr and learn not to burr the letter “r” is a speech therapist. Professional knowledge is never superfluous. Moreover, rhotacism, also called burr, is a fairly common phenomenon among adults and children.
Proper sound production, working with the articulatory apparatus, speech therapy massage of the tongue, special exercises to correct burr - all this is in the arsenal of a professional specialist. And all this can give you back freedom in communication and pleasure from the sound of your own voice.
Seeing a speech therapist to unlearn how to burr is especially important for parents of children over 6 years old. Until this age, while the speech apparatus is developing, unclear pronunciation of the letter “r” is considered normal.
Correcting burr is also possible at home.
Exercises to eliminate burr
You can fight the defect on your own in different ways. Everyone can choose an exercise to their liking. To achieve the fastest effect, it is recommended to do all of the following daily:
- Open your mouth as wide as possible. Tension should be felt in the jaw area. While in this position, you need to reach for the sky with your tongue. Now you need to fixate in this state for ten seconds.
- Ordinary tongue twisters, familiar to everyone from childhood. The ones that work best are those where the “r” sound is repeated frequently. You need to devote a few minutes a day to training.
- Gymnastic exercises for the tongue. He should become more mobile. You can move it as you like, it is best to try to reach the chin and the tip of the nose. You need to hold your tongue in this position for a few seconds.
- It is worth recording visible changes on a voice recorder every day and comparing notes after a week.
- Tongue twisters are not the only opportunity for practice. You can write down several words in which the “r” has a phonetic accent. For example, tractor, sentence, dragonfly, etc.
If after a couple of weeks there is no progress, it is better to consult a specialist. A professional speech therapist can easily correct an unpleasant defect and help the patient better understand his body.
Were you teased at school for mispronouncing "R"?
How to cure burr yourself
In order to remove burr, you should:
- learn deep breathing using the diaphragm;
- perform special exercises for burring, aimed at developing the muscles of the tongue and lips.
Breathing technique
If you observe yourself, you can see that breathing is most directly involved in the pronunciation of sounds. Try to pronounce the sound “p” without breathing - it turns out to be an empty slap with your lips. The sound “p” appears only on exhalation.
The same is with the sound “r” - the deeper the breath and the stronger the exhalation, the brighter the “rrrrrr” sounds.
How to stop burr
In early childhood, incorrect pronunciation of various sounds is natural and physiologically justified. It is determined by the development and formation of the child’s body. Very often, children skip or change sounds, rearrange syllables, omit the beginning of a word, or place the wrong emphasis. But with age, these mistakes gradually disappear on their own or with the usual help of parents, and speech becomes sonorous and meaningful. If a child over three years old continues to speak unclearly, burrs, or pronounces some sounds incorrectly, you need to pay close attention to this and meet with a speech therapist. Speech deficiencies in a child, including burr, cause many problems in the future - isolation, timidity, fear of attention to oneself, embarrassment when reading poetry or participating in children's performances in kindergarten. Uncertainty in your pronunciation can cause very quiet speech, which subsequently interferes with both study and work.
Obviously, unclear speech and abnormal sounds require professional intervention. It is necessary to check the child’s hearing, his perception of sounds and intonations. Also consult a speech therapist, who will identify the specific cause of burr and its type, for which he will test the features of the articulatory apparatus in terms of lifestyle, health and age. Then the method of setting “P” and a suitable set of exercises and activities will be selected to get rid of burr.
If the main cause of the problem lies in a short frenulum, they try to stretch it with special gymnastics for the tongue, for example, you need to reach the middle of the chin with the tongue or, tilting your head back slightly, stretch the tongue towards the nose. In cases where the frenulum cannot be stretched, it is trimmed. This operation is performed by a dentist under local anesthesia, most often on an outpatient basis.
Ways to get rid of burr
- Articulation gymnastics.
- Massage of the entire tongue and mechanical (forced) vibration of the front part.
- Tactile control.
- Long and systematic lessons during the period of automation of the sound “R”.
At the initial stage of correcting burr, it is necessary to achieve the correct pronunciation of an independent, isolated “R”. To do this, the pronunciation of one’s own “R” and its substitute is determined and compared by ear, then these sounds are compared and, based on the results of the analysis, articulatory skills are formed to produce the sound of “R”. Each type of defect has its own tasks and exercises.
Sound production depending on the source data is carried out:
- From reference sounds.
- By imitation.
- With mechanical assistance.
- Articulation exercises.
Exercises for correct pronunciation of the sound “R”
To develop the upward movement of the tongue and the ability to move it well when burring, do the exercise “Whose teeth are cleaner?” The lips should be open, as for a wide smile, with the upper and lower teeth visible. The lower jaw does not move. The tip of the tongue, without bending, is located at the roots of the upper teeth. They need to move along the inner surface of the teeth from right to left and back, as if to “clean” the teeth.
To improve tongue mobility when burring, perform the “Painter” exercise. You have to open your mouth and smile. Fix the lower jaw and lips in a motionless state, then, making back and forth movements with the tip of the tongue, stroke the sky with it. It is necessary to ensure that the tip does not protrude from the mouth, but must reach the inner surface of the upper teeth.
To obtain a long, powerful and continuous air stream with burr that goes in the middle of the tongue, they suggest the exercise “Who will kick the ball further.” You need to smile, making sure that the lower lip does not stretch over the lower teeth. Place the wide front edge of the tongue on the lower lip and, pretending to pronounce “F” (but in no case “X”, this must be strictly monitored), as if blowing a cotton ball (cotton ball) as far away from you as possible .
To develop a tongue position resembling a “cup” and to develop upward movements of the wide front part during burr, do the “Tasty Jam” exercise. You need to open your mouth slightly and, moving from top to bottom, lick your upper lip with the front edge of your tongue, but do not move from side to side. In this case, you need to control that the lower jaw does not move; you can help keep it still with your hands. The tongue should be spread wide and touch the lateral edges of the corners of the mouth.
These are not all the simplest exercises that are indicated for all types of burr. After mastering them or simultaneously with them, special exercises are performed to solve specific problems. The result should be a correctly pronounced isolated “Rrrrrrrrr”….
☞ Video exercises
Sound Automation
To stop burring, it is not enough just to learn to pronounce “R”, it must be inserted into words. This may not happen right away.
- With burr, you first need to master simple open syllables, consonant sound + vowel sound, namely “RA”, “RO”, “RU”. They are pronounced in a row and separately, alternating with each other. Getting used to these syllables can be turned into a game with your child. Then you need to pronounce the words when the memorized syllables are first at the beginning of the word - FRAME, and then at the end - FEATHER, MOUNTAIN, etc.
- The next stage is to pronounce closed syllables first independently “AR”, “OR”, “UR”, etc., and then in the words SUGAR, WIND, TOMATO.
- Following this, they begin to construct phrases and memorize tongue twisters. In a similar way, they learn to pronounce the soft “Ry”.
How to get rid of burr?
Unlike others, burry people always have the present, the future and... the vulgar. After reading and following the advice below, instead of the vulgar, only the past may remain. So you will need to attract additional vulgarity - other articles will help with this: how to find a girl, hidden sexual signals and how to hint to a girl about sex. So let's get started.
The most reasonable and effective method is treatment by a specialist - a speech therapist.
The easiest way to stop burring is for a teenager or child; just a few sessions can solve the problem. But don’t be upset if you are no longer at such a young age; it’s never too late to get rid of such a defect.
Another thing is whether you have the opportunity to see a doctor. Not everyone has the right amount of time or money, and some are simply ashamed, incorrectly believing that this is a purely children's specialist who has nothing to do with solving problems in adults.
In general, if going to a speech therapist is not an option for you at the moment, you can use a special set of exercises. By doing it regularly, it is quite possible to stop burring forever. In any case, such activities cannot cause harm, unless someone catches you doing such activities. From the outside it may seem quite strange, so we retire and begin to seriously “work”.
What is diction?
Diction is the correct pronunciation of sounds and words, which consists of clear and correct articulation and the ability to control timbre and intonation. Timbre refers to the speed and color of speech; it has been noted that people with poor diction tend to speak hastily. Intonation is the ability to distinguish vowel sounds and stress with the voice.
Articulation will be helped by special exercises, and to improve timbre and intonation it is necessary to do breathing exercises.
