r blends speech therapy worksheets

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Materials & Games

R blends for speech therapy can be difficult to learn for any child, especially a child with a speech disorder; however, I am here to help ease this task with some free and paid resources at my R Blends Word List page. 

There is a little something for everyone!

Available R Blends Resources

You have 3 options for resources:

• Free (word lists and game ideas)
• Join our informative newsletter (also free!) and receive free cariboo cards and smash mats
• Purchase our awesome full set of R blends resources (smashmats and Cariboo cards)

Keep reading to explore and discover which resources best fit your needs.

Paid Resources

By popular demand, I created a “blends edition” of our Cariboo cards and articulation smashmats.

Cariboo Cards - Blend Edition

• Cariboo cards for the following S blends: SK, SL, SM, SN, SP, ST, SW
• Cariboo cards for the following L blends: BL, FL, GL, KL, PL
• Cariboo cards for the following R blends: BR, KR, DR, FR, GR, PR, STR, TR, THR, SHR, SKR, SPR, TW
• 26 pages in total
• You get more than just R blends

Smashmats - Blends Edition

• Articulation mats for the following L blends: BL, FL, GL, KL, PL
• Articulation mats for the following R blends: BR, KR, DR, FR, GR, PR, STR, TR, THR, SHR
• Articulation mats for the following S blends: SKR, SPR, SK, SL, SM, SN, SP, ST, SW, TW
• There is one mat with that combines all blends for each sound
• There are game boards for the all sounds listed above as well

You can read more about it  here or buy your own copy by clicking the link below and adding it to your cart.

If you want a free smashmat, fill out the form below!

21 free smashmats.

Sign up below to receive your free materials.

R Blends Word List

Br blends word list, kr blends word list, dr blends word list, fr blends word list, gr blends word list, pr blends word list, str blends word list, tr blends word list, thr blends word list, shr blends word list, skr blends word list.

Screwdriver

SPR Blends Word List

Tw blends word list, google drive r blend word list.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Google Drive. I can access my word lists from any device; laptop, desktop, or phone. 

If you want a copy, fill out the form above. I put all the word lists in one folder.  Once you receive your email with the materials, make a copy of the files and they are yours to use and tweak as needed.

• If you need help saving the word lists to your Google Drive, click here:  Save Google Document
• If you LOVE Google Drive as much as I do, check out our  Speech Therapy Documentation Page. 

Articulation Games for R Blends

Take turns with your child saying the desired words during the games listed below. It is important to practice  hearing  and  saying  the words.

• Brush  - A child can brush his/her hair, brush your hair, brush a doll’s hair, or use a paintbrush. Make sure to say “brush” before taking a turn.
• Crayon  - Practice “kr” while drawing a picture using crayons. Say “crayon” before picking a new color.
• Drive  - Drive cars around a track, down a ramp, on the floor, etc.. You and your child can pretend to drive somewhere or talking about driving while actually driving a car.
• Frog  - Play with toy frogs, find actual frogs in a lake/pond, or do frog jumps around the room.
• Green/Gray  - Find all the green or gray things in a room. Easy!
• Price  - Play store and name/decide the prices of objects
• Street  - Push cars or trucks on a street (pretend street)
• Treasure  - Play toys around the room and go on a treasure hunt to find them
• Throw  - Throw a ball in a basket or paper scarps in the garbage. Fun!
• Shred  - Rip up paper as you pretend to “shred” them
• Scribble  - Get out lots of coloring utensils and make scribbles
• Spray  - Fill a bottle with water and spray plants, the sidewalk, etc...
• Twist  - Twist around while dancing

Membership Site

If you are a parent and your child

• has trouble saying multiple sounds 
• needs to work on vocabulary development
• needs to improve grammar skills
• is working on following directions
• needs to work on narrative language
• needs to work on social skills

AND you want

• a step-by-step guide to help your child 
• ideas on how to improve all language skills at home
• functional games

Then, our  members site might be just what you need. 

If you are a professional and you want: 

• Articulation Screening Tools
• Data tracking sheets
• Templates in Google Drive for easy data tracking and graphing
• Homework sheets/parent handouts on articulation therapy
• General flashcard games
• 36 flashcards for each sound: B, D, F, G, J, K, L, M, N, P, R, S, T, V, Z, SH, TH, CH
• 8-10 functional games for each sound
• Language based worksheets to spice things up!
• Picture description tasks
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Our  membership might be just what you need.

• Word Lists For Speech Therapy
• R Blends: Materials and Games

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R Blends: List of Words, Phrases & More for Home Speech Therapy

In spoken language, the /r/ sound and /r/ blends can be notoriously tricky for children to articulate.

Due to its complexity, many children won’t master it until they are between eight and nine years old, often mispronouncing words like ‘road’ as ‘woad’, or ‘tree’ as ‘twee’ throughout their preschool and early school years. In fact, an inability to pronounce the sound correctly is so common that it even has a name: rhotacism. 

If your child is struggling to correctly articulate this sound, try not to be too worried. With practice and patience, your child can soon master these tricky /r/ sounds and /r/ blend sounds and build their overall communication skills.  

To give you the helping hand you need, we’ve gathered a comprehensive list of the /r/ blend words, phrases, and sentences you can use for home speech therapy alongside our trusted Forbrain headset . 

We’ve also included a comprehensive /r/ sound pronunciation guide, games, activities, and books you can share with your child, and tips on how to help your child pronounce this challenging sound with ease.

What are /R/ Blend Words?

When we talk about /r/ blend words, we’re referring to what speech therapists call ‘consonant blends. As the word suggests, this is when two or more consonants are blended but you can still hear each sound. With /r/ blends, the /r/ sound is always the strongest. 

Examples of simple /r/ blend words include: 

• /fr/ is in FRog 
• /dr/ as in DRop
• /cr/ as in CRy
• /br/ as in BRown
• /gr/ as in GRow
• /pr/ as in PRint
• /tr/ as in TRap

Other /r/ blends include those more complex consonant combinations such as:

• /str/ as in STRong
• /thr/ as in THRow
• /shr/ as in SHRek
• /scr/ as in SCReam
• /spr/ as in SPRing

In this article, we’ll be focussing on the first seven /r/ blends. 

Word Lists: /R/ Blend Words

The best way to help your child improve their articulation of the /r/ blend sounds, grow in confidence, and improve communication skills is to work through a comprehensive word list. 

We’ve created exactly that for you, pulling together lists of the most child-friendly /r/ blend words, organizing them according to the specific consonant blend and whether they appear at the beginning or middle of the word. 

Whether you need an easy go-to resource for professional or home speech therapy or simply need extra practice, these words will make a huge difference. 

We’ve made word lists for the /r/ blend sounds, divided into /fr/, /dr/, /cr/, /br/, /gr/, /pr/ and /tr/ sound blends. 

Let’s start with the /fr/ sound. 

Next, let’s move onto the /dr/ sound word list for use with your home speech therapy sessions.

The /cr/ sound is very common in the English language. Here is a wordlist for this sound blend:

Our next focus will be the /br/ sound, found in words like ‘bread’ and ‘breakfast, Here’s a /br/ sound word list to help:

Here is a list of the most common /gr/ blend sounds:

The /pr/ blend sound is also a common one, found in words like ‘princess’ and ‘pretzel’. Here’s a word list for this consonant blend:

Finally, here is a list of the most common, child-friendly /tr/ sounds for use with your professional or home speech therapy sessions:

Further /R/ Blend Word Practice Using Short Phrases and Sentences

Well done! We understand that these lists of /r/ blend words can feel overwhelming when you’re helping your child with their sound pronunciation at home. If you’ve read through the lists together, you’ve already made huge progress. 

At this point, you can move forward and help your child boost their fluency and further improve their articulation skills by using these /r/ blend words in short phrases and sentences. 

This gives them the tools they need to use these new language articulation skills, communicate more effectively and start to overcome other speech development issues. 

Here’s our recommended /r/ blend home speech therapy program, created by our experts at Forbrain:

• Read through the /r/ blend word lists, one at a time. Assess your child’s level at this point- if they are struggling, focus first on one /r/ blend sound before moving onto the next. 
• Work through our /r/ blend sound pronunciation guide to ensure that your child can say the words correctly.
• Use carrier phrases to help them use these words in real-life contexts.
• Move on to using short phrases and sentences for each of the /r/ blend sounds.
• Practice with child-friendly games, activities and books.
• Repeat for the other /r/ blend sounds. 

Carrier phrases

Carrier phrases are widely used in speech therapy because they are so effective and can instantly help your child use these new articulation skills they’ve been using. 

Simply choose a carrier phrase from the list below, insert your choice of /r/ blend word then practice using the sentence often. If you can, select words from the initial /r/ blend and medial /r/ blend word lists. 

Here are some of our favorite carrier phrases: 

• “I found a…”
• “I want a…”
• “He found a…”
• “She found a…”
• “I have a…”
• “He has a…”
• “She has a…”
• “I like to…”
• “He likes to…”

Put into practice, it looks like this:

• I see a FROG”
• “I found a DRAGONFLY”
• “I want a CRACKER”
• “He found a BRACELET”
• “She found a GRASSHOPPER”
• “I have a PROBLEM”
• “He has a TREASURE”

Short phrases for /R/ blend words sound

Once you’ve worked through the carrier phrases for the /r/ blend words and your child is reasonably comfortable and confident, move onto practicing using short phrases. 

Read through these with your child and you’ll further improve their pronunciation of the /r/ blend sounds. 

Short Phrases /Fr/ sound 

Short phrases /dr/ sound, short phrases /cr/ sound, short phrases /br/ sound , short phrases /gr/ sound, short phrases /pr/ sound, short phrases /tr/ sound, short sentences for /r/ blend words .

Now that you’ve worked through those short phrases for the /r/ blend words with your child, stretch their articulation skills even further by using the following short sentences. 

As before, they’re organized according to where the /r/ blend sound appears in the word: at the beginning (initial) or middle (medial) of the word. 

Short Sentences /Fr/ sound 

Short sentences /dr/ sound, short sentences /cr/ sound, short sentences /br/ sound, short sentences /gr/ sound, short sentences /pr/ sound, short sentences /tr/ sound, games & activities with /r/ blend words .

Provide your child with the /r/ blend sound practice they need and have fun at the same time by playing the following age-appropriate games and activities with your child. 

By doing so, you’ll help them further develop the articulation skills they need, boost their overall language skills and give them the confidence boost they deserve. 

We’ve gathered together a list of the most effective games, activities and books you can use with your child to learn while having fun. 

Use them alongside the /r/ blend word lists shared above and the patented Forbrain headset to see a significant improvement. 

Play The Rhyming Game

• Print the lists of /r/ blend words we shared above, cut them out to make flash cards and then shuffle them well. 
• Place the pile of cards face down on a table and tell your child to take one. 
• Ask them to say the word aloud then think of a rhyming word. For example, they might pull the ‘crash’ word and might think of the word ‘dash’. Bear in mind that this new word doesn’t need to be a /r/ blend. 
• Congratulate them for their efforts and repeat several times. 

Play ‘Beach Ball Toss’

• Find a beach ball, blow it up and write /r/ words on each section with a permanent marker pen. 
• Ask your child or children to stand opposite you and catch the ball when you throw it. 
• Whenever they catch the ball, they should pronounce the word that they see in front of them. 
• Repeat this several times. 

Play ‘Articulation Chain’

• Tell your child that you’re going on an imaginary trip and need to pack. The only problem is that you can only pack things with an /r/ or /r/ blend sound in the word. 
• Depending on their age, either give them a pile of flashcards to review or allow them to brainstorm words they could use. 
• Next, start the game by saying “I am going on a trip and I will pack [insert word]” for example, “I am going on a trip and I will pack A BRACELET ”
• Then encourage your child to repeat this sentence then add their own /r/ blend word, for example, “I am going on a trip and I will pack a bracelet and A PRESENT” . 
• Repeat as many times as you like. 

Read books together

Reading books that include the /r/ sound and /r/ blend sound is a great way to help your child become more familiar with these sounds, ignite their imagination and improve their overall cognitive skills. 

If you can ask them to repeat the /r/ words after you as you read, you’ll also give them the fun, relaxed practice they need to improve. 

Here’s our selection of our favorite /r/ blend sound books. 

• Br- blends: Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson
• Cr-blends: The Very Cranky Bear by Nick Bland
• Dr-blends: Do Not Bring Your Dragon to the Library by Julie Gassman
• Fr-blends: Freddy the Frogcaster by Janice Dean
• Gr-blends: The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson
• Pr-blends: Grace for President by Kelly DiPucchio
• Tr-blends: The Wish Tree by Kyo Maclear

How to pronounce the /R/ blend sounds

Before you help your child improve their pronunciation of the /r/ blend sounds, it’s a good idea to understand exactly how you pronounce this sound. By doing so, you can get a feel for how you use your speech organs and can better troubleshoot any difficulties that your child may have. 

Let’s start by quickly looking at how we produce speech sounds in general. We start by sending air from our lungs, passing it over our vocal cords then shaping them using a selection of our tongue, lips, nose and mouth. 

When it comes to those /r/ blend sounds, we are dealing with a slightly more complex scenario. Not only are we producing the tricky /r/ sound, we must also ‘blend’ it with other sounds to create the /r/ blends we’re working on here: /fr/, /dr/, /cr/, /br/, /gr/, /pr/ and /tr/. 

This means it’s a good idea to first focus on producing the /r/ sound correctly, before moving onto the /r/ blends. 

The /r/ sound is what linguists call a voiced alveolar glide consonant. This means that you use your vocal cords (voiced), your tongue is positioned towards the roof of your mouth (alveolar) and it sounds similar to a vowel (glide consonant). 

Pronouncing the /R/ sound & /R/ blends sounds

Start by pronouncing the /r/ sound, paying attention to the shape of your mouth including whether you use your vocal cords and how your tongue and lips are positioned. 

We recommend you choose a simple word such as ‘rat’ or ‘red’, then repeat it a few times until you feel you understand how you’re pronouncing this tricky sound. 

If you’re doing it correctly, you’ll notice that your vocal cords are indeed vibrating and that your tongue is curled toward the roof of your mouth and the air flows through the narrow space you’ve created.

You can also repeat this using /r/ blend words such as ‘frog’, ‘dragonfly’, ‘cracker’, ‘bracelet’, ‘grasshopper’, ‘problem’ and ‘treasure’, paying attention to what happens in your mouth. 

How to produce the /R/ sound and /R/ blend sounds correctly

Here’s how to help your child produce the /r/ and /r/ blend sounds effectively: 

1) Tell your child that you’re going to play a fun game where you need to roar like a lion. Encourage them to be loud and really feel they’ve become a scary beast! 

2) If they are finding it tricky, try pairing the /r/ sound with a vowel like the long /a/ sound. For example, ask them to say ‘ raaaaaaaaa ’ and see how they get on. 

3) Often, figuring out the right tongue position can be difficult for your child. If this is the case, use your arm to demonstrate what should be happening. Put your arm out in front of you then up and in towards your body. Encourage them to practice again. 

4) Finally, work through the /r/ blend word lists above according to the needs of your child and encourage them to practice. 

We understand that this can be tricky to understand in written form which is why we recommend you watch this video on correct articulation of the /r/ sound and this video on /r/ blends for more help. 

Using Forbrain to Upgrade Sound Practice

You can help your child master the tricky /r/ sound and /r/ sound blends by using our scientifically proven Forbrain headset alongside the word lists, phrases and sentences we’ve shared here. 

It harnesses the power of technology, using an enhanced auditory feedback loop via bone conduction to provide targeted, pressure-free practice and overcome their speech and language difficulties. 

Used for just 10 minutes per day, your child can hear the /r/ sound more clearly, improve their articulation skills and get instant feedback that helps them further tweak their pronunciation of this sound. 

Find out more about Forbrain here . 

Final Words

The /r/ sound and /r/ blend are among the most difficult sounds for your child to articulate and often aren’t mastered until the age of eight or nine. 

Therefore, if your child is struggling, work through the lists of /r/ words and /r/ blend words we’ve shared here, use your Forbrain headset and enjoy those games and activities and books with your child. 

With this home speech therapy, you’ll soon see an improvement and help your child grow in confidence, improve their sound perception and articulation skills and fulfill their potential. 

Charlotte Witts

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Teaching the R Sound in Speech Therapy

Teaching the R sound in speech therapy can be stressful for a speech therapist. Children with speech sound disorders may have difficulty with saying r words. In this blog post, I’m sharing a simple, 5-step strategy SLPs can use to teach the r sound successfully and without frustration. Many students with articulation disorders have difficulty producing the R sound. Older students who have been in speech therapy for years may be feeling frustrated. Luckily, there are many elicitation techniques that can be successfully used to treat R sound errors in speech therapy! Speech pathologists interested in teaching the R sound should make sure to bookmark this post for future reference. Trying different things can really change this game when treating this tricky sound!

This post contains affiliate links, which means we could receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something that we have recommended.

Different Types of R

When Speech Pathologists are working on the “R” sound, specific errors need to be identified. There are many different positions of a word that R can occur in. R can occur in the initial position, medial position, and final positions of words. R can be influenced by vowels, and are known as “vocalic R” sounds (examples: art, orange, car). It can also occur in blends (r blend examples include princess, friend, and grape). It is helpful to figure out specifically which R the student can and cannot say. Christine Ristuccia has developed a very helpful screening form, The Entire World of R. This is a great way to gather baseline information.

Common R Sound Errors

Many students with articulation disorders have a hard time producing a correct R sound. R sound errors can occur for initial r, medial r, and final r sounds. These sound errors can occur in isolation, at the word level, in phrases, at the sentence level, and in conversation. It isn’t uncommon that R and vocalic R sounds are the last sounds left to target in speech therapy.

Perhaps that’s why the R sound has the bad reputation of being a “pesky sound”.

• Oftentimes in younger children, the w sound is substituted for the R sound. An example might be “wabbit” for “rabbit”. Minimal pairs might be useful in this situation.
• Occasionally, students might substitute l for r (for example, “light” for “right”).
• R might also be substituted by a “y” sound (an example would be “ram” vs “yam”).
• Other R speech sounds might lose their “R” quality and sound more like a vowel sound. “ER” might be placed by a neutral schwa, for example.

A licensed speech-language pathologist can listen carefully to distinguish which r sound errors a student might be making.

References: Bauman-Waengler, J.A.  Articulatory and Phonological Impairments: A Clinical Focus . Third ed., Pearson Education Limited, 2013. 

Additionally, students may have difficulty with r blends. For example, in the word “frog”, a w might be substituted for an r (fwog).

Proper Tongue Placement

There are different ways to produce R . This is why it is helpful to establish what type of R sound a student will be most successful with during articulation therapy.

When teaching tongue position, it is helpful to use a visual cue paired with a tactile cue.

The retracted r is also called the bunched r. The tip of the tongue is retracted and the tongue is “bunched” and “lifted” toward the pharynx. In simplified language, it is “bunched up” and “pulled back”.

A retroflex R involves the tip of the tongue being raised to the roof of the mouth, specifically to the alveolar region. The rest of the tongue is essentially flattened.

Research, Videos, and CEU Courses

A speech language pathologist often reviews research-based articles and takes continuing education. Here are some recommended articles, videos, and CEU courses:

• R Techniques and Intervention to Correct R- Seven Steps, From Basics to Habituation – a CEU course by Sandra Holtzman, M.S., CCC-SLP, COM, QOM
• Successful R Therapy – a CEU course by Pam Marshalla
• How To Treat R – this is a youtube video I created to share my favorite tips and tricks!

Recommended R Materials for SLPs

There are some materials I like to have on hand when teaching the R sound. Here is a short list:

• Tongue depressor : a tongue depressor is a wonderful way to assist with tongue placement and positioning.
• A mirror : the use of a mirror allows my students to make sure they are not moving their jaw too much while producing the R sound.
• Comprehensive R Program

Some SLPs have found success using speech buddies . These include placement guides for producing sounds like R and S.

5 Simple Steps for Teaching the R Sound in Speech Therapy

Teaching the R sound in  speech therapy  doesn’t need to be so frustrating! Following this 5-step strategic process, which utilizes the foundational skills of orofacial myology, has been an absolute game-changer for me. I know it will be for you, too.

I always explain to my students the importance of being able to move the tongue without moving the jaw (or lips). These are orofacial myology basics. We need precise, controlled motor movements of the articulators. One thing I have noticed time and time again with my R students is the lateral shifting of the jaw when they try to say “er” in isolation. Others tend to jut the chin forward. Use a mirror and bite blocks to draw awareness to this. With a bite block or stacked tongue depressors , we work on tasks such as moving the tongue tip from one corner of the lips to the other, while focusing on only moving the tongue.

The first place I start is establishing the “er” sound in isolation . This is based off of  Sandra’s Holtzman’s R: Techniques and Interventions  ceu course, which was a game-changer for me. If you’re looking to take an amazing CEU course for treating R, look no further. You can establish “er” using either a  bunched r or a retroflexed r  tongue shape. How To Teach Bunched R (Retracted R): For a bunched R,  I like to use my arms to explain the spread and lift of the tongue . When my student says “uh” instead of “er”, I say, “Try that again. You dropped the sides of the tongue.” I hold my arms out in front of me (hands clasped together), and visually show them “raised sides” vs “flat sides” using my elbows. You can also use a tongue depressor to facilitate tongue movement and gently lift the tongue up and back. It may take a few tries, but this can also help elicit the correct production of er. Finally, I will also use my hand as a reminder to lift and pull the back of the tongue for the bunched R. How to Teach The Retroflex R I like to use my hand as a visual cue to teach the retroflex R, with the palm flat and upward, and the tips of my fingers pointing up. An older approach you might try is starting from the L sound, then having the student trace the tongue back along the roof of their mouth. This can assist with sound production for ER.

After your student can successfully say ER in isolation, you can move on to the next step! This involves practicing the “er” sound in lots of sounds and blend combinations (in both real and nonsense words). This step ensures that your student understands how to control, shape, and place the tongue, in a variety of contexts . For example, you would pair “er” with bilabial sounds (erber) in nonsense word combinations. Later, you would cycle back and practice bilabials again in the final position of words (Decem…ber).

You can use a strong foundation in “ER” to shape the other vocalic r sounds when working on R in speech therapy. You will slowly blend “er” into the other vowels or sounds, then try it again at a faster pace. For example, to say “RL” as in “girl”, we say “ER + L” (errrrrr…..L). To say “AR” as in art, we say “AH + ER”. ER is the foundation for all other R sounds.

And finally, to elicit the initial R, we can use our “ER” sound (“ERrrrrain…. rain). If you would like a great resource with ready-to-go worksheets and words that utilize this approach for treating R in your speech therapy sessions, be sure to check out my  Correct that R  resource on TpT.

Other things to consider when treating R in speech therapy

There are some other considerations to keep in mind when working on R.

Some of your students may have been in speech therapy for a long time. Trying a fresh new approach might be just what your student needs to see success. This R program incorporates foundational orofacial myology techniques and has allowed me to be highly successful with correcting R sound errors in speech therapy.

A speech pathologist can try wording things differently to describe how the parts of the tongue move and position while producing the target sound.

Also, remember that patience is key . When working on R in speech, I have spent up to two months trying to get “ER” in isolation. It takes focus and a lot of hard work!

Remind your students that their tongue is a muscle . That means they can control it, shape it, and move it.

Try using auditory discrimination. Read R word lists that target a specific sound to your R kids! It can help a little bit to learn to not only say the difference but also to hear the difference.

Some students need to consider lip placement . Sometimes retracting the lips (smiling!) while saying R can help eliminate W in the initial position of words (i.e. “wabbit” for “rabbit”).

Go-To Resources to Teach the R Sound in Speech Therapy

Need a go-to resource that will help you teach the R sound?

Although R can make SLPs feel frustrated to teach, there is good news. Hundreds of speech-language pathologists have trusted this R program, which is based on research, and have seen huge results. It involves a systematic, comprehensive approach that ensures success. It provides several visual supports, and ready-to-go worksheets and activities.

Jessica G, SLP, said, “I’m so grateful for this resource !!!! Targeting “r” was like my worst nightmare and when students weren’t making progress I felt so discouraged and did not know what else I could do to improve accuracy. Thanks to Karen and this amazing resource, I actually get excited to treat “r” now. The approach used actually works and my students finally seem to understand tongue positioning better (and maybe I do too!). This is definitely worth buying! Thank you!”

Watch this youtube video to learn even more about how to use this resource and approach to treating R.

In summary, it is very possible to successfully teach the R sound in speech therapy! You- and your student- can have great success with this sound! SLPs can teach either the bunched R or retroflex R in therapy. Starting with vocalic ER in isolation is useful before attempting to try to teach other vocalic R sounds.

• My go-to resource for teaching the R sound
• Try a new way of treat R- check out my favorite CEU course
• Here are my favorite tools for helping to teach the R sound: tongue depressors and a mirror

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Lateral SH Tips for Speech Therapy

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R Words for Speech Therapy (Lists and Activities)

Looking for R words for speech therapy? Speech-language pathologists looking for a quick list of initial r words, medial r, and final r target words to practice during speech therapy, make sure to bookmark this post. You’ll also find some great ideas for making r therapy more effective with a variety of engaging games, articulation…

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R-Family Blends (Br, Cr, Dr, Fr, Gr, Tr)

Print these phonics worksheets for teaching the r-family of consonant blends. These include words with br (like brick and branch), cr (like crow and cry), dr (like drive and dress), fr (like frog and fruit), gr (like grapes and green), and tr (like tree and truck). Includes cut-and-glue worksheets, flash cards, build-a-word activities, writing practice, word wheels, sliders, and sorting games.

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Cut-and-Glue Activities

We actually have hundreds of phonics blend worksheets on STW. From this page, you can link to pages for families of blends (r-family, l-family, s-family). You can also link to activities for individual blends (like br, cr, sn, st, and countless others).

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Welcome to 'r' blend practice! We believe that as a parent or caregiver, you are your child's best teacher

Welcome to 'r' blend practice!  We believe that as a parent or caregiver, you are your child's best teacher and there are many things that you can do at home to improve your child's communication skills.

An 'r' blend is a combination of two or three consonant sounds.  The second or third sound is the 'r' sound.  Here are some examples:

tr: try, trip, true ‍ cr : cry, crow, crew pr : proud, prop, pry br : clean, clap, clue gr : glue, glad, glass dr : draw, drop, drip shr : shrub, shred, shrimp str : straight, strap, strobe spr : spread, sprint, spirit scr : scrap, scrape, screen In the speech-language pathology world, we call those two and three-consonant sound combinations 'consonant clusters'.  Some children find it hard to make sounds in the 'cluster' or blend, so they leave out one or two of the sounds or mispronounce the ‘r’ sound.  They might say 'tee' instead of 'tree'.   Some children might use a different sound such as 'w' instead of 'r'.  They might say ‘twee’ instead of ‘tree’. Developmental Norms: There is a significant amount of variability for the development of blends however, most 1 children produce all 'r-blends' correctly by 8 years of age . 1 Age at which at least 90% of children produced the sound correctly in all word positions. (Adapted norms from The Goldman Fristoe Test of Articulation-2) How to teach 'r' blends:

• For specific information regarding how to assist your child in making a correct ‘r’ sound, please refer to the page entitled ‘The ‘R’ Sound.
• To produce ‘r’ correctly, the teeth are together or slightly parted and the lips are rounded (i.e., puckered or in an "o" shape).
• The tongue moves back slightly and creates a hump in the middle of the mouth OR the tip of the tongue curls up and back towards the middle of the roof of the mouth.
• The voice is turned on.
• Next, ask your child to try saying a word with an 'r' blend, e.g. ‘cry’.   At first, ask your child to say the word slowly.  Once your child finds this easy, ask  him or her to say the word faster until it sounds more natural.  Typically, it is easier to make the ‘r’ in blends when the other consonant is made at the back of the mouth such as ‘cr’ and ‘gr’ blends.  By starting with these blends, we are reducing the need for the tongue to move around in the mouth, as both the sounds in the blend are made at the back of the mouth.

How to provide feedback for 'r' blends:

Give specific feedback!  When the sound is produced correctly say: "That was a great 'r' sound" OR "I really heard your 'r' sound when you said 'grow'.  Great job!" When your child doesn't put the ‘r' sound in the blend say: "Oops! You forgot the 'r' sound in 'grass’" OR you could say: "That sounded like you said 'gwass' instead of 'grass'.  Remember to use your 'r' sound in the blend, remember, ‘grrr’. You can give the sound a fun name. For example, the 'r' sound could be called the "mean sound" or the "pirate sound". Feel free to get creative and find a name for the sound that works best for your child!

How often should I be practicing with my child?

A useful analogy is to compare working on speech sounds to playing a video game. In many video games, there are different levels that need to be completed or mastered in a sequence. The length of time a child stays on one level varies greatly from child to child, and can be impacted by a number of factors. These factors include:

• The amount of cueing needed to elicit the sound correctly - we call this stimulability . If a child can produce a sound given proper cueing techniques, they are said to be stimulable to produce that sound. Gradually, over time, we can fade the cues so that the child can make the sound by themselves.
• Attention span: A child who is able to focus on practicing his or her speech sound, pay attention to the cues given, and pay attention to their own production is likely to make progress more quickly than a child who might struggle with attention and focus.

If you feel that your child is not making progress as expected, please contact your school speech-language pathologist for more guidance in this area. How to Master a Level? For most 'levels', your child will be ready to move on once he or she is able to produce the sound at that level with 80% accuracy. You don't need to keep track of how your child is doing on each task unless you want to. You can simply estimate approximately how well your child is doing. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact your school's speech-language pathologist.

Reps: 1 – 2 Activities/Practice sessions per day

Duration: 5 – 15 minutes

• Level One: Word (e.g., “ fr og”)
• Level Two: Phrase (e.g., “big fr og”)
• Level Three: Sentence (e.g., “The fr og lives in a pond.”)
• Level Four: Conversation (e.g., the sound in everyday conversation)

Why Practice? It’s Like Exercise!

Think of practicing speech sounds as similar to exercising or lifting weights. If you start off by learning correct form, exercising every day, and gradually increasing the difficulty or weight, you will be able to make great progress towards your fitness goal! The same goes for working on speech sounds. We start by showing a child how to properly produce the sound. Then, we work with the child on saying the sound on its own ( isolation ), then in syllables (la, lee, lie, low, Lou). After that, we target the sound at the word level- beginning, end, middle, and in consonant blends. Gradually, we move to producing the sound at the sentence level, and then at the conversational level.

Short But Often!

Researchers have found that shorter but more frequent practice sessions are more effective than longer but less frequent sessions. For this reason, I recommend that you try to sneak in as many short sessions as you can throughout your week. The more you practice, the faster your child will progress. A few 5-minute sessions a day is a great place to start, but you can always do fewer if it doesn't fit into your schedule. Try practicing while driving in the car, while standing in line, or while waiting for a doctor's appointment to get in a few extra repetitions.

Phonological Processes for /r/ blends:

A phonological process is a typical error pattern that young children use to simplify an adult speech sound they are not able to say.  In the case of /r/ blends, the most common phonological process children exhibit is something called cluster reduction.   Cluster reduction occurs when the child deletes one or more sounds from a cluster of consonant sounds.  For example, a cluster reduction for the word "frog" would be "fog".  A cluster reduction for the word "brown" would be "bown".

Cluster reduction is a common error pattern that babies and young children demonstrate when they are first learning to talk.  It takes a while for them to learn to move their mouth to make two or three consonant sounds in quick succession to produce a consonant blend.

If cluster reduction continues past the age of 3 or 4, it may be something that your child needs a little help with.  It is an error pattern that school SLPs work on frequently with children in the early grades.  Since children typically know how to make all the individual sounds in the blend correctly, it is often quite easy remediate their cluster reduction.

Tips for working on cluster reduction at home:

Be specific :  tell your children that they are leaving off one of the sounds at the beginning of words..

Give an Example :  give your children examples of their errors (e.g. "You said kie when you meant to say cry.   You left off the /r/sound"). Provide a Model :  have your child look closely at your mouth as you slowly say the word that starts with the cluster reduction.  Stretch out and emphasize the sound they are leaving off. Blend the Sounds Smoothly :  when you slow down words starting with /r/ blends for your child, it's easy to end up saying: buh – rown, fuh – rog etc.  That's okay if you need to do this initially to get that /r/ sound inserted after the initial consonant, but it is important to also work on a smooth transition between the first sound and the /r/ sound without adding an extra vowel into the word.  

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• The "TH" sound
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• The "R" Sound
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• The "CH" Sounds

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• General Articulation Resources

The 'K' Sound

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15 Extra Fun R Sound Articulation Games for Speech Therapy

Games are a great alternative when articulation drills get, well… boring.

But can articulation games for speech therapy be effective as drill work? Absolutely!

You know it’s important to get plenty of repetitions when practicing the r sound in articulation therapy, and sometimes a few minutes of pure drills can be appropriate. But kids get tired of drills. You get tired of drills. Yawn.

So we try games to spice things up a bit. Play increases participation and focus if done right.

So how do you get in the mass r sound practice you need with a game?

The secret is to play games that don’t require a lot of set-up or a lot of gameplay time between turns to practice. And of course, you can have your student repeat their word or sentence for multiple repetitions each time they take a turn during the game. (Shhhhh, don’t tell them- that’s secretly drill work!)

While I love those toy-company games that pop, chomp, or crash, those get over-used too. So are you ready for some fresh ideas your kids will love?

These ideas are great for practicing prevocalic and vocalic r, and many will work just as well with other target phonemes too.

Articulation activities that will get kids up and moving:

1. Roam the Room : Each student gets a notebook or paper and a clipboard. They have 5 minutes to roam the room and write down all the items they find that begin with the r sound or have an r sound anywhere in the item’s name.

Next, head back to the table and have your students create sentences with one or more of the words in each sentence. Students score 1 point for every correct r word in their sentence, so longer sentences can boost their scores. Silly sentences are definitely allowed! Example: “The ruler ran right out of the room.”

For word-level practice, you can have your students repeat each word they found 10 times. Score a point for at least 5/10 correct with each word, 3 points if they get all 10 correct. This encourages them not to rush through the repetitions.

2. Beach Ball Toss : Blow up a beach ball and write R sound words on each section. You kids will stand in a circle, and toss the ball gently to another student. Whichever word the pointer finger is pointing to when the ball is caught is the word to practice. Try 10 or 15 repetitions for single-word practice, or have the student create a couple of sentences with their word.

Have a mixed group? Why not write a number from 1-10 on each space instead, then post each student’s numbered word list on the wall?

3. Hot Potato for Initial R : Students sit in a circle and pass a potato or a bean bag. As each student gets the “potato” they say an r word.

When the SLP says “reverse” the student must say the word given by the previous student and begin passing the “potato” in the opposite direction. If the SLP says “repeat”, the student repeats the last three r words they heard before passing the potato.

If you have the room, add some actions to the game! When the adult says “rabbit” the student hops around the circle and then sits back down in their place. You can also say “run” or “red” (Jump up and touch something red in the room and then sit back down.)

The object is to complete the action before it’s that student’s turn again (or in a smaller group, before play goes a specified number of times around the circle.)

4. Rip, Rap, Rope offers lots of tongue-twisting practice for initial r. It’s great for kids who have already established prevocalic r and need to work on consistency.

To play, your students stand in a circle. The first student claps their hands and says “rip.”The next student claps their hands and says “rap,” the next one claps and says “rope”. If a player says the wrong word or hesitates too long, that’s a strike. After three strikes, the player is out, and sits down, but can continue to say the words with the group. The last person standing wins!

Table games for articulation of R that makes practicing fun:

5. 101 and Done! This is an articulation game for older elementary students that uses dice. The goal is to build your score up to 101 points without going over. Give your students a pencil, one die, and a piece of paper with a list of their practice words, and room to keep score. They roll the die and say one of their words the number of times they rolled.

Your students then decide if they want to score the number on the die or multiply it by ten. For example, if they roll 3, they can choose to score 3 points or 30.

6. Connections This r sound game works well for students working on multiple word positions. The first student says a word that begins with an R sound. For instance, they may start with “rat.”The next student thinks of a word that begins with the last sound of the previous word but also contains an r sound anywhere in the word. For instance, they may say “tired”. The next student might say “dirt”.

Connections is a great game for your older elementary students. It works well as an r articulation activity for middle school too.

Play continues around a circle until a student can’t think of a word that fits. That student gets to make up a sentence using the last two words and then play begins again.

7. Dots and Squares I’ll bet you played this paper and pencil game as a kid! You can easily play this game with 2-4 students, making it great for mixed groups.

Provide a piece of paper with dots in a grid. Students take turns saying their word 5x or say sentences, then connect two dots to draw a line. Each time a student completes a square, they write their initial in the square and go again to draw another line.

Want a Dots and Squares sheet that’s ready to print and go? I’ve created a page of just the dots, and also a page with both dots and initial r words. Get this free articulation game when you subscribe to Speech Sprout’s newsletter.

8. Articulation Chain : Tell your students they’re going on a trip and let them have fun getting creative with the location. You need to pack for your trip, but you can only pack things that have an r sound in the name. You kids can brainstorm words, or you can provide a list with their target sound.

The first student takes a turn and tells what they would pack. The next student repeats the previous item and adds a word. The next student repeats all previous items and adds a word. Challenge your students to see how many items in the chain they can remember!

9. Tell a Tale: Start a story and then have each student adds to the story using an r word. You’ll be surprised how creative your kids can be!

10. Never Have I Ever : This game is great for practicing vocalic r words. Students take turns finishing the sentence, “Never have I ever_____.” They must use at least one r word in their sentence. For example, they might say, “Never have I ever slept in a barn.”

Provide a list of target words, or let them generate their own! Target words can only be used once… so your kids will need to think of a new one on each turn.

11. Ready? Reach! This one works well for initial r practice. Fill a bag with pompoms, cubes, blocks, mini erasers or another small items that come in several colors. All the students say “Ready? The student whose turn it is says “Reach!” and reaches in the bag without looking, then pulls out one item and names the color they found. If they find a red one, they get a point.

12. Where’s the Pair? This is a variation on Ready Reach for vocalic R. Fill a bag as above. Your student practices a word or sentence, then everyone says “Where’s the Pair?” Your student reaches in and gets two items. If it’s a pair, you keep it and score a point. You can do this with cards or items. If you use cards, it’s fun to include a wild card that gives extra points.

More articulation R games for speech therapy that your kids will love!

13. Articulation R Bingo Riddles If you’ve played any of my Bingo Riddles Games, you know how much kids love guessing the answers to play. In addition to my holiday, seasons, and language skills Bingo Riddles, I’ve now created games for articulation too!

14. Articulation R Word Puzzles Games Crosswords, Word searches, Crack the Code, and Letter Shapes articulation activities. It includes pages for prevocalic r, vocalic r, and r blends. Print and go easy, you’ll enjoy pulling these out when you need engaging articulation activities for older students.

15. Articulation Pattern Blocks is a Boom ™ Cards game. Your students say their words, then slide a pattern block to complete the fun patterns.

Head over to Boom ™ Learning to try out the live previews for the Prevocalic R and R Blends Pattern Blocks or the Vocalic R and RL blends Pattern Blocks .

I also have an Articulation Pattern Block Bundle for you which includes activities for R, L, S, TH, and blends.

Boom™ is the trademark of Boom Learning. Used with permission.

I’ve got some articulation therapy tips for you when working on those r sounds:

If you need some fresh tricks for establishing that r sound, check out this post:

The Best Articulation Tricks to Try for Those Super Stubborn R’s

Are you working on the conversational level? Congrats! You may want to try these tips for easy data-taking:

3 Easy Ways to Take Articulation Data at the Conversational Level.

I hope you found some new R sound articulation games for speech therapy that you’ll love!

Tip: Why not pin this post for later? That way, you can quickly find the list when you’re in need of a fresh articulation r activity. Have fun!

• Read more about: Articulation

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Free Articulation Worksheets

60+ articulation worksheets ready for parents, therapists, and children. For first timers, please follow the getting started guide below.

Getting started guide

Each worksheet comes with 16 words. You can either print the sheet out and write on it directly, or  laminate it for reuse. The cards can easily be cut into flashcards as well. 

Have the child practice lip and tongue placement.

Practice the sound in isolation multiple times. Give the child a star for each attempt.

Work on syllables by combining the middle letter with each of the outer vowels. Switch the order of the letter with the vowels to practice initial, medial, and final syllables (ra, ar, ara, etc).

Every time the child says the target word make a star in 1 of the 5 circles at the bottom of the card.

Use the chart to see the average age a child produces certain english sounds. This is based off of research published in 2018. Click on the letter to jump to the worksheets or scroll down to see the worksheets in alphabetical order. 

Voiced + Voiceless TH

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10 Engaging Speech Therapy R Activities

Nov 21, 2015 | 1 comment

Treating the /r/ phoneme can be tricky, tiresome, and annoying for the clinician and student! I haven’t met an SLP at the elementary, middle, or high school level that doesn’t need more speech therapy R activities for their caseload. Today, I will share ten engaging R sound speech therapy activities to help you get those high trials in therapy.

Before practicing R at the syllable, word, sentence, or conversational level, you want to ensure you have established a solid /r/ production. It benefits no one to continue drilling /r/ when it isn’t an accurate production. If you need more resources to establish the /r/ phoneme, keep reading because I share some great tools!

Amazon affiliate links are included in this blog post. When you use my affiliate link, I get a small commission at no additional cost to you. 

Feeling Defeated about Teaching the R Sound?

The best advice I got from a veteran SLP when I asked how to teach a child to say /r/ was, “Just grab a pair of gloves, a tongue depressor, and hope for the best!”

In his office video clip, Dwight Schrute sums up most SLPs’ feelings about the /r/ phoneme!  He says, “R is one of the most menacing of sounds!  That’s why they call it murder and not muck duck!”  Those are my thoughts exactly, Dwight.

R Speech Therapy Techniques and Resources

If you are looking for manuals and guides for how to teach R to your student, Pam Marshalla has two excellent books. The first book is called Successful R Therapy: Fixing the Hardest Sound in the World . You will learn tips for how to help your student use their jaw, lips, and tongue together to produce r. Pam Marshalla also has The Marshalla Guide: A Topical Anthology of Speech Movement Techniques for Motor Speech Disorders & Articulation Deficits, which is a fantastic resource for a spectrum of speech sound disorders. Not only does she include techniques for remediating the /r/ phoneme, but Pam also shares various techniques for many speech sound disorders. If you serve a caseload with various speech sound disorders, this may be a better fit for your needs, whereas the Successful R Therapy book is excellent for SLPs who treat R often with students. 

Here is a post by SLP Natalie Snyders about getting a good /r/. Some excellent ideas from Playing With Words 365 about teaching the /r/ phoneme.

The Peachie Speechie has some great videos for how to teach r that you can use in therapy with your students.

Speech Therapy R Activities

Not having engaging speech therapy R sound activities for your sessions can make the day drag along! That’s why I am sharing a round-up of ten engaging prevocalic and vocalic r sound activities to help you keep students motivated to practice. If you need tips for encouraging R carryover into conversation, check out this blog post . 

• For word, carrier phrase, and sentence level R sound practice, check out the prevocalic and vocalic r activities flipbooks. You can get high trials while working on the vocalic r that your students are stimulable for using correctly. 

2. Figuratively speeching has an excellent articulation placemat set that is great for sending home for additional practice. It provides activities for the whole week on one sheet with letters included to send home!

3. Whether you are doing teletherapy, in-person therapy, or need to build a speech home program, using the digital speech folders for R will help you customize syllable, word, sentence, and carryover activities in one spot! Once your student’s digital speech folder is set up, you can easily share the Google Slide presentation with the family or pull it up on your computer for ready-to-go therapy.

R Sentences Activities and R Activity Worksheets

4. Erik Raj has these super fun Mini homework sheets for articulation. These mini R articulation worksheets have great silly R sentence questions that students can read and discuss. One way to incorporate more R sentence level practice is to have your student ask a friend, teacher, and parent the silly question outside the speech therapy session.

5. To up your student’s motivation to practice R sentences, use the No Prep Articulation Sentence Challenge Sheets . Students will be excited to see if they can beat their last challenge score! Make sure your students go slow enough to achieve correct productions. Play 3 rounds to see if they can get more trials or correct productions.

R Words Sound Loaded Carrier Phrases

6. Need resources for R words sound loaded carrier phrases? Use the sentence strip visuals to practice R with similar carrier phrases such as “I want a ____.” or with sound-loaded R phrases for initial r, r-blends, and vocalic r.

• Miss V’s Speech World has an incredible 52 Weekly /r/ homework worksheets product that helps you get sound-loaded R practice in your session and a one-page R worksheet to send home for weekly practice. 

Speech Therapy R Activities for Carryover

8. To get those high trials when reading passages, you will have fiction and non-fiction passages ready using the R articulation carryover activities set . No more stressing about taking data because the R sound is counted for you to take data easily! Find sound-loaded articles on Wonderopolis.org , NewsELA , or Readworks.org .

• Work on sequencing skills and explaining how to do something with sound-loaded R YouTube videos. You don’t have to spend time searching for videos because they have been organized as QR codes in the R Articulation carryover activities set . The best thing about these how-to YouTube videos is that they are mixed group friendly!

Here are a few how-to videos that have the R sound embedded in it:

• How to Make Rice Crispie Treats
• How to Care for a Rabbit
• How to Do Your Laundry
• How to Drive a Car

• One common core standard in classrooms is to work on comparing and contrasting. Comparing and contrasting occur when discussing characters in stories, scientific methods, and figurines in history. So, why not provide more opportunities for students to practice comparing and contrasting and practicing their r sound? Compare and contrast similar R nouns by attributes. If you don’t have time to think of word pairs, there are R flashcards in this set to help you save time . 

Some good R articulation words to compare and contrast are as follows:

• truck/train
• dinosaur/giraffe
• turtle/alligator
• grapes/strawberries
• rabbit/raccoon
• breakfast/dinner

You can even make a list with your students, fill out with a Venn diagram and then use it to practice carryover. Save it for future sessions as a warm-up.

What R Speech Therapy Activities Do You Use With Your Students?

Sometimes speech therapy for r can get a little boring for the clinician and the student. When in a planning rut, it’s nice to find activities that will liven up the sessions. So, if you have a fun r speech therapy activity, share it in the comments!

My free articulation carryover activities guide will help you with any of these resources shared. In the guide, I include visual supports, data tracking for progress, conversation ideas, and a homework sheet.

Great post! I could really use some of these!

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1000+ R Words, Phrases, Sentences, and Reading Passages Grouped by Place, Syllable, & Blend

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Br - blends, cr - blends, dr - blends, fr - blends, gr - blends, pr - blends.

prairie dog

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Initial R by Syllables

wrist watch

racquet ball

rattlesnake

Rhode Island

right handed

rolling pin

wrestling match

recognition

recollection

relationship

residential

respectable

riding safety

Rocky Mountains

rationality

reciprocity

recommendation

respiratory

roasting marshmallows

Roman Catholic

Roman numeral

reconciliation

reconsideration

Republican Party

Medial R by Syllables

encouragement

interruption

maple syrup

waffle iron

irresistible

Memorial Day

necessarily

verification

voluntarily

Mediterranean

peculiarity

Final R by Syllables

falling star

millionaire

questionnaire

shooting star

conquistador

El Salvador

SEE ALSO:   The Best Books for Speech Therapy Practice

Initial R Phrases and Sentences

cute rabbit

raccoon tail

tennis racquet

pretty rainbow

scoop of raisins

rake leaves

reach up high

read quietly

recycle bin

old rhinoceros

bowl of rice

ride safely

diamond ring

small wrench

write it out

I see a rabbit in the grass.

The raccoon has a striped tail.

They all wanted to race together.

He hit the ball with the racquet.

I am listening to an old radio.

Use the rag to clean the floor.

The rain was pouring down.

I see more than one rainbow.

I want raisins in my cereal.

We rake leaves in the fall.

The rat was looking for some cheese.

She is trying to reach the rings.

It was fun to read about princesses.

She is showing people how to recycle.

Red is my favorite color.

The rhinoceros has big horns.

She is holding a ribbon.

We want rice for dinner.

He went on a motorcycle ride.

She had a beautiful diamond ring.

Don't rip the paper we need it.

The rock is heavy.

There is a big rug in my house.

He likes to run by himself.

He used the wrench to fix the leaky faucet.

He is holding his wrist.

She writes in her journal every week.

Medial R Phrases and Sentences

suspect arrest

charged battery

fresh blueberries

digital camera

fresh carrots

cherry on top

breakfast dairy

beaded earring

erase a mistake

fairy costume

thick forest

tall giraffe

small hearing aid

dry macaroni

married couple

peel orange

talking parrot

pirate ship

nice squirrel

number zero

The police officer made an arrest.

She is holding an arrow.

He needed a battery for his game.

He ate blueberries for breakfast.

She has a digital camera.

We pick carrots from the garden.

I would like a milkshake with a cherry on top.

Dairy is always good for breakfast.

Her earring was too heavy.

If you make a mistake, erase it.

She dressed up as a fairy.

Many trees are in the forest.

Their house has two garage doors.

The giraffe has a long neck.

He puts the hearing aid in his ear.

He dressed up like a hero.

We want macaroni and cheese for dinner.

They are a married couple.

He is going to eat the orange.

How does a parrot talk?

The pirate is looking for treasure.

The squirrel was looking for nuts.

Mom read a story to her son.

I want syrup on my pancakes.

The walrus has huge tusks.

The doctor showed her the x-ray.

Our address has a zero in it.

Final R Phrases and Sentences

hungry bear

butter popcorn

wooden chair

family dinner

clothes dryer

roaring fire

tall ladder

near the hole

white paper

nice to share

ocean shore

square block

classroom teacher

whisper softly

The bear was hunting for food. 

I put butter on my popcorn.

The car is fast.

Matthew sat down on the chair.

They did a cheer at the pep rally.

They sat down for a family dinner.

We knocked on the door three times.

She put the clothes into the dryer.

The fire kept them warm.

The wood floor made the room look great.

She will be four years old in October.

She has long, pretty hair.

Use the ladder to reach the fruit.

The ball is near the hole.

Please take out a sheet of paper.

Can I have a bite of your pear?

Can I pour you a glass of water?

She is nice to share her ice cream.

Let's go play by the sea shore.

The spider waited for flies in the web.

A square has four sides.

The star was hanging on the tree.

She is our 5th grade teacher.

Don't make me tear these papers.

She whispered into the girl's ear.

The fence had barb wire on it.

It is almost the end of the school year.

R Reading Paragraphs

Garage scientist.

Whenever I have free time, I race to my garage. I have all kinds of crazy experiments going on in there. I don't mean testing rats or anything. I mean really cool experiments. 

For example, right now I am experimenting to see if carrots can recharge batteries. I have had other experiments that have gone longer. My experiment to see if raisins will make the speakers in my radio louder has been going on for over a year now. 

There are so many more ideas that I want to experiment with - making a fireproof door, testing to see what rainbows are made of, trying to see if I can teach rats to read. 

If my brain was made of trees, it would be a forest of ideas. Science is radical!

My buddy Randy is my hero. He has won many awards, ribbons, and trophies. But he doesn't care about all of that. He does what he does to help others. Here are a few things he has done that make him such a great guy. 

First of all, he is married and is an awesome dad. He has been a teacher for 15 years and has won teacher of the year three times! He volunteers to read to students at after school programs and pick up garbage on the side of the road on the weekends. 

He recycles paper, plastic, and glass which is good for the environment. He helps people with hearing aids get them for less money. He once saved a baby giraffe from drowning at the zoo. He is writing two books. One about ways to improve classroom education and another with fun short stories for kids. 

There are hundreds of other examples I could share with you. Randy puts his heart and strength into everything he does. He is a real role model and I try to follow the example he sets.

Pirate Fanatic

My sister has a friend who thinks he is a pirate. He wears a red bandana on his head, has a pet parrot that he keeps on his shoulder, and walks around saying, "Arrr matey." 

As if this wasn't strange enough, he also has a really big collection of earrings. Not normal earrings either, weird ones.

He has earrings that look like rocks, wrenches, raccoons, cameras, walrus, and even a pair that look like rakes. I understand that some pirates wear earrings, but I thought they would be scarier like hooks, or circles, or daggers. 

I feel like I should tell my sister's friend to research the type of earrings that pirate's wear. Without the right gear, a person who is trying to look like a pirate will just look strange. If he ever met a real pirate, the pirate would probably make fun of him for how he looked. 

Return to Top of R Words Page

Initial BR by Syllables

breast stroke

breathtaking

British Isles

broken down

Brooklyn Bridge

brotherhood

Brussels sprouts

Medial BR by Syllables

paint brush

white bread

gingerbread

London Bridge

paint brushes

scatterbrain

whole wheat bread

celebration

Golden Gate Bridge

Initial BR Phrases and Sentences

metal bracelet

smart brain

sliced bread

eat breakfast

long bridge

broken plate

big brother

fresh baked brownie

Her grandmother gave her the bracelet.

Her friends say she is a brain.

The bread was cut in slices.

I love bacon, eggs, and orange juice for breakfast.

The bridge connects the two cities.

The plate was broken.

He swept the area with a broom.

He loves his brother.

She had a fresh baked brownie for her treat.

Medial BR Phrases and Sentences

scary cobra

cornbread muffin

bushy eyebrow

fabric store

wood hairbrush

new paintbrush

orange toothbrush

piece of white bread

The cobra wanted to strike.

She had a cornbread muffin for dinner.

He had a bushy eyebrow.

She got her fabric at the store.

She just bought the hairbrush.

Grab a paintbrush and get started.

The dentist gave her a new toothbrush.

I bought a loaf of white bread.

We saw a zebra in the jungle.

BR Reading Paragraphs

Lucky bride.

My brother is getting married on Friday. He wants the wedding day to be perfect for his bride. He is planning to visit her house early and make her breakfast in bed. Two of her favorite things to eat are brownies and cornbread, so he is actually going to make her brownie oatmeal and cornbread muffins. 

She loves zebras and he bought her a picture of a baby zebra from a store, just east of the Brooklyn Bridge. He bought her a beautiful bracelet to wear at the wedding. 

He has other gifts that he wants to bring her, but I told him to wait until after the wedding for some of them. She is really smart so he is getting her a squishy foam brain that she can put on her desk at work. He also wants to give her a new set of paintbrushes for her studio. 

If he treats her this good all of the time, I'm sure she won't break his heart.

World Records

The Guinness Book of World Records is full of amazing facts that will raise your eyebrows. From broken bones to tiny brains, it covers the world's most interesting, fanatical, and dedicated people. 

Some records have never been broken even though many people try. There are records for people who own entire houses full of brown fabric, barns full of toothbrushes, and cars full of moldy white bread. One person holds a record for riding a broom over a thousand miles. 

Some records are held by more than one person. Like the four bread store owners who sold a bridge, or the three brothers who hold a record for having cobras on their head for the longest amount of time. 

Why would anyone wear a cobra on their head? Some might think that is brave, but I would think something was wrong with their brain. 

If you visit a city with a Guinness Book of World Records museum, I recommend getting up early, eating a big breakfast and spending all day in one. You will have fun and wild stories to bring home to your friends and family.

Initial DR by Syllables

drawing board

dressing room

dressing up

driver's seat

driving range

drummer boy

dry cleaner

dramatically

drastically

drawing table

Medial DR by Syllables

fruit drink

eye dropper

hair dresser

lemon drink

line drawing

orange drink

race driver

screwdriver

truck driver

driving safety

lemon-lime drink

overdrawing

pineapple drink

salad dressing

taxi driver

ambulance driver

hydrophobia

hypochondriac

quadrilateral

Initial DR Phrases and Sentences

chinese dragon

draw a picture

night dream

wood dresser

drink water

The statue was of a dragon.

The drain was not clogged.

He started to draw a picture.

She had a happy dream.

The dresser is made of wood.

She wanted to drink water.

The faucet started to drip.

They went for a drive on a dusty road.

The snare drum is played in a marching band.

Medial DR Phrases and Sentences

new address

tidy bedroom

playing children

cherry cough drop

one hundred

laundry basket

heavy raindrops

high snowdrift

light sundress

Every home has a unique address.

I always keep my bedroom tidy.

The children are best friends.

The cough drop made him feel better.

He is one hundred years old today.

The laundry basket is full.

Raindrops are falling on her.

The car was covered by a snowdrift.

She wore her sundress to the beach.

DR Reading Paragraphs

Snowdrift drama.

In the winter, wind blows the snow to create snowdrifts. Some storms are so drastic that snowdrifts bury cars on our street in snow. 

Snowdrifts can be anything you can dream up. The neighborhood children and I always played in snowdrifts around our houses. We would dig the snow out and pretend to drive the drifts like cars. 

I would sit in the driver's seat and my friend Drew would be co-pilot. One time we shaped the snowdrift into the shape of a dragon. Another time, we shaped the snow into a bunch of little drums. 

We would also make snowmen. We took dirty laundry and clothes we found in our dresser drawers, and dressed our snowmen head to toe. 

Once we accidentally used my sister Drea's dress. Drea got pretty mad at us and took her dress to the dry cleaners right away. If you ask me she was a little too dramatic about the whole thing. 

I dreaded that she would tell my mom and I would get in a lot of trouble. I pictured my mom dragging me all over the store to help buy Drea a new dress. Luckily, Drea and I made a deal. I promised to bring her favorite drink to her anytime of the day for one month. 

Now I'm worried I will drop the drinks I take to her.

Unique Drummers

My cousin Drake is a professional drummer. He's not the typical kind of drummer though. At his shows, he and the other drummers will drum on almost anything. 

I have seen them drum on people's drink cups, drill bits, drain pipes, a washer and dryer, and a hundred other things. His drumming group is very entertaining to watch. 

They mostly perform on stage in concert halls. They perform outside concert halls too though. They have performed at a driving range, in someone's bedroom, at a drag race, and at a drugstore. 

The drummers usually don't ask questions about where they play, as long as they get paid for their time. They have dreams to play in New York City some day. The band is saving their money to drive there, but don't have enough yet. 

Next month they are holding a special performance at the drive-in theater. It is a Halloween based concert so one of the band members is going to dress up as Dracula and drum on a mummy. The drummers hope this concert will raise the extra money they need to drive to New York. 

As a band of drummers, they are very driven to meet their goals and dreams. 

That's what it takes to be a performer. 

Initial FR by Syllables

French fries

French toast

fresh water

friendliness

frontal lobe

front runner

frostbitten

fruitfulness

fruit salad

frustrating

frustration

fraternizing

frighteningly

Medial FR by Syllables

girl friend

Good Friday

infringement

refreshments

confrontation

infrequently

refreshingly

refrigerate

San Francisco

South Africa

unfrequented

unfriendliness

unfruitfulness

refractivity

refrigeration

refrigerator

Initial FR Phrases and Sentences

picture frame

freckle face

French fries and Ketchup

delicious french toast

Friday night

best friend

pink frosting 

Her picture was in the frame.

Her freckle face is gorgeous.

Give me a lot of Ketchup for my French fries.

She had French toast for breakfast.

Our date is on Friday night.

He is my best friend.

The frog caught the fly with its tongue.

She wanted pink frosting on her cupcake.

They had their choice of fruit.

Medial FR Phrases and Sentences

kind boyfriend

ugly bullfrog

deep-fry food

cute girlfriend

cut grapefruit

play leapfrog

refresh yourself

beautiful sea front

The thunder scared me and I was afraid.

Her boyfriend is very kind and respectful.

A bullfrog is gross.

Deep-fry foods for a better taste.

I like being with my girlfriend.

I eat grapefruit in the morning.

They are playing leapfrog.

She used the water to refresh herself.

Their house was right on the sea front.

FR Reading Paragraphs

Freaky french toast.

Fran's boyfriend, Fred, enjoyed making her breakfast on Friday.

This Friday he said he would make her French toast with frosting, fruit, and whip cream. Fred's French toast recipe was amazing. It had been passed down from his great grandmother who made French toast in France.

Fred never told anyone the recipe.

All Fran knew was that he deep-fried the bread in a special mixture that had frozen grape juice, cinnamon, and nutmeg in it. The French toast was so good it was freaky.

Being Fred's girlfriend was great and getting French toast every Friday was a huge perk. Fran hoped that Fred would tell her the secret French toast recipe one day.

Until then, she would just enjoy how frequently she could eat them.

Freckle Watcher

In my free time I like to freckle watch. Freckle what? I know, it sounds like a weird hobby. I tried to refrain from it, but the truth is, I can't. I think freckles are so cool.

I have seen freckles that look like frogs, French fries, and even Africa. I get different responses when I ask to see people's freckles. Unfortunately, people aren't always the most friendly when you ask if you can look at their freckles.

Sometimes I go days without looking at any. It can be frustrating. Most people are friendly and unafraid and will show theirs to me. I have made good friends with complete strangers because I asked to see their freckles.

I was introduced to my girlfriend, Francesca, by one stranger. He said Francesca was interested in art and thought freckle shapes would be a fresh idea for one of her projects.

I wouldn't give up my hobby of freckle watching for anything. 

Initial GR by Syllables

grade school

grass snake

ground floor

grandchildren

granddaughter

grandfather

grandmother

grasshopper

Great Britain

grizzle bear

Ground Hog Day

grounds keeper

ground zero

grammatical

grandfather clock

grand piano

great-grandparent

group therapy

Medial GR by Syllables

concord grapes

disgraceful

study group

underground

aggravation

agriculture

congratulate

congregation

disagreement

ingratitude

photographer

ungraciously

agricultural

bibliography

disagreeable

disintegrated

geographical

oceanographer

topographical

undergraduate

ungrammatical

Initial GR Phrases and Sentences

her grandpa

tiny grasshopper

green crayon

brown grizzly bear

cute groundhog

She loves her grandpa.

Grapes come in many colors.

I need to cut the grass.

The grasshopper has big legs.

I always color the grass green.

It is fun to grill in the summer.

The grizzly bear is hungry for fish.

The groundhog came out of its hole.

Medial GR Phrases and Sentences

Let's agree

blue-green feathers

one hundred degrees

white egret

hand engrave

flowery fragrance

hungry birds

migrate north

You shake hands when you agree.

You can see when she is angry.

The bird has blue-green feathers.

One hundred and six degrees is hot.

The egret was walking in the water.

He learned how to engrave from his father.

The perfume had a flowery fragrance.

The baby birds are hungry.

Every year they migrate north.

GR Reading Paragraphs

Hungry grizzly.

My grandpa and I ran away from a grizzly bear in the woods. We were camping near a stream. We had caught some fish and put it on the grill for dinner. When the grizzly ran toward us, grandpa said he could tell it wasn't angry. It was just hungry.

We both agree that the fragrance of the fish was strong and was all the grizzly wanted. We are grateful he wasn't hungry for us and that the fish and our other groceries were enough to gratify his hunger. We are also grateful that we parked our truck close to camp so we could get in it for protection.

It is the best camping story my grandpa and I have together and, even though it was scary, I don't regret going.

Phil the Groundhog

I grew up in a town that has a large group of people who are passionate about our town groundhog Phil.

During the year, Phil meets and greets people at our local library. He lives there in his groundhog habitat. Our town has Groundhog Phil statues all over it to show our pride for Groundhog Day - a bagpipe playing groundhog, statue of liberty groundhog, a mayor groundhog, and a firefighter groundhog to name a few. Phil even has his own official souvenir shop.

Every year on Groundhog Day, we all meet at Gobbler's Knob to see Phil predict the weather. The town officials go on the grandstand and have a ceremony where they talk to Phil and see if we will have a long or short winter.

We have a great time and look forward to it every year. 

Initial CR/KR by Syllables

cream cheese

crow's nest

cruise ship

crackerjack

craftsmanship

crop duster

cross-country

crystallize

chrysanthemum

cracker barrel

cranberry tree

creativeness

credit rating

credit union

critical mass

cross-country skis

cross reference

crossword puzzle

Medial CR/KR by Syllables

bike crossing

double-cross

handcrafted

water craft

increasingly

microscopic

railroad crossing

aircraft carrier

incriminating

micro detector

Initial CR/KR Phrases and Sentences

hard shell crab

start to crawl

box of crayons

crave chocolate

busy crosswalk

start to cry

I think a crab just pinched me.

The wall had a big crack.

The baby just started to crawl.

He shares his box of crayons.

They were acting crazy in the kitchen.

Our crib was hard to put together.

I crave a big chocolate bar.

Cross the street at the crosswalk.

The baby started to cry.

Medial CR/KR Phrases and Sentences

broke and bankrupt

gross cockroach

wet concrete

cold ice cream

messy packrat

soft pie crust

garden scarecrow

tell the secret

fluffy whip cream

The company went bankrupt last month.

Do you see that cockroach?

Sidewalks are made out of concrete.

Here is your bowl of ice cream.

He is a packrat, he keeps everything.

Wrap the pie crust around the dish.

The scarecrow keeps birds away from the garden.

She is telling her a secret.

May I have some whip cream on my pie?

CR/KR Reading Paragraphs

Ice cream cake.

The ice cream cake was melted all over the floor. Kristina's party had gone perfectly until her friend, Crystal, had forgot to put the ice cream cake in the freezer. Kristina wanted to cry! She had been craving ice cream cake for days. It was her favorite ice cream cake - mint with cookie crust, topped with whip cream and cherries.

She wanted to try and save the cake, but a cockroach had crawled into it and then hid in a crack in the wall. Cockroaches drove her crazy and it made her feel worse about losing the ice cream cake.

"I'll go buy another one," said Crystal. She ran outside, crossed the street, and went to the cake shop. She was back in minutes with a new ice cream cake - mint with cookie crust, topped with whip cream and cherries. It was exactly like the one that melted.

"How did you get another one so fast?" Kristina asked.

"I have a secret to tell you," Crystal responded, "I had two cakes made just in case something like this happened. I forget to do stuff like this all the time. I would probably go bankrupt if I bought ice cream cakes all the time. Thank goodness I don't!"

Crystal, Kristina, and their friends laughed and all enjoyed a slice of ice cream cake.

Creative Uncle Creed

People I know say my Uncle Creed is crazy. He lives across from the beach. Every day he goes to the beach and finds crabs. Then he takes them home and puts them in a crib.

Not a box, not a cage, a crib.

Then he takes crayons and colors the tops of their shells.

"When the crabs move around they create what I call 'moving art'," he says. Some call it crazy, I call it creative.

He also collects scarecrows, broken pieces of concrete, crumbs, and fake crystals. He keeps them all in crates in his front yard, but I don't know where he gets them all from. People call him a packrat, but they shouldn't criticize. We all collect "stuff."

He has done some pretty incredible things. He has given a crow a bath in a creek, fed a cricket cream cheese, and crawled on cranberries to make his own cranberry sauce.

He is amazing at crossword puzzle. It has never taken him more than two minutes to finish any crossword.

He is building his own spacecraft too - not to go to space, just to learn how to build one.

People call me crazy, but I want to be like my Uncle Creed some day.

Initial PR by Syllables

prescription

practical joke

practically

praying mantis

prehistoric

preparation

preposition

presentable

presentation

professional

proposition

prehistorical

preparatory

prepositional

probability

productivity

pronunciation

Medial PR by Syllables

sound proof

fingerprint

improvement

low pressure

mispronounce

appropriate

approximate

April Fools Day

disapproval

life preserver

vice president

word processor

appreciation

impressionable

inappropriate

interpretation

representative

uncompromising

unprecedented

Initial PR Phrases and Sentences

pray quietly

fierce predator

nice present

salty pretzel

cute princess

desk printer

win the prize

She kneeled by her bed to pray.

Predators are animals that hunt for their food. 

He has a small present.

We bought a pretzel at the store.

This coat has a high price.

She is wearing a princess crown.

Will you please fix our printer?

He won the prize.

He is proud of his paper.

Medial PR Phrases and Sentences

approved message

ripe apricot

month of April

cook's apron

architect blueprint

ink fingerprint

making a footprint

be surprised

waterproof boots

The business request was approved.

An apricot is delicious.

My birthday is in April.

The cook had an apron on to keep clean.

The architect created the blueprint.

Security clearance requires a fingerprint card.

She left a footprint in the sand.

He was surprised when he opened the gift.

His yellow boots are waterproof.

PR Reading Paragraphs

Pretzel prank.

You have heard the story of the princess who pricked her finger. This is the story of the prince who ate a pretzel.

Everyone in the kingdom loved the prince. He was proud of his kingdom. He protected the people and ruled with humility. The people gave him presents. The people in the kingdom rarely had any problems with one another.

Once when the prince was in the marketplace, he bought and ate a pretzel from one of the shops. While eating the pretzel, there was a puff of smoke, and then the people saw a prune on the ground. The people gasped and didn't know what to do. They asked the man who sold the prunes what they could do, but he didn't know.

Finally, someone stepped out of the crowd revealed the prince high up on the castle wall. "It was just a prank," he said, "The prince is not a prune. We played a magic trick on you."

The people all breathed a sigh of relief and were happy to have their prince back.

Predators and Prey

Predators are animals that hunt for their food. Prey are the animals that predators try to eat.

Typically, predators will prowl around and watch their prey to see what kind of movements they make. Even though prey are the animals being hunted, they are not dumb. Many types of prey are pretty smart.

For example, prairie dogs use a variety of pitched, warning barks to warn each other of different predators. Some birds will protect their eggs by pretending to be hurt. This lure predators away from their eggs.

Both predators and prey have their own problems. Predators don't always know if they will eat and prey don't always know if they will live. Personally, I'm glad I can go to the store to get my food. 

Initial TR by Syllables

train station

transcribing

transferring

translation

transmission

treacherous

treasure chest

treasure hunt

trustworthy

traditional

tranquility

transatlantic

transferable

transitional

transparency

transportation

tribulation

traditionally

transcontinental

triangulation

trigonometry

Medial TR by Syllables

concentrate

country club

railroad track

rainbow trout

state trooper

subtraction

catastrophe

concentration

contribution

controversy

electronics

entrepreneur

extravagant

illustrated

introduction

no trespassing

remote control

St. Patrick's Day

ventriloquist

electricity

metropolitan

pediatrician

Initial TR Phrases and Sentences

red tractor

horse trailer

hidden treasure

silver truck

loud trumpet

The tractor helps plant the crops.

They pulled the trailer into the yard.

The train was moving fast.

Take the trash out today.

The pirates found the hidden treasure.

The tree was 50 feet tall.

He rode his trike in the driveway.

A silver truck drives by.

He practiced the trumpet in the living room.

Medial TR Phrases and Sentences

stage actress

red fire truck

good orchestra

short pinetree

horse race track

down the railroad track

old remote control

subtract numbers

nice waitress

The actress rehearsed for her performance.

The fire truck was standing by in case of a fire.

The orchestra will perform tonight.

The snow had fallen on the tree.

The horses ran fast down the race track.

The railroad track turns at the mountain.

I use the remote control to fly the plane.

You need to subtract for these problems.

The waitress took her order.

TR Reading Paragraphs

Tracy's training.

Tracy was an actress and she was going to be in a movie about farms. To play her role, she had to learn to drive a tractor, clean a pig trough, take out trash, and hike on trails during short camping trips. But that was just the beginning of the things she needed to learn.

She put a lot of trust in Troy, the farmer who taught her how to do these things. She grew up in a big city and never had the type of training that Troy gave her.

In the beginning, Tracy thought living on a farm in the country, driving a truck, and living in a trailer would be a tough transition. It didn't take her long to realize how much hard work living on a farm was.

She learned how to trust others, work hard, and even jump on a trampoline. After she finished filming the movie, she had a lot of great memories and thought to herself, "I wouldn't have traded anything for this experience."

Caution! Train Tracks

Tre rode his trike all over the neighborhood. He did just what his mom asked. "Stay in control, don't do tricks, and never go near the train tracks," she said.

One day when Tre was out riding, he heard the siren on a fire truck. Tre rode his trike as fast as he could toward the sound. Just before he got to the train tracks, he saw the fire truck. Then he saw another thing that looked like a truck. It was smashed everywhere.

Tre saw someone close by and asked what had happened.

"The truck got stuck on the train tracks," the man said. "Luckily he got out before the train hit the car," he continued, "That would have been tragic."

Tre realized right then why his mom had warned him to stay away from the train tracks.

He had wanted to try and ride over the tracks just to see if he could, without getting into trouble. He was glad he had listened and not tried.

"Train tracks are dangerous," Tre said. From then on Tre watched the train go by from the tree house in his yard. That was close enough for him.

This list of functional words was professionally selected to be the most useful for a child or adult who has difficulty with producing the "R" sound.

We encourage you to use this list when practicing at home.

Home practice will make progress toward meeting individual language goals much faster.

Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) are only able to see students/clients 30-60 mins (or less) per week.

This is not enough time  for your child to overcome an articulation disorder with the "R" sound. But with high caseloads...

...it's all SLPs can do.

There's  only so much time  in the day.

Every day that your child goes without practice  it becomes more and more difficult  to correct an "R" error because he/she continues to say it incorrectly. 

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43+ Best R Speech Therapy Activities

I’m excited to bring to you my complete list of R speech therapy activities! Working as a speech therapist in the elementary school setting I would say about 50% of my caseload was working on articulation and about 25% of those students were working on the r sound and r blends. 

Correct Production

In the English language, the r sound is one of the most difficult sounds as well as one of the last sounds to develop. There are two different ways a speech-language pathologist can teach tongue placement for r remediation. 

First, let’s review the two different variations of tongue movements for producing the r sound:

• Retroflexed R

The two different tongue positions are very similar and vary in mid-tongue and tongue tip placements:

• Teeth: The /r/ sound is made by having a slight gap between the teeth.
• Lips: Lips should be in a neutral position and not rounded. (A rounded lip shape might lead to a /w/ in place of an /r/ sound, such as “wed” for the word “red”.
• Sides of the Tongue: Be sure to place the sides of the tongue against the upper side of your teeth to allow for the passage of air to go down the center of the tongue.
• Retroflexed Tongue Position: Have the mid-tongue somewhat tense but not bunched up. Then place the tip of the tongue pointing up just past the alveolar ridge.
• Bunched Tongue Position: Have the mid-tongue bunched up near the roof of the mouth. Then place the tip of the tongue pointing down or straight.
• Air: Then blow a skinny stream of air over the center of your tongue (you do not want the air to come out the sides of the tongue).
• Voice: The r sound is also a voiced sound so your voice box or vocal cords should vibrate. You can tell that their voice is turned on by touching your voice box on your neck and feeling it vibrate.

R Speech Sounds

• Prevocalic R – is when the r sound comes before a vowel sound, such as an initial r word “red”. 
• Vocalic R – s when the r sound comes after a vowel sound, such as: or, ar, er, ear, ire, air.

Target Word List – List of Functional Words

Here’s an r word list for you to use in therapy or at home practice to work on your student or child’s new skill.

• For Example: run, rest, ride, rake, root, parade, tarp, harp, worm, farm, soccer, wire, weather, faster, baker

See the full list of 1220+ R words at the word level, phrase level, and sentence level here.

Word Positions: R Words Speech Therapy 

Initial position of words.

The initial position of the r sound is at the beginning of a word. For example, “rock” or “race”.

Medial Position of Words

Some words have the r sound in the medial position of a word, such as “scared”, “tired”, and “fork”.

Final Positions of Words

The final positions of words are when the target sound is at the end of a word. For example, “tiger” or “star”.

SEE ALSO: 21 Best Reinforcement Games for Speech Therapy

Speech Therapy Activities

Below I’ve outlined 43+ ideas for articulation activities that can be used to make your speech therapy sessions planning a breeze this year. 

Older Students

Using real-life photos is a great way to work on r articulation therapy with your older or middle school aged students. Here are a few resources that use real life photos.

• Real-Life Photos, Phrases, & Sentences – Grab our free r words with real-life pictures or use our interactive flash cards right from our post.
• R Conversation Prompts – ARTICULATION by The Prairie Speechie is a set of “Would You Rather” question prompts to work on R articulation at a conversation level.

Articulation Cards

A fun way to work on your students target sounds is to use articulation cards because you can use them in so many different ways. 

You can target r in the therapy room by playing memory or go fish by simply printing a 2nd set of cards. 

• R Articulation Cards for Speech Therapy Activities & Drill Sheets – FREE! By Ashley Rossi is a TPT best for a reason! This freebie of 12 articulation cards comes in color and black/white and can be used for drills or homework sheets!
• Articulation Cards: Vocalic R by Speech Please is a great set of 138 printable articulation cards for speech therapy!
• R-initial Articulation Cards by Speech4Africa is a set of 27 picture cards that are print and go ready. This deck has initial r cards. 

Using boom cards is like using digital versions of your child’s favorite games.

• Articulation Cards for Speech Therapy BOOM CARDS™ R Initial FREEBIE by Stacey Crouse is a set of digital boom cards that target initial /r/. They come with built-in features such as modeling and self-monitoring. 
• Free Speech Therapy Boom Cards | Vocalic R Coarticulation Sentences – AIR by Goldielocks Speech is a great, no-prep set of boom cards that allows the student to read the sentence and then pick the correct word from context clues in the sentence. 
• You might also want to check out our complete list of boom cards with a whole section just for articulation.

Conversation Level

When looking at the process of articulation therapy we typically begin at the word level and work toward the conversational level. Here are a few ways to work on the r sound at the conversational level. 

One idea is to work on identifying the main idea of a story while working on your r sound in conversation.

9. R Articulation Sentences Freebie by Speechie Worksheet Station is a great set of R articulation worksheets at the sentence level for all positions of /r/. Once the child says the sentence you could then have a short conversation about that topic.

10. “R” Articulation Practice “Would You Rather” Questions For Speech Therapy by Rachel’s Collection is a free sample of 162 “Would You Rather” Questions that prompt practice of the ‘r’ sound in all positions.

Sensory Bins

Using sensory bins can be a perfect practice session for the young children you have on your caseload. 

11. Dinosaur Sensory Bin – Have the child or student request what items they want to add to their sensory bin or describe what they’re doing as they move things around and play! Possible r words (dinosaur, tree, rock, triceratops) .

12. Ocean Animal Sensory Bin – Have the child or student request what items they want to add to their sensory bin or describe what they’re doing as they move things around and play! Possible r words (turtle, seastar, crab, pearls, water, seahorse, shark).

Turn-Taking Game

Here are a few therapy ideas to work on articulation r therapy using a board game while also working on the skill of turn-taking. 

13. Pop the Pirate is similar to the game Pop the Pig. Simply have your students take turns putting their colorful swords into the barrel. Then if the pirate pops up your out. Kids love the suspense of waiting for the pirate to come flying out of the barrel! This game is also perfect for a student working on /r/ and /r-blends/ to work on articulation words while they play, such as “sword”, “barrel”, “treasure”, “red” “pirate”, “arrrgh”, “green”, “my turn”, “your turn”.

14. Jumping Jack is similar to the game Pop the Pirate. Simply have your students take turns pulling the carrots out of the garden. Then if the rabbit jumps out, you’re out. Kids love the suspense of waiting for the rabbit to come flying out of the garden! This game is also perfect for a student working on /r/ and /r-blends/ to work on articulation words while they play, such as “carrot”, “green”, “orange”, “rabbit”, “my turn”, and “your turn”.

Ready To Go Worksheets

Grab these therapy ideas that are ready to go and are perfect for the busy SLP.

15. Articulation Silly Stories: /r/ by Motivational Speechie is a popular print and go freebie! Similar to mad libs, students roll dice or spin spinners and fill in the blanks with target /r/ words then read their silly stories!

16. R Articulation Drills FREEBIE All Positions: Initial, Medial, Final by Snugglebugspeech is a great set of worksheets that target /r/ in all positions. These are print and go ready!

Small Containers

I love using small containers to store different small objects all with the r sound in them. Here are a few ideas you can use your small containers for.

17. Mini Puzzle Erasers – This set of miniature includes animals, cake, vegetables, fruits, vehicles, sports, and Christmas themed erasers. 

18. Dinosaur Mini Sorting Game – Have your students place the dinosaur in the matching colored bowls. You can have them request what they need and practice the following r words (green, red, purple, orange, tweezers, dinosaur) .

Playing Card

Using playing cards is one of my favorite simple therapy ideas. Simply use a set of playing cards with your student’s articulation words on them.

19. Valentine’s Day Articulation Card Deck by Sublime Speech is an amazing uno style game with 70 cards to practice /r/ articulation with a winter/Valentine’s Day theme. 

20. Mix ‘n Match Articulation Cards /R/ blends by Jamie Morris is a great set of /r/ articulation cards to make practicing /r/ in all positions fun and interactive! 

Picture Scene

Picture scenes are always fun because it feels like a scavenger hunt.

21. Carryover Picture Scene: Spring – R Blends NO PREP FREEBIE Print and Digital by The Speech Boat is a great set of spring-themed picture scenes to practice /r/ articulation! These are print-and-go ready. 

22. Articulation Carryover Activity for SPRING What’s Wrong Picture Scenes FREEBIE by Two Sisters Therapy – Nicole Absher is an amazing, interactive and digital no prep activity that uses “What’s wrong?” picture scenes to prompt conversation to practice /r/ articulation.

SEE ALSO: Free Articulation Games for Speech Therapy

Activity sheets.

Here are some articulation worksheets that I found on teachers pay teachers to make your therapy planning a breeze. 

23. I Spy Articulation Game with /R/ – Initial, Medial, Final by Articulation Station is a free, printable I spy type game that targets /r/ in all positions. 

 24. /r/ articulation coloring page (unlabeled) by Elaina Bartlow is a fun set of coloring pages that focus on /r/ sounds in all positions. This set of coloring pages is unlabeled. 

Interactive Games

Who doesn’t love a fun interactive game to practice target sounds in the speech room? If that’s you, be sure to check out these digital formats of your favorite games below. 

25. Roll Your Sound – Prevocalic /r/ No Prep Articulation FREEBIE by SLP Speech Nerd is a fun and interactive speech game that targets prevocalic /r/ sounds. This is a great activity for elementary aged students!

26. Speech Spinners! No Prep Articulation Game – Medial R Freebie by Peachie Speechie incorporates the popular fidgets spinners into a fun game to practice medial /r/ articulation!

Short Stories

Using short stories is a great way to work on the reading and conversational level of r articulation therapy.

27. Randy’s Car — a Story for Articulation Practice by Clarity Speech and Language is a great short story to use for /r/ articulation practice. 

28. Spooky Speech Story by Tamara Tugong is a great, interactive short story filled with /r/ articulation sounds! 

Flash Cards

Another fun activity is to use interactive flash cards right from your computer. These interactive flash cards are also perfect to share with parents for home practice.

29. Interactive Flash Cards – Have fun using our interactive r flash cards right from your computer! We’ve included 25 flash cards for the initial r, medial r, and final r for a total of 75 interactive flash cards to use with your students or clients right from your computer. 

30. No Print Articulation Flash Cards – R Freebie by Speech Therapy Plans are an amazing, no prep activity for on the go therapy. This set provides 10 productions of the /r/ sounds.

Seasonal Activities

Here are a few seasonal activities with r therapy ideas.

31. Rainy Day /R/ Articulation by Carrie Manchester is an interactive, rain themed game that targets /r/ in all positions!

32. R/L Articulation Trials | Lemonade Themed is a great summer themed set of worksheets for students to practice /r/ articulation with interactive sheets! These can be used for homework, group work or individual practice!

BONUS: Be sure to check out my seasonal lists which all include articulation freebies for the R sound.

• Back to School Freebies List
• Fall Freebies List
• Halloween Themed Freebies List
• Thanksgiving Freebies List
• Winter Freebies List
• New Years Freebie List
• Valentine’s Day Freebie List
• Weather Themed Freebies List
• Spring Freebies List
• St. Patrick’s Day Freebie List
• End of the Year Freebies List

SEE ALSO: 279+ Free Speech Therapy Digital Materials

Mr. potato head.

Another fun activity is to play Mr. potato head and use the carrier phrase, “I need the _____ for Mr. Potato Head.”

33. Mr. Potato Head – Grab your favorite Mr. Potato Head and practice using your r sound as you have your child or student request body parts. Possible r words (ear, arm, red, green, “I need the _____ for Mr. Potato Head.”).

34. Mr. Potato Head Interactive – There is also an online version where you can have your student request and make Mr. Potato head on the computer!

Here are some books with the r sound to work on your student’s articulation. Books are also perfect for auditory bombardment to send home for home practice.

35. Initial R – Little Red Riding Little Red Riding Hood: A Classic Fairytale Keepsake Storybook by Gaby Goldsack (initial r words – red, riding, and ran).

36. Medial R – Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae (medial r words – giraffe, Gerald, different, around, and clearing).

37. Final R – Row Row Row Your Boat by Iza Trapani (final r words – beaver, water, hear, roar, oar, and your).

38. R-Blend – Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson (r-blend words – broom, dragon, and frog).

Do you like using toys in therapy? Here are two toys that are perfect for eliciting the r sound. 

39. Toy Race Car Ramp – Practice your child’s or students r sound with this toy race car ramp. Have your students practice the following words with r (car, red, green, vroom) .

40. Play Toy Barn – Practice your child’s or student’s r sound with this play toy barn. Have your students practice the following words with r (barn, red, farmer, horse, door) .

Movement Games

If you have students who love to move why not try these different movement games while you work on your student’s articulation therapy?

41. Green Light Red Light – One student is the director and all the other students line up across the room. The director then gives the instructions “green light” meaning go and “red light” meaning freeze and if a student doesn’t follow the correct direction they are out and the first person to make it all the way to the director by following the “green light” meaning go and “red light” meaning freeze directions wins!

42. Scavenger Hunt – Play the Mixed /R/ Scavenger Hunt! by Liv T the SLP while having the student or child work on their r sound.

Reinforcement

If you have a list of r words to practice you can use a fun reinforcement after your student practices so many sounds. For example, have your student say 5-10 words from a practice list and then let them have a small reinforcement.

43. Vocalic R Word Lists for Articulation Drill in Speech Therapy FREEBIE by Stacey Crouse is a great set of simple and versatile word lists to reinforce /r/ articulation!

44. A rticulation Cues for Help at Home – FREEBIE by Speech Language Pirates is a great set of handouts to send home for students to reinforce and practice /r/ and other articulation.

R Carryover

Do you have any students working on the r sound at the carryover level? If so here are some activities that are perfect for a carryover activity.

45. FREE Articulation Carryover /R, S, Z/ by Beverly Plass is a great set of no prep, photo filled articulation worksheets for students to practice /r/ and other articulations!

 46. Winter Word Search-Mixed /r/-Speech Therapy-Articulation-Carryover by Crafty Vee’s is a fun, interactive winter themed word search to help carry over practicing /r/ articulation. It includes /r/ in all positions. 

Tricky Sound – Most Effective Therapy

Here are a handful of different types of speech therapy exercises to help your speech students produce the tricky r sound.

• Teach Tongue and Mouth Anatomy: Start by teaching the parts of the tongue and mouth that will help with cueing for articulation placement. Grab the R Sound Freebie – Anatomy of Tongue and Mouth for Speech Therapy by Speechy Things.
• Phonemic Awareness, Auditory Discrimination, & Articulation: Practice all three skills with this free trial of Locate! Discriminate! Articulate! – /r/: FREE TRIAL VERSION by OTTeR Speech.
• Phonemic Awareness: Have your students start by identifying where they hear the r sound in a word. Use this Phonemic Awareness – R Freebie by michjco to get started.
• Perception Training: Start with R Perception Taining by having the student identify the difference between the correct R sound and the incorrect R sound. Grab the R Sound Perception Training FREEBIE: Early R Speech Therapy Activities from Speechy Things.
• Vocalic R Visual: Have students working on the vocalic R? Grab this free Vocalic R Visual – Free / English Only worksheet from The Spanish Speechie.
• Minimal Pairs: Use minimal pairs to work on the r sound. Have your students identify the /r/ vs. the /w/ sound with the Free r/w Minimal Pairs Hide & Seek Speech – School Theme – Boom Cards & PPT by Little Speech Shop.

I n Conclusion: R Speech Therapy Activities

We hope you have found this article helpful for working on your child or student’s r sound. 

Be sure to grab your freebie of 20 initial words, 20 medial r words, and 20 final r words to start practicing 5 minutes a day.

Need Different Sounds?

You won’t want to miss out on my complete growing list of all my articulation word lists ! This list includes s blends and coming soon l blends.

Want Even More R Speech Therapy Activities?

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Articulation Therapy: Teaching /R/ blends

The /r/ speech sound is one of the late sounds that develop in children . Children usually acquire the /r/ blends by 8-9 years of age. Often, children with speech sound disorders have difficulty in producing the sound correctly. The /r/ sound alone can be a difficult sound to learn, let alone the /r/ blends. With time, patience and practice, you can make very good progress in teaching the /r/ blends.

What are the different types of /r/ blends? Here’s a list:

• BR blends such as brown, bread
• CR blends such as crow, crane
• DR blends such as drink, dream
• FR blends such as frost, fridge
• GR blends such as grapes, great
• PR blends such as proud, print
• STR blends such as strawberry, stranger
• TR blends such as train, track
• THR blends such as through, throw
• SHR blends such as shrink, shred
• SCR blends such as scream, scroll
• SPR blends such as spring, spread

How to teach the /r/ blends?

• First, you will need to teach your child the correct /r/ sound. If they can do it then read on to learn more. If not, try to identify whether the bunched or retroflexed tongue position is best for your child. Pick up the easiest of these positions. Read more on how to achieve the /r/ sound here.
• To practice the /r/ blends you will need to ask your child to prolong the /r/ sound like / rrrrrrrr/. Start with the easiest blend that your child can produce. If it’s /br/ for instance, try producing it like /rrrrrrrbrrrrrrbrrrr/. Then practice the other sounds such as /pr, cr, gr,cr/ using this strategy.
• Next move on to the blends such as /spr, str, scr/ once your child learns the above blends. If your child is able to prolong the /s/ sound then you can go for this practice. Ask your child to prolong the /s/ sound and then prolong the /r/ sound. For example / ssssssprrrrr/.
• Practice on a daily basis! Be consistent. Try to have at least 15-20 minutes of practice every day. Practice at different levels starting from the simplest (isolation) to the most complex (conversation level). Move to the next level once you have achieved at least 90% accuracy. Following is the order of practice that you can use:

Isolation level:  Practise the /r/ blends on its own / rrrrrprrrr /

Syllable level:  Combining the /r/ blends with a vowel ( rrrrrprrro….rrrrrrprrrro)

Word level: Use the /r/ blends in the initial, medial, and final positions of words ( proud, Cyprus, etc)

Phrase level: Use two or three-word combinations with the /r/ blends ( proud prince)

Sentence level:  Use the blends in sentences ( The proud prince met his fate)

Conversation level:  Use the blends in connected speech in conversation with different persons.

Some Speech exercises for the /r/ blends

Here are some fun activities to teach your child the /r/ blends.

• Do activities where you say the /r/ blends correctly and incorrectly. Ask your child to spot the difference. Give them rewards such as points for correct responses.
• When you read books with your child, point out each /r/ blends that they read or hear you say. You can ask your child to repeat these after you. Or you can even ask them some questions. Saying the sounds with /r/ frequently will help them learn it quicker.
• Practice target /r/ blends while playing games such as bingo, memory games, tic-tac-toe, etc. Choose any game that your child loves and use it.
• Look through books or magazines with your child. Ask them to find pictures of items that have the /r/ blends. Have a “/r/ blends book”. You can then cut out the pictures and paste them into a book.

Here are some ideas:

• Br blend: Brush – Use this in different contexts such as brushing your child’s hair, pet’s fur, or doll’s hair.
• Cr blend: Crayon – Practice “cr” while playing or coloring with crayons. You can name the crayons like red crayons, bleu crayons, etc.
• Dr blend: Drive  – You can drive cars around and use the word while playing.
• Fr blend: Frog  – You can play a hopping game where you hop like a frog or you can also use a paper frog.
• Gr blend: Green  – You can find all the green things in a room.
• Pr blend: Price – You can use pretend play games where you ask for prices of different items.
• Str blend: Street  – You can push cars or trucks on a self-drawn street with chalk.
• Tr blend: Train  – Similar to the Dr and Str blends, you can also use a train.
• Thr blend: Throw  – You can throw a ball in a basket while saying ‘throw’ every time.
• Shr blend: Shred  – Here, you can rip up some craft paper and use the word ‘shred’
•  Scr blend: Scribble  – Can be used similar to the Cr activity where you can scribble with crayons.
•  Spr blend: Spray  – You can fill a bottle with water and spray plants etc.

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7 free s-blend activities for speech therapy.

If you are a Speech-Language Pathologist, chance are the you have worked on s blends with your students. Cluster reduction is process that really impacts a child's intelligibility! If you are looking for some s blends worksheets, s blends pictures, or games for speech therapy that are free - you are in the right place.

I have put together my top 7 free s-blend activities for speech therapy.

1) One easy way to target s-blends is to find an activity that is loaded with words with s blends! Any activity that involves snow, snowmen, skating, or swimming will be fill with s blends. You could also use a sensory bin and see if you can 'spot' different items (you could also do this with a look and find book).

2) An easy print - and - go s blend activity is this sound loaded scene and smash mat.You can snag this by subscribing to my email address (you'll also get access to a tonne of other freebies). Simply print and go!

3) Do a cutting craft and 'snip' the paper. Say 'snip' each time you open/close the scissors.

4) Use stickers and paper (bonus if the stickers are of s-blend items!). Practice the word 'sticker' when you take it off the sheet and find a 'spot' for it on your paper.

5) This color by code s blend worksheet is a great way to get some fine motor practice and speech practice in and it's free!

6) There are many games for speech therapy that are loaded with s-blends. For example, Sneaky Snacky Squirrel (snack, squirrel, spin) and Feed the Woozle (spin, snack, spoon) both are loaded with speech sounds you can target naturally within the game. (Not sure how to target speech sounds in play? Make sure to check out the Ultimate Play Based Speech Therapy Course , which teaches you EXACTLY how to do so - and so much more!).

7) Play "I Spy" . You can play this game by looking at a book, going outside, or playing in your therapy room. To get extra productions - make sure the thing you spy is an s-blend (e.g. spoon, spider, speaker). I love using Sound Loaded Scenes and Pictures to play this game because you get SO many trials.

BONUS ACTIVITY:

8) Do an open-ended craft! You might not think that there are a lot of s blend words that occur during a craft - but there are! Snip, spot and stick are just a few of the s blend words you can target during a simple craft. My favorite way to do an open ended craft is to lay out some child friendly scissors, stickers, crayons, and construction paper. Let the child's imagination go wild - you'll love to see what they create.

I hope you found these ideas for s-blends helpful! Make sure to save to Pinterest so you can refer back later!

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