R Sound Cue Database

General Cues

Claw hand or pirate hook hand
Make a sound like a… tiger, bear, motorcycle, car, growl, dinosaur, lion, pirate
Pull your tongue back like a bow-and-arrow and point it up
Provide visual supports- mouth model, images of mouth model with your own mouth, mirror, video examples

Faciliating Contexts

Karla
Sure
Ear
Erie
Eureka
Your
Earring
Ar
Car
Garlic
Carlos
Lerr
Crunk (Karla Gill)
RL words: Charlie, Carlos, Harley, barley, darling, starling, Arlo (Jill Greshem)

Tongue Retraction

Tap back of head and ask to pull tongue toward finger
“Move your tongue back toward your throat”
“Slide your tongue back like a turtle hiding in its shelf”
“Pretend your tongue is on railroad tracks and made it drive backwards” (can place pretzel sticks between the teeth to create tracks)
Help guide tongue back using gloved hand, tongue depressor, or floss pick
Place tongue depressor flat and horizontal across mouth as a “line in the sand” that their tongue cannot cross to promote retraction (Mia McDaniel, Putting Words in Your Mouth)
Gesture like you’re vacuuming back-and-forth and have tongue mimic the back motion
Lay down (on floor, or with head hanging slightly back like on yoga ball or off chair) and allow gravity to help with retraction
Hold out hand, palm placing down, and cup hand/slide back

Tension

“Make the back of your tongue tight like a fist but keep your throat and mouth relaxed”
Make a fist
Pull up on your chair
Use a rubber band to pull back and illustrate tension
Pull your tongue back and tight “like a bow and arrow” or “slingshot”
Check out this blog post for more ideas

Side Elevation/Lateral Bracing

“Make the sides of your tongue touch your top molars or gums”
Provide sensory input by rubbing food item to top molars/gums and asking to find that spot with sides of tongue (ex: sour spray, nut butter, cookie butter, lollipop, fun dip, frosting, etc)
Use “magic glue” to “glue” sides of tongue to molars/gums (touch sides of tongue and top molars/gums with toothette, lollipop, tongue depressor, fun dip, nut butter, frosting, etc)
“Pretend your top molars are railroad tracks and your tongue is a train”
The “twizzler trick”- lay approximately ⅓ of twizzler (or similar shaped licorice, red fine, sour punch straw, etc, or use silicone straw) horizontal across back of tongue and ask to push up (video) (blog post)
Shape your tongue like a… bowl, boat, taco, bird’s wings, butterfly’s wings, basket
Gesture like you’re cupping your hand to catch rain- shape your tongue like it’s catching rain to make a small pond

Tongue Tip Elevation

“Lift your tongue off the floor of your mouth”

Lips

“Round you lips a tiny bit”
“Keep the corners tight but relax the rest”
“Keep your lips steady”

Jaw

“Your jaw looks clenched, try relaxing it and opening it a little”
“Your mouth is open too wide, try to close it a little”

Retroflex-Specific

Backflip tongue
Curl it like an elephant trunk
“Point your tongue to the roof of your mouth, but don’t touch”
Touch top of head “point your tongue to my finger”
Gesture with palm facing up and fingers curling
Shape from /l/- have them say /l/ and then slide tongue back about halfway and hover to move into “lerrrr”
Pretend like you’re licking ice cream and keep moving your tongue back in a curl
Pretend your tongue is a rooster throwing its had back to crow (you also throw your head back and crow- er er er er er)
Say your /l/ words “in the back” (can pair with L/R minimal pairs) -Esty Gottlieb

*Disclaimer: please acquire the necessary permissions (particularly with food items or possible allergens) and use your clinical discretion when considering any of these cueing ideas.

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SOURCES:

Preston, J. L., Benway, N. R., Leece, M. C., Hitchcock, E. R., & McAllister, T. (2020). Tutorial: Motor-based treatment strategies for /r/ distortions. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 51(4), 966–980. https://doi.org/10.1044/2020_lshss-20-00012

Reinking, Rebecca. (2021, October 10). I Have A Cue For That! [Conference Presentation] Speech Sound Disorder Series. https://www.bethebrightest.com/

Secord, W. A. (2007). Eliciting sounds: Techniques and strategies for clinicians. Thomson Delmar Learning.