What age should one begin becoming concerned about the lack of ability to pronounce the letter ‘R’ in English (American) speaking children?
Also, are there any tips on helping from a parental standpoint? I’m not sure how much of an issue to make it, and when.
I speak with a degree of rhotacism. Here are some tips.
http://speech-language-pathology-audiology.advanceweb.com/Common/editorial/editorial.aspx?CC=47240
I talked to my linguistics professor about rhotacism a lot before break and almost did an optional final project on it, but had to abandon it. This makes me an expert by no means, but I’ll tell you what I discovered.
Basically, I found out that the phoneme /r/ is one of the last ones to develop and to master. Most kids develop it on their own, by age five. Almost everyone has developed it by age 8, as their peers’ language influences their own and they develop more control of their speech muscles. Those who don’t, barring physical deformity, can learn how to make it with speech therapy. There are a billion reasons for speech delay, and you can’t always pinpoint a reason for it. Chronic ear infections, genetics, a cleft palate, laziness . . . tons of things.Here and here is some info on speech development in young children. These are just average ages, so if your child is suddenly 5 years 2 months, and still saying “wed,” it’s fine.
I have a speech impediment that I’ve learned to talk around through speech therapy, but there are definitely some phonemes that I don’t form like you’re “supposed” to. /r/ is one of them. I make it as sort of a modified /w/. I tried the exercises that Dr_Paprika linked to, and with great effort, I can form /r/ as described. Both of my professor’s sons were late to develop the /r/, but both of them did it without speech therapy and around second grade. They form theirs the “correct” way. I don’t, but no one has any problem understanding me.
So, what it boils down to is this: if it’s just the /r/, don’t sweat it. It should go away on its own. If it still persists by the time your child is in third grade, then consult a speech therapist. Odds are by that time, a teacher will have suggested it, and there will be a consultation with you and the school speech therapist and there will be a bit of a rigamarole about signing release papers and such. It’s no big deal – tons of people do it. It’s not a marker of your child’s intelligence by any means. (I have always been secretly amused that I was one of the few students in my school that had been part of both the special ed program and the talented and gifted program. From small acorns great trees spring, eh? 
) If it’s more than just the /r/ development, then you might want to think about seeing a speech pathologist sooner. If your child shows signs of deafness or significant difficulty in forming words and sentences, then it can’t hurt to see someone, and your baby will probably get a lollipop out of the deal.
On a related note, I seem to notice this much more frequently on tv and radio among Brits (especially comedians and comic actors) than Americans. Is there a reason why this might be the case, or is it just selection bias on my part?
zagloba, many regional English accents are non-rhotic. That is, an “R” is only pronounced if it’s in front of a vowel. (So you may hear, “Would you like cream and sugah in ya tea?”)
In these cases, it’s not a speech impediment, it’s just how folks talk.
You’ll also find this in Australia, Atlantic Canada, etc.
:smack: Ayuh, of course you mean totally, like “Bubble” from Absolutely Fabulous, gotcha.
WAG: These folks who fail to voice their “R”'s even when they are in front of a vowel invariably have regional accents that are naturally non-rhotic – perhaps that’s a contributing factor?
Or is the impediment more common at all in the (real-life) UK, or merely a comic affectation straight out of music hall?
My son was in third grade when we asked a speech therapist and she listened to him and said that he actually had a weak r, but enough of a one that she thought it would improve without therapy. Well, I guess she was right; it did improve, but it still isn’t an absolutely clear r like mine or my wife’s. He now has four children and two of them (age 4 and 9) lack a clear r, while the other two, ages 6 and 11) speak perfectly. If I had it to do over again, I think I might put him through therapy and I would advise him to do the same with the 9 year old. Particularly since she likes to act and recently her nose was out of joint because her 11 year old brother got a speaking part in a recent play and she didn’t. With the 4 year old, however, I would just wait.
The English letter /r/ is difficult to pronounce for many foreigners, and that’s the same reason it’s one of the last ones to develop and to master, like **Miss Purl **says.
If you can get your kid to a few visits with a speech therapist before he/she starts school, personally I can see some benefit to that. At that point maybe it can just be fun, like learning any new thing is for kids at that age, rather than having to be pulled out of class because there is something “wrong” with you and potential stigma from that. Apparently mine cleared up sometime after 5th grade, when they tried to send me to speech therapy, but I was having none of it.
Dear Dear Straight Dopers,
Your message thread re rhotacism (not a term SLPs tend to use these days) showed up in my web site’s hit tracker and I thought I would write and suggest, CheapBastid, that if your child is 4 years 6 months to 5 years 0 months or above, it might be a good plan to have his/her speech formally assessed by a SLP.
There is information about functional speech disorders here:
http://members.tripod.com/Caroline_Bowen/fsd-index.htm
Find an SLP here:
http://members.tripod.com/Caroline_Bowen/find-slp.htm
Don’t waste time with mouth exercises! They are pointless.
http://members.tripod.com/Caroline_Bowen/cb-oct2005OMT-ACQ.pdf
If your child is under 4;6, watch and wait, and make a particular point of MODELLING r-words in normal conversational contexts (without expecting your child to ‘repeat’).
See #5 and #6 here for how parents can ‘model’ effectively to help their children’s speech: http://members.tripod.com/Caroline_Bowen/2005ntdownloads.htm
Persisting ‘minor’ speech difficulties cause no problems for many individuals who simply learn to live with them or ignore them or even have fun with them and make them their personal ‘signature’. But for many they CAN can cause a lot of anguish. That is one reason why I encourage people to act reasonably early while the child is in the right age-group to learn standard r-production (for example) for their dialect relatively quickly and easily.
Interestingly, motivated adults can also succeed in ‘correcting’ functional speech disorders with appropriate professional help - but it can take a long time, and they may find it awkward and embarrasing to use their ‘new sound’ with people they already know. Some clients have likened it to taking on a new persona.
Best wishes,
Caroline
Caroline Bowen PhD
Speech Language Pathologist
9 Hillcrest Road
Wentworth Falls NSW 2782
Australia
e: cbowen@ihug.com.au
i: http://www.slpsite.com
t: 61 2 4757 1136