ABSTRACT
The sounds ‘l’ and ‘r’ are produced as the earlier developing sounds ‘y’ and ‘w’. The most likely difficulties speech and language therapists will encounter will be substitution of ‘y’ for ‘l’, and ‘w’ for ‘r’. Difficulties with approximants are very familiar in children’s speech, and some adults – politicians and TV presenters included – continue to mispronounce ‘r’. The ‘l’ sound is usually acquired by age three and a half but is sometimes still produced as a ‘y’ in the word ‘yellow’, pronounced as ‘yeyow’, until beyond this age. The ‘r’ is a late developing sound and is usually accurately produced by age six. This chapter details the activities to increase awareness of ‘l’ and ‘r’ sounds in words. These activities can be used after discussion with a speech and language therapist to make sure the child is ready for the change of emphasis from listening work to saying words with the target sounds.
