Your student may be here if they have difficulty with proprioception, tongue-jaw dissociation, or speech perception.

Speech Perception

• will judge the accuracy of others’ productions of R words (correct/incorrect)
• will judge the accuracy of their own recorded R productions (correct/incorrect)

Self-Rating

• will participate in self-rating productions of R words
• will accurately self-rate productions of R

Anatomy & Awareness

• will describe the anatomy of the mouth/articulators
• will describe appropriate tongue placement for R
• will describe what their tongue is doing during R attempts (e.g., tip up/down, back raised)

Your student may be here if they have difficulty with minimal pairs or don’t understand where R belongs in words.

• will identify the beginning sound of R, L, W words
• will identify R vs. W minimal pairs (e.g., red/wed) when spoken by the clinician
• will identify where R occurs in a word (beginning/middle/end)
• will produce R/W minimal pairs so the listener selects the correct word
• will self-correct instances of gliding within a structured activity
• will reduce instances of gliding to # or fewer (allowing for self-correction) in a session

Your student may be here if they cannot produce an accurate R in any context.

• will follow verbal cues for R phonetic placement
• will achieve an approximation of appropriate tongue/lip/jaw placement for R
• will accurately achieve placement for R
• will produce an R approximation they self-rate as “#” or above on a scale of “# to #”
• will produce one variation of R accurately at the (isolation/syllable/word) level 
• will produce an R that matches the target on visual-acoustic biofeedback in # of # trials
• will maintain accurate R productions after biofeedback is removed in # of # trials

Your student may be here if they produce some but not all contexts of R. Variations of R are the different R sounds, such as AR, OR, ER, AIR, EAR, IRE, and initial R. 

Expanding variations

• will produce a new variation of R using a facilitating context (e.g., building from a variation they already produce accurately)
• will produce [variation] in syllables

Vocalic R (rhotic dialects)

• will produce “ER” in isolation
• will produce final R in words/phrases/sentences
• will produce “postvocalic R + consonant” in words/phrases/sentences
• will produce 3 variations of vocalic R in words/phrases/sentences
• will accurately produce every variation of vocalic R in words/phrases/sentences

Intervocalic (Medial) R

• will accurately produce every variation of intervocalic R in words/phrases/sentences 

Initial R

• will produce initial R in words/phrases/sentences

R blends

• will produce R blends / TR/DR / PR/BR / CR/GR in words/phrases/sentences

Challenging R words (rhotic dialects)

• will produce RL combinations (e.g., girl, world) in words/phrases/sentences
• will produce recurring R in words/phrases/sentences (e.g., rarely, railroad, hamburger)

Your student may be here if they produce R accurately with support (models, frequent feedback, repeating the same word) but accuracy drops when targets are mixed or support is removed.

Start with blocked practice and move toward random practice as accuracy improves. Revisit this stage each time your student adds a new R variation.

Practice schedule

• will produce R in (syllables/words/phrases/sentences) with #% accuracy in blocked practice (the same target practiced repeatedly)
• will produce R in (level) with #% accuracy in random-blocked practice (sets of one target, with different contexts across sets)
• will produce R in (level) with #% accuracy in random practice (different targets mixed within a set)

Feedback

• will maintain #% accuracy when clinician feedback is reduced (feedback on some trials, not every trial)
• will maintain #% accuracy when feedback shifts from detailed placement feedback to correct/incorrect only
• will self-evaluate R productions before receiving clinician feedback, agreeing with the clinician in #% of trials
• will maintain #% accuracy when biofeedback is faded (e.g., display hidden for some trials)

Increasing the challenge

• will maintain #% accuracy when reading targets independently instead of imitating a model
• will maintain #% accuracy when using varied intonation (questions, exclamations)
• will maintain #% accuracy on targets that also contain L or W

Checking for learning

• will produce R accurately in untrained words (probe list) with #% accuracy

Your student may be here if R is accurate in structured practice but has not generalized.

• will correctly produce R words when reading aloud
• will correctly produce R words in a structured activity with a time constraint
• will correctly produce R words during structured conversation
• will complete a speech therapy session with no more than # R errors
• will correctly produce R words in spontaneous conversation
• will self-monitor and self-correct R errors in conversation

Buy-in & growth mindset

• will participate in growth mindset activities/discussions

Home program: before R is established 

• will review R cues at home (no practice of incorrect productions)
• will complete awareness activities at home (e.g., listening for R)

Home program: carryover

• will report on home carryover
• will report on home program follow-through
• will use R in X setting
• will use R with X (friend/family member)
• will complete a daily log of self-reflection on R usage throughout their day