Duh...

As I've mentioned in previous posts, by youngest daughter receives speech therapy at the local university. She has made wonderful progress! I was getting frustrated this past semester, however, as her progress seemed to stall. She had been working on the vocalic /r/ sound. (like in four and car). She had made such great progress with all the other sounds she worked on, I was afraid we were hitting a wall in her speech. I initially thought it may have been that the other sounds were more visible and easier to teach. You can show a child how to place their tongue to make the /l/ sound, for example. The vocalic /r/ was more difficult to "see". When reading over her most recent progress report, it finally hit me. It said she tended to vowelize this sound. Wait a minute! Doesn't everyone in Rhode Island vowelize the vocalic /r/? How can we expect her to correctly say "car", when all she's ever heard is "cah". Of course she vowelizes this sound! I feel so much better! When she starts up again in a few weeks, I'm going to suggest we just move on. After all, I don't want her to be the only freak in the state that pronounces her Rs!