/r/ Initial Sentences
Short sentences loaded with word-initial /r/ for sentence-level practice.
Session summary (SOAP)
Stays on this screen. Nothing is saved or sent.
Mark a card Correct, Correct with cue or Incorrect and the summary writes itself here.
How to run it
Model, repeat, then produce independently. Keeping every target in initial position is deliberate — it isolates the effect of length from the effect of position, so a student who breaks down here is running out of monitoring rather than hitting a harder context. Shorten the sentence rather than dropping back to words if accuracy collapses. Five minutes is a full pass.
Cueing ladder
Start at the top. Add support one step at a time.
- IndependentShow the card and let the student say the whole sentence on their own.Log as correct
- Visual cuePoint to your mouth, or show the mouth picture for /r/, before the student tries again.Log as cued
- Verbal modelSay the sentence at a natural pace; the student repeats it.Log as cued
- Placement cueSides of your tongue up against your top back teeth, tip either lifted and pulled back or pointed down with the tongue bunched up. Lips slightly rounded, and the tip never touches the roof.Log as cued
Adjust it
Drop to phrases: pull out the /r/ word with one word in front of it.
Move to conversation: ask a question about the sentence and listen for /r/ in the answer.
Matching IEP goal
Given sentence cards, Student will produce /r/ in the word-initial position in sentences in 8 of 10 opportunities across 3 consecutive sessions, given no more than a visual cue.
Send it home through the parent portal →About this activity
Eight sentences carrying several initial /r/ words each: The rabbit runs down the road. Ray rides a red bike. The robot can reach the rock. Rosa reads in her room. The raccoon ran in the rain. Ryan rows to the river. The rooster woke up the ranch. Rita wraps a round present. Three or four targets per sentence, all in initial position, which keeps one variable constant while the length increases.
What to listen for
Listen for the third and fourth targets. Most students hold the first two and lose the rest, and where that happens tells you how much sustained monitoring is available. Watch Rita wraps a round present, where wraps is spelled with a w and sounds with an /r/ — a student reading the sentence may hesitate for a spelling reason rather than a speech one.
Carrying it home
One sentence a day is realistic. Pick the one with the most familiar words and ask the child to say it to somebody, which is a different task from practising it.
What's in this activity
- Ray rides a red bike.
- Rosa reads in her room.
- The raccoon ran in the rain.
- Ryan rows to the river.
- Rita wraps a round present.
- +3 more
Questions
- What grades is this for?
- Second through fifth, for students accurate on /r/ in phrases.
- Is it free?
- Yes, all eight sentences play with no account.
- Why are all the targets in initial position?
- To isolate one variable. Length and position are two different difficulties, and keeping the position constant tells you whether the breakdown is about monitoring over a longer utterance or about a harder sound context.
Use this board with your caseload
With a free account, every correct, cued and incorrect mark is saved to the student and scored against their IEP goal, with the data written up for you. Assign it as home practice through the parent portal.
Track progress freeFree for SLPs. No card, no trial clock.