About this activity
Eight sentences from an actual adolescent week: I have work right after practice. My permit expires in March. The parking garage is around the corner. Coach moved the scrimmage to Thursday. I need a ride to the interview. My sister borrowed my charger again. The manager wants me there early Saturday. Each carries several /r/ targets across initial, medial and vocalic positions.
How to use it in a session
Use them as scripts rather than exercises. These are sentences the student will actually say this week, and rehearsing the ones that are true for them produces practice that transfers on its own. Ask for the sentence three times and then once inside a longer turn — a residual error survives a single sentence and collapses in conversation. Twelve minutes covers three or four with the extension.
What to listen for
Listen for the vocalic /r/ words. Work, after, corner, garage, charger and manager all end in an r-coloured vowel, which is the context that persists longest into adolescence. Watch whether accuracy holds when the sentence is embedded in real talk rather than produced on its own — that gap is the residual error's defining feature.
Carrying it home
These sentences will be said this week regardless. Asking the student to notice their own production of one of them, once, is realistic self-monitoring for this age.
Questions
- What ages is this for?
- Sixth through twelfth grade, for residual /r/ at sentence level.
- Is it free?
- Yes, all eight sentences play with no login.
- Why use teen-specific sentences?
- Because they will be produced anyway. A sentence the student says this week transfers on its own; one from a children's deck has to be transferred deliberately, and usually is not.