Vocalic /r/ Flashcards
Cards targeting er, ar, or, ire, air, ear.
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
Use it as a probe first. Vocalic /r/ is not one target but six, and a student can be accurate on car and inaccurate on fire — running eight words tells you which contexts to work and which to leave alone. Once you know, move to the context-specific decks rather than staying here. Ten minutes covers the eight with careful listening.
Cueing ladder
Start at the top. Add support one step at a time.
- IndependentShow the card and wait 3 seconds for the student to say it.Log as correct
- Visual cuePoint to your mouth, or show the mouth picture for vocalic /r/, before the student tries again.Log as cued
- Verbal modelSay the word; the student says it right after you.Log as cued
- Placement cueStart on the vowel, then slide into the /r/ shape: sides of the tongue up against the top back teeth, tip off the roof of the mouth.Log as cued
Adjust it
Drop to the vowel plus /r/ on its own ('ar', 'or', 'ear') before whole words.
Put each word in a short carrier phrase with no /r/ in it or mix in vocalic /r/ words from another position.
Matching IEP goal
Given picture cards, Student will produce vocalic /r/ in single words 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 words sampling the vocalic /r/ contexts: butter and water for er; bird for ir; car for ar; bear and chair for air; fire for ire; ear for ear. One word per context, which makes this a survey rather than a drill — the point is finding out which contexts the student already has.
What to listen for
Listen for the /r/ colouring the vowel rather than following it. In butter the whole second syllable is r-coloured; a student who says butt-uh has a plain vowel and one who says butt-er has added a separate sound, and neither is the target. Watch fire and ear, the two least frequent contexts, which are often the last to arrive.
Carrying it home
Butter, water, car and chair are ordinary words. Asking a family to notice one of them, rather than the sound in general, gives them something they can actually report back.
What's in this activity
- butter
- water
- bird
- car
- bear
- fire
- ear
- chair
Questions
- What grades is this for?
- Second through fifth, for students working on vocalic /r/.
- Do I need an account?
- No, all eight cards play free.
- Why only one word per context?
- Because it is a survey. Eight words across six contexts tells you which ones the student already has, and then the context-specific decks give the repetitions.
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.