Towards an Evidence Base for /r/- therapy in English

Abstract

Objective: This article aims to explore /r/ therapy and the need for an evidence base when choosing which tongue shape to teach in remediation. It also aims to explore specifically Irish-English aspects of /r/ and intervention for /r/ errors. Method: We critically appraise the claim that there are separate consonantal and vocalic /r/s in rhotic accents (over and above the rhotic vowels). We describe the various tongue shapes speakers can adopt to produce the percept of /r/. The implications for therapy of the different tongue shapes are highlighted, and the need for an evidence base emphasized. The small number of studies (instrumental and non-instrumental) that have looked at therapy with /r/ and which have mentioned tongue shape are reviewed. We then describe a pilot study of 200 speech language pathologists that surveyed a range of information about the therapists, the clients, and the tongue shape in therapy for /r/ together with comparative success rates. Main results: The results of the survey demonstrate considerable differences in terms of tongue shape used in therapy and probable difficulties encountered by the respondents in describing /r/ errors. However, several limitations to the survey reported here became obvious. Conclusion: We conclude with an examination of tongue shape used in Irish English and the responses to the survey by speech language pathologists based in Ireland. The need for a revised survey of a greater number of SLTs is highlighted.