Errr or Orrr- Speech Issues!

Is it nermal fer you to want mer cern er to per ernge juice when you sner?

This is what it sound like around here for the last few months.

Translation- Is it normal for you to want more corn or to pour orange juice when you snore?

My children can't say their r's and have also struggled with other sounds. When Mister Luke was little, everyone thought he was from New Jersey. He used to call himself Yuke and Jack- Yack. Then he started going to speech at age three and had mastered his sounds by age six.

Did you know that speech problems can be hereditary? Mister Baseball was in speech until 6th grade and I learned that his aunt and his grandfather were also in speech.

Jackie Boy has been working on his R sound for two years so we have been practicing things like rrrrrrrred, rrrrrrrrat, rrrrrace, rrrrrrock, or betterrrrrrr, strongerrrrrr, borrrrrrring. Drawing out the er sound helped him learn to bring his tongue back to make the right sound.

I thought he was almost ready to exit speech until something wacky happened.

Suddenly, for became fer and more became mer. I think he was overcompensating. The ER just stuck. Then Toots picked it up and so we had two speaking this interesting language. It just wasn't nermal- ooops- NORmal.

We have made progress though. Now, they both say, "Can I have mer (pause) moooooooore juice?" or "How much it is fer (pause) foooooooooor that?"

The upside is that if they can figure it out, Toots will have so much practice that he won't need speech by the time he reaches Kindergarten.

If they can't, we might just have to head for the Ozarks!