Free SLP

500+ Free SLP R Materials, Games, Activities, Flashcards, and more!

500+ Free SLP R Materials, Games, Activities, Flashcards, and more!

FreeSLP offers tons of virtual SLP materials for the R Sound. To help target the R sound in the initial, medial, and final positions, we have created R Tic-Tac-Toe, Connect 4, Virtual Flashcards, Virtual Progression Cards, Battleship, Spot-It, Candy Land, Soccer, Painting, and more!
To view our all free R sound virtual games and materials, click below:

We also have tons of free no-prep downloadable R sound materials. R sound printables that we currently have include: R Flashcards, QR Code Scavenger Hunt, Progression Cards, Spot-It, Word Finds, Tic-Tac-Toe, Bingo, Candy Land, Connect 4, Battleship and more! If you're looking for more engaging ways to teach the R sound, hopefully you find these materials helpful!
To view our all free R sound virtual games and materials, click below:

Virtual materials to target R from the isolation level all the way up to the conversational level! Whether you're targeting sounds at the word, phrase, sentence, paragraph, story, or conversational levels, we have free and engaging speech therapy materials for each!
To view our all free R Hierarchy Activities, click below:

Yes, the R sound is a voiced sound.

Yes the R sound  is a liquid sound.

How to make the “r” sound:

There are two ways that we can make the “r” sound.

  1. The retroflexed “r” which means we bring our tongue tip up towards the top of our mouth.
  2. The humped “r”which means we place the tip of our tongue on our lower gums behind the bottom teeth.  By doing so, the back of the tongue “humps” up

To find out which technique is best for the child, have them say target words from our flashcards targeting the different types of “r” listed above.  The first time, have the child say the words with a retroflexed tongue.  The second time, have the child used a humped tongue.  Each child is different, so try both and use whatever one sounds better / they feel most comfortable with.

Retroflexed “r”

  • Have the child pucker their lips slightly and hold them there.
  • Tell the child to make the back of their tongue flat and make it tight/strong.
  • Raise the tip of the tongue towards the top of the mouth, but not touching it, and curl the tip of it backwards slightly.
  • Turn on the voice (voice is the rumbling in your vocal folds.  Have your child/client place their hand on their/your neck during the production of “s” and “r”, and have them feel the difference between the two.  In the production of “s”, there should be no rumble or voicing.  While in the production of “r”, there should be a rumbling or voicing.)
  • Release the air out over the tongue.

Humped “r”

  • Have the child pucker their lips slightly and hold them there.
  • Raise the back of the tongue towards the top of the mouth.
  • Point the tip of the tongue towards the lower gums behind the bottom teeth.
  • Turn on the voice (voice is the rumbling in your vocal folds.  Have your child/client place their hand on their/your neck during the production of “s” and “r”, and have them feel the difference between the two.  In the production of “s”, there should be no rumble or voicing.  While in the production of “r”, there should be a rumbling or voicing.)
  • Release the air out over the tongue.

Tricks and Tips for producing the “r” sound:

  • Challenge the child to see who can make the best bear growl “Rrrrrrrrr!”
  • Use a tongue depressor to help show your child both ways to make the “r” sound.
    •   For the humped “r”, press the tongue tip down with the tongue depressor and typically the back portion of the tongue with hump up on its own.
    • For the retroflexed “r”, place the tongue depressor under the tip of the tongue and raise it towards the top of the mouth.  When you raise the tongue tip, the tongue should naturally rise and curl backwards.

  1. Rabbit
  2. Rainbow
  3. Run
  4. Rat
  5. Race
  6. Rich
  7. Radio
  8. Wrist
  9. Raisin
  10. Rake
  11. Wrap
  12. Read
  13. Recess
  14. Rip
  15. Rocket
  16. Rose
  17. River
  18. Ring
  19. Radio
  20. Robot
  21. Rug
  22. Race
  23. Raven
  24. Ruler
  25. Round
  26. Ruby
  27. Ribbon
  28. Reef
  29. Rock
  30. Road
  31. Rain
  32. Room
  33. Raccoon
  34. Radar
  35. Rust
  36. Royal
  37. Rusty
  38. Rhythm
  39. Ripe
  40. Rookie
  41. Rapid
  42. Rumble
  43. Reach
  44. Rich
  45. Robin
  46. Ranch
  47. Riddle
  48. Rip
  49. Ray
  50. Rare
  51. Rover
  52. Rustic
  53. Ripple
  54. Racket
  55. Rub
  56. Rugby
  57. Realm
  58. Rumble
  59. Ring
  60. Ryan

  1. Carrot
  2. Forest
  3. Library
  4. Bird
  5. Earring
  6. Arm
  7. Mirror
  8. Surprise
  9. Electric
  10. Celebrate
  11. Birthday
  12. Harvest
  13. Umbrella
  14. Mystery
  15. Strawberry
  16. Miracle
  17. Harmony
  18. Guitar
  19. Cherry
  20. Remember
  21. Fairy
  22. Orchestra
  23. Forever
  24. Parade
  25. Drum
  26. Journey
  27. Secret
  28. Word
  29. Larry
  30. Curse
  31. Prepare
  32. Parrot
  33. Karma
  34. Bark
  35. Remember
  36. Adventure
  37. Surprise
  38. Mario
  39. Minecraft
  40. Pirate
  41. Camera
  42. Walrus
  43. Worm
  44. Park
  45. Syrup
  46. Farm
  47. Corn
  48. Electric
  49. Earth
  50. Barn

  1. Star
  2. Tiger
  3. Color
  4. Four
  5. Deer
  6. Hammer
  7. Dollar
  8. Alligator
  9. Bear
  10. Eaer
  11. Pear
  12. Tear
  13. Dinosaur
  14. Beaver
  15. Doctor
  16. Sister
  17. Brother
  18. Adventure
  19. Teacher
  20. Junior
  21. Flower
  22. Mother
  23. Father
  24. Water
  25. Soccer
  26. Master
  27. River
  28. Winter
  29. Paper
  30. Clover
  31. Sailor
  32. Summer
  33. Power
  34. Thunder
  35. Amber
  36. Member
  37. Feather
  38. Mirror
  39. Harbor
  40. Laser
  41. Explorer
  42. Treasure
  43. Honor
  44. Pepper
  45. Visitor
  46. Letter
  47. Car
  48. Chair
  49. Hair
  50. Tire

How to make the “r” sound:

There are two ways that we can make the “r” sound.

  1. The retroflexed “r” which means we bring our tongue tip up towards the top of our mouth.
  2. The humped “r”which means we place the tip of our tongue on our lower gums behind the bottom teeth.  By doing so, the back of the tongue “humps” up

To find out which technique is best for the child, have them say target words from our flashcards targeting the different types of “r” listed above.  The first time, have the child say the words with a retroflexed tongue.  The second time, have the child used a humped tongue.  Each child is different, so try both and use whatever one sounds better / they feel most comfortable with.

Retroflexed “r”

  • Have the child pucker their lips slightly and hold them there.
  • Tell the child to make the back of their tongue flat and make it tight/strong.
  • Raise the tip of the tongue towards the top of the mouth, but not touching it, and curl the tip of it backwards slightly.
  • Turn on the voice (voice is the rumbling in your vocal folds.  Have your child/client place their hand on their/your neck during the production of “s” and “r”, and have them feel the difference between the two.  In the production of “s”, there should be no rumble or voicing.  While in the production of “r”, there should be a rumbling or voicing.)
  • Release the air out over the tongue.

Humped “r”

  • Have the child pucker their lips slightly and hold them there.
  • Raise the back of the tongue towards the top of the mouth.
  • Point the tip of the tongue towards the lower gums behind the bottom teeth.
  • Turn on the voice (voice is the rumbling in your vocal folds.  Have your child/client place their hand on their/your neck during the production of “s” and “r”, and have them feel the difference between the two.  In the production of “s”, there should be no rumble or voicing.  While in the production of “r”, there should be a rumbling or voicing.)
  • Release the air out over the tongue.

Tricks and Tips for producing the “r” sound:

  • Challenge the child to see who can make the best bear growl “Rrrrrrrrr!”
  • Use a tongue depressor to help show your child both ways to make the “r” sound.
    •   For the humped “r”, press the tongue tip down with the tongue depressor and typically the back portion of the tongue with hump up on its own.
    • For the retroflexed “r”, place the tongue depressor under the tip of the tongue and raise it towards the top of the mouth.  When you raise the tongue tip, the tongue should naturally rise and curl backwards.

Prevocalic “r” words are words where the “r” is produced at the beginning of the word in front of the vowels and include words like: road, red, run

Postvocalic “r” words are words where “r” is produced after a vowel.  Post vocalic “r” often gives children the most issues because the vowel proceeding the “r” requires the articulators (tongue, lips, teeth, jaw, etc.) to be in different positions. To demonstrate this, look in a mirror or a camera and see how different your lips look while saying “ear” vs “or”.  Because of the placement required for the vowel, when saying a word like “ear” your articulators need to move fast to satisfy the placements for the “e” and then move quickly back to satisfy the placement of the “er”.
Types of postvocalic r include:
ar: artifact, farm, star
or: Orca, born, core
er: Earth, bird, mother
ire: iron, fireman, tire
air: airplane, fairy, hair
ear: earwax, beard, deer

If you are looking for tips and tricks on how to produce the perfect R sounds; click the link below:

R Overview

Target the R sound at the isolation level with 3 different activities: Isolation Animation, Pop the Bubbles, and Click the Button!

 

Target R at the syllable level with our virtual flashcards!

 

We have three activities for targeting R at the word level: 1.) Classic flashcards with initial, medial, final, and mixed sets. 2.) Minimal Pair Sliders 3.) Name the Photos (Have the computer give you feedback on your sound productions!)

 

R phrase flashcards with sets targeting R in the initial, medial, final, and mixed positions!

 

Target R at the sentence level with our rotating sentences activity!

 

Our R story is full of R target sounds and tongue twisters! Read it yourself or play it out loud and then repeat it back!

 

We have two ways to target R at the conversation level: 1.) Silly story scenes full of R target words. 2.) Conversation starter questions.

R Virtual Materials

R Flashcards

R Progression Cards

R Soccer Shootout

R Paint

R Spot It

R Escape From Dragon's Dungeon

R Fish's Flight to Freedom

R Witch's Brew

R Summer Sundae Dash

R Fall Apple Quest

R Halloween Candy Chompers

R Thanksgiving Treats

R Cupid's Valentines Candies

R Marshmallows' Mad Dash

R Unicorn Artic Derby

R Train Track Dash

R Space Race

R Flashlight Finder

R Feed the Bear

R Pumpkin Carving

R Build-a-Snowman

R Thanksgiving Dinner

R Jeopardy

R Tic-Tac-Toe

R Candy Land

R Connect 4

R Battleship

R Artic Ninja

R Cat Run

R Volt Runner

R Artic Clicker

R Pizza Jumper

R Artic Cruiser

R Space Invaders

R Spot the Differences

R Dino Hop

R Matching

R Treasure Hunt

R Crossword

R Word Find 1

R Word Find 2

R Boom Cards

R Artic QR Scavenger Hunt

R Artic Progression Cards

R Artic Spot the Match

Initial Artic R Flashcards

Medial Artic R Flashcard

Final Artic R Flashcards

R Articulation Carrier Phrases

R Articulation Word Find

R ArticulationTic-Tac-Toe

R Articulation Coloring Sheet

R Cartoon Character Flashcards

R Articulation Dice

R Articulation Flipbook

R Artic Bingo

R Artic Candyland

R Artic Cariboo Cards

R Artic Battleship

R Articulation Connect 4

R Downloadables

Free no-prep, virtual, and downloadable options available!

Free SLP articulation word lists, flashcards with pictures, downloadable PDFs and more!

Materials target the R sound in the initial, medial, and final positions!

Whether you are looking for printable, no-prep, or virtual materials, FreeSLP offers free R sound activities for students of every level!

We hope these R articulation activities and exercises for speech therapy help your child / student learn how to make s sounds!