I have a fourth grade boy who can't pronounce his r's. It's cute, really...When I first changed to a 4/5 split, and heard him speak, I sent an email to our speech teacher.
"I noticed that Bobby can't pronounce his r's," I wrote. "Do you see him for speech?"
"No," she replied. "He was evaluated before, but didn't qualify. Do you notice if his speech affects his academics? Do kids make fun of him?"
Well, I just got him, so I hadn't noticed any of those things yet. He seemed to be friendly and confident with his speech, though, so I figured he was ok.
The other day, though, the kids were working on their personal narrative essays. He brought his up to me to read. "Oh no," I thought as I read, "Another football game story..."
But here's what really jumped out at me. He used the word "welly." As in "I was welly nervous..."
Welly? Do you mean "really?" I think you do. And he did this twice. Because he is sounding out the word in his head to spell it. He doesn't pronounce his r's. So "really" to him in his head sounds like "welly." He spelled it how it sounded.
I sent a new email. "Is this an example of his mispronunciation of r's affecting his academics?"
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