by M. Cohen-Schoenberg CCC-SLP
When I was in Columbus, Ohio, recently, I had a delightful opportunity to meet with speech language pathologist, Nancy Gerantino, the author of “R Made Simple”. She is an enthusiastic and knowledgeable speech pathologist who had me reconsider everything I’ve ever thought and taught about /r/. Her /r/ program was 12 years in the making and came out a few months ago. She just completed a tutorial to go with it.
Nancy has presented her program at speech conferences around the country. While listening to how she developed “R Made Simple “, I realized that she has created a meticulously organized and well developed program which incorporates tactile, visual, motor and auditory cues as well as knowledge of the how the tongue muscles work. Nancy discusses three kinds of /r/s, based on the preceding sounds. In addition, she takes into consideration spelling, literacy and critical thinking. She also considers regional dialects.
Mrs. Gerantino has found that her program, if followed carefully, works for all ages. This is a well thought out and researched program which is quite practical and efficient for the busy clinician and leads to good carryover. Her analytical approach lets students own their own progress. I can’t wait to purchase this program and put it into use with some of my students who are challenged by that pesky /r/ sound. I can imagine the smiles on their faces when they finally master that really tricky phoneme /r/!