I’m not sure if anyone despised teaching final /l/ more than I did when I first began working with clients many years ago. The kids always seemed to mess up the production of /l/ in the final position of words even when they could say it in the beginning and middle position of words. It drove me crazy.
Then one day as I was teaching the /l/ in the final position – it dawned on me that often the final /l/ is a totally different type of movement than the initial and medial /l/. This happens when the final /l/ is a syllabic /l/ (something I remember learning while getting my undergraduate degree in speech – but hadn’t really processed what the difference looked like or sounded like).
After thinking a lot about final syllabic /l/ I made this worksheet to help breakdown the movement. When producing a final syllabic /l/ it is not so much about bringing the tongue tip up to the alveolar ridge – but HOW you bring it up there and the vowel shape of your mouth as you move the tongue up.
For this type of /l/ you don’t push your tongue against the alveolar ridge and then pop it downward. That would make words like “wheel” sound like “wheela” or words like “snail” sound like “snaila”. Sound like any of your speech kiddos???
Anyway… when teaching a final syllabic /l/ I make sure to instruct the child to bring the tongue up slowly (almost in a scooping pattern) and then HOLD the tongue against the alveolar ridge. This usually takes care of the problem beautifully.
Good Luck and I hope it works for you as well!!!
This is awesome-where did you get the photos of the mouth?
Great! Thanks.