Speech Therapy Tricks & Treats: /r/ Sound Practice Ideas for Kids
- Peggy Steiniger
- Oct 15
- 4 min read
Speech is All Around Us - R Sound October Speech Therapy Ideas!
October is the perfect time to brew up some speech therapy fun! Between costumes, candy, and creative crafts, there are countless ways to help kids practice the tricky /r/ sound. All while enjoying the spirit of the season.
Whether you’re a speech therapist looking for themed articulation ideas or a parent supporting your child’s speech goals at home, these spooky and silly Halloween /r/ word activities will keep your child engaged, learning, and laughing all month long.
With a downloadable activity sheet, multiple ideas, you can be sure your child will put the nail in the coffin of the hard r sound!
Download the free worksheets below!
👻 1. Haunted House Hunt for R Words
Turn your home or therapy room into a haunted hide-and-seek adventure!
Hide small objects or flashcards featuring /r/ words like broom, spider, mirror, graveyard, and scary. Or when you attend a child-friendly haunted house or corn maze, bring prepared flash cards for the activity!
Each time your child finds an item, have them say the /r/ word three times — once in a spooky voice, once in a whisper, and once with their “strong speech muscles.”
Try these /r/ words: broom, spider, mirror, scary, eerie, graveyard, orange, crow, monster.
💡 SLP Tip: This activity works beautifully for blends, initial, medial, and final /r/ practice. Adjust difficulty by mixing in “almost there” sounds and reinforcing correct tongue placement.
🍬 2. Trick-or-Treat Talking Game for R Sound
Bring the best part of Halloween into your speech sessions — candy! Each time your child earns a “treat” (real or pretend), have them say an /r/ word or short sentence. For example:
“The raven flew away.”
“I see a scary spider.”
“Let’s carve a pumpkin!”
🎯 Bonus challenge: Practice /r/ in different positions:
Initial /r/: Raven, robot, roar, rotten
Medial /r/: Orange, scary, eerie
Final /r/: Spider, monster, door.
💬 Parent Tip: This works great at home after trick-or-treating or a trunk or treat event, while sorting candy, find a new /r/ word for each one!
🎃3. Pumpkin Carving Pronunciation Practice for R Sound
Pumpkin carving isn’t just for fun and to keep the specters at bay, it’s a great chance to sneak in speech goals! Label each part of the process with /r/ words like carve, orange, scary, spider, and creepy grin.
Encourage your child to describe their pumpkin using /r/ adjectives: “It looks scary!”, “It’s orange and weird!”, “I carved a star!”
🎃 Make it extra fun: Name your pumpkin with a good /r/ word — like Roger the Pumpkin or Ruby the Gourd! Have them greet the newly named pumpkin every time they walk past it when leaving or entering the home.
🧙 4. Witch’s Brew Word Mix for R Sound
Time to mix up some magic!
Grab a bowl or cauldron and fill it with spooky items (real or pretend, the dollar store is a great shopping haven for themed props). Each item represents an /r/ word your child can say as they “add” it to their potion.
🪄 Example ingredients:
Raven feathers
Rotten roots
Creepy crawlers
Frog’s breath
Mirror dust
Every time they add an ingredient, they repeat the /r/ word three times before stirring the brew. This imaginative play keeps practice engaging and helps kids generalize the sound in conversation.
🦁 5. Record Your Roars!
Halloween is full of fun characters — vampires, monsters, and witches — all perfect for dramatic speech practice! Parents, try recording short videos of your child practicing their best Halloween /r/ words to track progress. Start today, and film every 3-5 days, so your child can see their own progress!
Watching and listening back helps them self-correct and build awareness of their /r/ sounds over time.
Bonus! Draw your /r/ sound adventures on a scavenger hunt activity!
Ready to conquer your R Sound Fear this October?
Practicing the /r/ sound doesn’t have to be boring, especially during the spooky season! Spicing up your speech therapy with these creative, themed speech therapy ideas, your child can keep learning while having fun in October! Making speech therapy for kids playful, purposeful, and progress-filled.
If your child is struggling with the /r/ sound, Peggy’s Home Run SpeechTM – R Program offers expert guidance, personalized plans, and proven strategies that make practice feel like a game.
Home Run SpeechTM is perfect for parents who want to support speech progress at home and for fellow SLPs looking for resources that actually work.
Did you find these free speech therapy activities helpful? Check out all of Peggy’s Speech Therapy free resources (with a heavy focus on the r sound) here. One of the best at home speech therapy activities is the Minute to Win it Challenge! There are also multiple parts in our Speech is all Around Us, from park adventures to everyday grocery store visits.
📍 Looking for a Speech Therapist Near You?
Peggy’s Speech Therapy proudly provides speech therapy for kids and families in Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, & Vermont.
With online tele-therapy, Peggy helps children gain confidence and clarity one sound at a time — starting with that tricky /r/!
Perhaps you're an adult and need additional speech coaching, then too? Peggy can help with that as well! Learn more about Peggy’s adult speech coaching and become the confident leader you’ve always dreamed of.
Reach out to Peggy today, and start being confident with your speech tomorrow.