Guided Practice Script

Alright! Let’s practice our /l/ sound! You can find the /l/ sound at the beginning of the word lion and at the end of the word ball. Can you say lion with me? How about the word ball? [1] Good Job!

When producing the sound /l/, you raise your tongue tip to the area right behind your front teeth. Think of it as the same motion that you use to lick an ice cream on a cone. Remember that only the tip of your tongue should touch the roof of your mouth, while the sides of your tongue should stay relaxed to allow air to travel through the sides of your mouth.[2]

To help practice this sound, let’s produce the sound /n/. While producing this sound, move your tongue tip from the back of your mouth to the roof of your mouth behind your front teeth. This will result in a /l/ sound. [3] Give it a try!

Target Techniques and Considerations

Elicitation Techniques in the Script

1. Modeling
2. Phonetic placement and Verbal instructions using a metaphor (ice cream example)
3. Sound approximation

Common /l/ Sound Errors

• The sound /j/ (pronounced “yuh”) can be substituted for the /l/ sound in some speech errors.

• • Likely Cause: The substitution of /j/ for /l/ is a process called gliding, in which children use glides like /w/ or /j/ to replace liquid sounds like /r/ and /l/. This happens when children struggle to raise their tongue to the roof of their mouths when producing liquid sounds.

Accent or Dialect Variation with /l/

• When producing the /l/ sound, English individuals, specifically individuals with a Cockney English dialect, may produce a /w/ sound instead. For example, a person with a Cockney dialect might say “baw” instead of ball or “daw” for the word doll.

Source

How to speak cockney like a local. Cockney Accent. (2025a, August 15). https://cockneyaccent.com/articles/how-to-speak-cockney-accent-2/