If you look in the mirror and your tongue doesn’t appear to look flat, keep practicing flattening your tongue and moving the sides independently. What’s happening is you are using muscles in the middle of your tongue to raise your tongue. These muscles should be holding your tongue to the bottom of your mouth.
You may find it easier to keep your tongue wrapped around something like a drinking straw as you push your tongue out. Keep the sides of your tongue against the sides of the straw. If you feel the bottom of your tongue pushing the straw up and away from the sides, back up and regain your tongue’s shape. Keep trying until you don’t need the straw at all.
Touch only the tip of your tongue to the bottom of your top front teeth. If any part of your tongue is touching the bottom of your front teeth or any teeth try to pull your tongue back. Hold your tongue’s tip to your front teeth while you do this. This, in and of itself, will help you differentiate the muscles in your tongue (i. e. , front middle and front sides).
This will be the hardest part and take the longest to practice and perfect. If you are going to get stuck, this is where it will happen. If you are having trouble here you may be moving the entire front of your tongue instead of just the tip. This may be difficult to overcome. If you feel the sides of the front of your tongue moving with the tip, slow down and start over. They will need to be relaxed or they will push the sides of your tongue back into your mouth.
one way to position your finger is to stick your taco shaped tongue out. Put your finger beneath your tongue, point toward the ceiling. The nail of the finger should be under the tip of the tongue. Move your tongue back an let your finger come straight up. That’s a good place for your finger to stay.
If you can’t yet do the two-leaf clover, practice that instead. The three-leaf clover trick requires much more tongue dexterity. During the two-leaf clover you will learn to manipulate the tip independently of the sides. You will need this skill to successfully form the three-leaf clover shape.
You may need to take a break while practicing. You tongue muscles may become fatigued from overuse in ways they have not been used before. This may make holding the shape impossible until later.
