Same with me brother - the advice I got which worked is to try and breathe your way into the vowel. You know that kind of breathy thing you do when trying to wipe your glasses? So instead of animal you say hhhhanimal. It's hard to represent on text but you can make it sound barely noticable and it helps by clearing your throat so you can say the vowel easily. Sorry for the bad explanation - good luck with your speech its going to go great!