My Child Has a Lisp, Should I Be Concerned?
Posted by Heidi | Filed under Improving Articulation
My neighbor came to me about her 5 year old daughter wondering if she should be concerned about he daughter substituting her /s/ and /z/ sounds for TH sounds. I explained that this is known as an interdental lisp. Interdental lisps are often developmental disorders and usually resolve themselves by the age of 4 1/2. Anytime after 4 1/2 is a good time to seek the advice of a speech therapist. If the therapist feels your child is ready and would benefit from therapy, get started as soon as possible. The longer you wait the stronger the habit and the longer it will take to fix. Unfortunately, most school therapists are unable to treat lisps until the age of 7 or 8. Even worse, in some areas if the lisp does not affect the child’s education the speech therapists in the schools are not able to help the children at all. In these cases you may be on your own to find a private therapist for help.
What kind of lisp does my child have?
There are four kinds of lisps:
1. Interdental lisps
(when the tongue goes between your front teeth and makes the –th- sound for the /s/ and /z/ sounds).
2. Dentalized lisps
(when the tongue hits the teeth while making the /s/ and /z/ sounds).
3. Lateral lisp
(when air escapes out the sides of the tongue).
4. Palatal lisp
(when the tongue hits the soft palate while making the /s/ and /z/ sound.
Lateral and palatal lisps are not typical developmental errors and children who have these speech characteristics are less likely to “grow out of it”. If your child has a lateral or palatal lisp I would advise having your child evaluated by a speech therapist.
How do you train the correct production of /s/ and /z/ to a child with a lisp?
When training a child with an interdental lisp to say the /s/ and /z/ sounds I have followed what might be considered a traditional approach by simply teaching the child to keep his teeth closed when producing the /s/ and /z/ sound. After multiple successful repetitions of the /s/ with the teeth closed I introduce them to a list of 20 words ending with /s/ since the /s/ is generally mastered at the end of words first. After the child masters the list of 20 words I have them put those words into sentences and practice reading the sentences aloud. When the sentences are mastered I have the child read a story with multiple pictures or words ending with /s/. I continue to follow this outline as we practice /s/ and /z/ as it occurs in the initial and medial positions of words as well. Finally I have the client read aloud for 10-20 minutes working toward 80% accuracy or better. I conclude therapy once a client has mastered the correct production of /s/ and /z/ in all positions in conversation.
I often pair the articulation therapy for /s/ and /z/ with a straw drinking program to pull the tongue back since a forward tongue posture often contributes to interdental and dentalized lisps. Straw drinking also helps reinforce centralized airflow for clients with a lateral lisp. Some speech therapists don’t believe straw drinking is necessary but it has always been very successful technique for me and my clients.
When teaching the /s/ and /z/ sound to a child with a lateral lisp I have used a short straw placed at midline so the client could hear when the airflow was centralized. I have not found this approach to be very effective! It seems to take a long time for my clients to produce their first true /s/ sound. That is why I am so excited about the Butterfly Procedure by Dr. Caroline Bowen PhD, CPSP I read about on speech-language-therapy.com. With this approach, it just seems that teaching the /s/ to a client with a lateral lisp would be so much easier because they are able to visualize exactly what you want them to do with their tongue.
The gist of the “Butterfly Procedure” is that the tongue imitates the position of a butterfly, with the sides of the tongue up slightly like butterfly wings, and the groove of the tongue the body. The sides of the tongue touch the teeth lightly while the airflow goes down the groove of the tongue or body of the butterfly instead of out the sides as it does with a lateral lisp. You achieve this position by having the child say the “ee” as in key, or the “i” as in him. Then try for an /s/ holding the butterfly position. I have a couple of clients I am so excited to try this with!
The other new exciting tip I picked up from Dr. Caroline Bowen PhD, CPSP is to train the /s/ from the /t/ sound. She outlines 10 easy steps to teach this procedure. To give you a quick idea she begins by having the child say the /t/ sound, and then the /t/ sound repetitively, for example /t-t-t-t-t-t-t/. When you do this exercise quickly you can feel a slight /s/ coming out. Cool, huh! Check out the other steps, they just make sense.
Great sites to read over:
I found a couple of sites that give good advice for parents. Hopefully they will help.
Lisping – speech-language-therapy.com (Great Article!)
Can I help Correct My Child’s Lisp? – Baby Center.com
Lisp- Definition and Much More- Answers.com
If you have any questions about your childs lisp or other speech issues feel free to comment and I will answer as soon as I can!
20 Responses to “My Child Has a Lisp, Should I Be Concerned?”
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I am a licensed Speech Language Pathologist and have been working in this field for 10 years. I am also a mother to three fabulous kids who keep me busier than ever! I put together this blog to share some of the tips and tricks that have worked for me over the years in teaching kids to improve their speech and more effectively communicate. Thanks for reading and remember it takes time and patience with this stuff but it is so worth it!
Wow wow wow!
What a fantastic site! I have homeschooled for 13 years and have been able to correct our older children’s speech difficulties while they were learning phonics just by showing them very carefully how I make sounds. My seven year old, though is having an awful time making the “r” sound and my five year old has a terrible interdental lisp. Thanks so much for this terrific blog and your very clearly worded advice!
Hi!
I am going to start working with my little girl who has what you described as an inderdental lisp. Where could I find some pictures of s and z words? Do you have a link I could download them from? It would save me a ton of time.
Thanks so much!!!
Hi, My son is turning three in October. He has a very good vocabulary and loves to talk. THerefore, I have noticed when he talks his tongue rolls in half sideways. Mostly when he says “s”"d”"z”. I know it sounds strange but for some reason he has a flexible large tongue. I am just wondering if he will grow out of it or if he needs to see a speech therapist.
thank you
-SHantel
Hi Tori,
I have some pictures of /s/ words on the down loads page http://mommyspeechtherapy.com/?page_id=55. I’ll try to get some /z/ words up soon.
Good luck,
Heidi
How many times per week should I work with my 5yr old son doing the excersises you listed? We homeschool and our insurance will not cover speech therapy for him after he had a screening and they said it wasn’t severe enough. These lessons look very helpful, just not sure how many times a week to work with on this. Thanks.
I usually recommend 3-5 times per week. The more frequently you do the exercises the quicker you will see progress. Good luck!
When you refer to a “straw drinking program”, are you simply meaning to have the child drink from a straw consistantly, or is there something else?
Read my post on pacifiers and sippy cups: http://mommyspeechtherapy.com/?p=12, It explains the straw program. If you have any more questions let me know.
Heidi
Shantel,
If your son is still rolling his tongue on the /s/, /d/, and /z/ sounds try teaching him to hold his tongue up on his alveolar ridge with some of the exercises I suggest in the article on /t/ and /d/. Then practice the /d/ sound all by itself again, encouraging the tongue tip up. If he is successful with this then practice the /d/ picture cards on the downloads page. If this works you can try the same exercises with the /s/ and /z/ and follow it with practicing the /s/ and /z/ cards.
If you are unable to get a good /d/ sound take him to see a speech therapist.
Good luck,
Heidi
I am 27 years old male and i have a slight lisp. Can this be corrected through practice or is it too late ?
Thanks
Moe,
Definitely! It will be more challenging due to your age, but you may also be more committed than you would have been years earlier to the exercises. Find a Speech Language Pathologist that works with adults and go for it!
Heidi,
Thanks so much for creating this site! I had an interdental lisp as a little girl, and now my youngest son has one as well. Since we homeschool, I can just incorporate therapy time into our school time Thanks again for the wonderful information and resources you provide! We cannot afford to take him to a therapist, but I believe we can make progress with the tools you have provided.
Blessings on your day!
Heidi
Is it something i can do at home in front of a mirror ? can i make it worse ? my tongue touches the back side of my teeth and blocks the flow of air completely.
27 male
Thanks
Moe,
My first recommendation would be to see a speech pathologist. If you want to try it on your own first, do it. The only way you could make it worse would be if you tried to replace the incorrect sound with another incorrect sound. You want to make sure you can get a clean /s/ sound before you begin practicing it in words. Do anything you can to get the air flow to go down the center of your tongue.
A few things you might try include stimulating the center of your tongue with a toothbrush before you begin practicing, place a straw down the center of your tongue to encourage central air flow. You may also try shaping the /s/ sound from the /t/ sound by putting your tongue tip up for the /t/ sound then slightly lowering it, allow air to flow over the tongue tip for an /s/.
Let me know how it goes.
Heidi
Thank you so much , You are an inspiration. I will try using these techniques.
Have you heard about any adult having a complete success in curing a lisp ?
Thank you
Moe,
I work with children mostly, but I know adults can have the same success. Just the other day I was talking with a friend who was experiencing a lisp after having her bottom retainer removed. Her bottom teeth immediately began to move in and that’s when she began to notice a lisp. As we talked we realized that depending on the word sometimes she would make an /s/ with her tongue tip up, and sometimes she would make the /s/ with her tongue tip down. When she made the /s/ with her tongue tip up there was no lisp. She was so excited. She’s been focusing now on retraining herself to make the /s/ with her tongue tip up. It seems to be working.
I know you can do it too!
The way i analyzed my problem with S letter is that i had a gap between my front two teeth (about 2.5mm) since as long as i remember. As i learned how to produce the S sound i used the gap as an opening for the air to escape and produce the hissing sound of S. The sound is more of a Whistling rather than a true Hissing.
I got my gap closed at the dentist using filling couple of weeks ago. when the gap is gone, i noticed a lisp. The air has no place to escape no more since the gap is not there.
I dont know what is more important , appearance of a healthy teeth and smile or a correct pronunciation.
Moe,
It sounds like maybe you were making the /s/ sound with your tongue tip against your teeth, allowing the air to flow through the front teeth. Now that the gap is closed there is nowhere for the air to go. My recommendation would be to try moving your tongue tip back slightly away from your teeth. Then try practicing your /s/ again.
Heidi,
I never realized that my 9 year old daughter lisped until the assistant director of a play she was in mentioned it to me. It’s very mild, more of a slight hiss when she says “s” words. She noticed that she didn’t lisp when she sang, which seems interesting. After reading your website and others, I see that speech therapy might be a good idea, but how do I bring up the subject to my daughter without making her self-conscious? She has no idea that she lisps–no one has ever noticed or said anything. She’s a pretty confident kid, but I think if I said we are going to speech therapy, it might really shake her view of herself.
Thanks
Tracy,
I understand your concerns about suggesting to your daughter that she may have a lisp. The last thing we ever would want to do is shake the confidence of our children. Consider for a minute however how much easier it will be for her to hear it from you than from her peers down the road. Talk to her about what options she has available to her if she decides this is something she would like to work on. Explain to her that the sooner she gets help the easier it will be to fix. Most importantly remind her that you are there to support her in what ever she decides.
I hope it all works out!