Lisping

What is a Lisp? 

The most common type of a lisp is when a child makes the “th” sound if they try to say an “s” or “z” sound.

Your child might try to say “sing” but instead it sounds like “thing.”

A parent can see that their child is speaking with a lisp because of the incorrect placement of the child’s tongue inside their mouth during when they are speaking. If the child is lisping, the tongue is touching or pushing on their teeth. They also stick out or protrude between the child’s teeth.

There are several types of lisps including palatal, lateral, dentalized, and interdental. Here we will focus on the most common lisp- the interdental lisp, as well as the lateral lisp as another common yet non-developmental lisp.

Interdental Lisp: Speech therapists may also call these frontal lisps. This happens when the tongue pushes forward or sticks out between the front teeth.

These lisps are considered developmental and a child may outgrow them on their own. Yet we have seen many older teens as well as young adults in their twenties with a frontal lisp that did not correct independently.

Kids may start to develop a lisp around age 2 as speech skills increase. Many children have this type of lisp until around age 5. 

Parents should consider consulting with a speech therapist if a child has not outgrow their lisp by school age on their own.

Lateral Lisp: This type of lisp occurs when  if a child’s tongue looks to be  in a normal position yet the flow of air is released from the sides of the mouth instead of from the front. The sound may be “slushy” or wet sounding because air and saliva are mixing some the sound is produced.

The lateral lisp is not developmental meaning it is not part of normal speech development like other lisps and does not usually resolve on its own.

A child will need speech therapy as soon as possible to help remediate this type of lisp.  Parents should consult with a speech therapist to diagnose and treat the child for a lateral lisp since helping a child at home without the supervision of a professional may not yells results.

Can a Lisp Affect a Person’s Life?

That is a very personal question and often depends an the personality of the child or adult with a lisp.

While lisping does may not have an effect on a person’s intelligibility, there are potential social or emotional consequences as a person with a lisp gets older.

Children’s self esteem, social anxiety, communication confidence and desire to socialize my all be affected if they have a lisp. They may even be teased.

We’ve often seen children in intermediate school as their parents for speech therapy to help with their lisp. They don’t want to stand out because their speech sounds different.

As adults, frustration or embarrassment at work may increase. Especially since as adults we often feel that we should be able to fix our speech independently.

What Causes a Lisp?

We don’t often know why a child has a lisp, especially a frontal or interdental lisp, but sometimes there is a known cause such as:

• Incorrect jaw alignment
• A tongue ties
• A tongue thrust (tongue protrudes between a person’s teeth)

How do Speech Therapists Diagnose and Treat a Lisp?

To diagnose a lisp, a speech therapist will observe your child’s speech pattern, take a full speech history, and perform an oral exam.

Its important for the speech therapist who assesses your child’s speech to identify the type of lisp your child has, and create an inventory of which sounds they’re mispronouncing.

This will help create a specific treatment plan for your child to reach their communication goals.

A speech therapist will help:

• Make your child aware of where they’re their tongue is when they speak
• Work with your child to hear and recognize the difference between word pronounced correctly and those that are not (auditory discrimination tasks)
• Give them models to produce sounds they struggle with correctly
• Use the sounds correctly in words, sentences and then in everyday conversation when in therapy sessions and outside in their everyday life

How Long will Lisp Speech Therapy Take?

There are many factors that affect how long treatment is for any speech or language issue. Lisp speech therapy can vary but some factors that can affect the length of treatment include:

• Your child’s age
• Awareness of the sounds they are mispronouncing
• Can the child self correct when they are asked to
• How well does the child follow directions
• How often does the child practice at home

Do Lisps Affect Adults?

Yes. There are many adults that come for treatment to get rid of their lisp which never resolved on its own when they were a child.

It’s not too late to correct a lisp and adults often feel they want to do so as it may impact feelings of frustration, embarrassment, or low self-esteem. They want to feel more confident when speaking in their daily lives and at work.

Importantly, not all adults want to change their lisp. They feel it has become a part of their speech fingerprint or personality. We think that’s great.

Treatment for adults needing lisp therapy is similar to that for kids. Often, motivation is very high with adult who has a lisp so treatment can progress even faster than with a child. We encourage adults to have a few sessions with a speech therapist to learn the treatment strategies and then practice often at home.

What Can Parents Do at Home for Lisp Therapy?

We encourage your to practice at home since speech therapy once or twice a week with a speech language pathologist may not be enough. When parents are actively involved in their child’s speech progress, they can graduate for speech therapy even faster.

During online speech therapy sessions, your therapist will provide personalized recommendations, but here are some few tips and strategies you can practice at home to start working on getting rid of a lisp.

Model Correct Speech: speak slowly, clearly yet naturally. Get on your child’s level when they speak and observe how their mouth moves.

Look in a Mirror: Take your child to a mirror so they can see you and them practicing the pronunciation of  the “s” and “z” sounds. Look at how your teeth are positioned and how your mouth moves when correctly saying these sounds, and ask your child to imitate the sounds you are making as well as the correct movements and placement of the parts of the mouth. This is a great way for kids to learn, especially for children that learn by watching (visual learners).

Butterfly Strategy: This is a strategy that speech therapists use often in speech sessions and you can practice at home with your child.  Parents should try this first so that they can understand the strategy. Make an stretch out the litter “i” like in the words “bin” or “fin” and pay attention to how the sides of your tongue come up like the wings of a butterfly (visuals like animals or shapes help kids a lot). When you make the “s” or “z” sounds, your tongue should also be in a similar position. You can practice this technique and note that the goal of this exercise is to have your child’s tongue tip stay in their mouth (not stick out past the front teeth).

How Can Therapy Works Together help Treat Lisps?

We match children and adults with a certified and licensed speech therapist that is an expert in their specific speech or language needs.  Speech therapy is provided online with face to face video conferences.

• Therapy is convenient because you can schedule it on your time.
• Sessions are affordable and privately paying may even be preferred to using insurance for speech therapy.
• Our speech therapists teach clients, parents and caregivers the speech strategies they need to make progress fast.