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cathhomeschool
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| Posted: July 12 2005 at 4:43pm | IP Logged
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Noah (just turned 4) has a noticeable lisp. I never thought much of it, but my mother wonders if he'll outgrow it or if we should address it at some point. Any suggestions? Does any one else out there have a child that lisps?
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Janette (4 boys - 22, 21, 15, 14)
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MacBeth
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| Posted: July 18 2005 at 12:01pm | IP Logged
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Trip lisped until he was 11. I never did anything but remind him. He speaks quite clearly now (13).
Around here speech problems are over diagnosed/over remediated, but the reason is that there is no way to tell, even with "professional" help, which child will outgrow a speech issue or which child will need therapy.
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cathhomeschool
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| Posted: July 18 2005 at 2:57pm | IP Logged
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Thanks, MacBeth! I really wasn't worried, until my mom put ideas into my head. I think I'll try your approach for now!
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Janette (4 boys - 22, 21, 15, 14)
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saintanneshs
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| Posted: July 18 2005 at 11:43pm | IP Logged
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MacBeth wrote:
| Around here speech problems are over diagnosed/over remediated, but the reason is that there is no way to tell, even with "professional" help, which child will outgrow a speech issue or which child will need therapy. |
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Isn't that so frustrating?! I once had a pediatrician (she only had 1 infant of her own) tell me that if my 2nd son didn't start talking before his 2nd birthday she would recommend a speech therapist for him! 
Janette, I hope this does go away on it's own...along with my 3rd son's stuttering!! 
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Courtney
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| Posted: July 19 2005 at 7:17am | IP Logged
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My ds lisps and doesn't say his "r"s correctly. He is just now starting to say his "l" instead of "w". He is 5 yr old. I was a speech path for 3 years in a public school. I can tell you that at a public school level, I did not start seeing kids with a lisp or "r" misarticulations until about 1st grade. Many of them do self correct by then. I can also tell you I worked with several boy 5th graders who lisped a great deal. If correct pronunciation is not carried over at home, there was little I could do in 1 hour a week with a group of 5 students in each group. My dh keeps asking me when I'm going to work with ds on his articulation. We do, but in a very natural way!
There are some more severe articulation problems that IMHO do require therapy. There are some children who say whole systems of sounds incorrectly and you have to go about it from the whole system rather than sounds in isolation. However, when there are a couple of individual articulation problems, especially at such a young age, I believe in letting them mature a little first. I do have to add, though, that I praise the doctors who at least encourage parents to check out speech issues. I can't tell you how many children with severe language delays or severe articulation disorders I saw whose doctors never mentioned a word about it to parents. I once saw a 4 yr old who was totally unintelligible. Remediation for language disorders is much more successful the earlier it is identified. I do know, though, that this group of moms is quite in touch with their children and as a speech pathologist I always put a lot of stock in what the parent said about her child. You know your child better than anyone.Just my 2 cents!
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Courtney in Texas
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MacBeth
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| Posted: July 19 2005 at 8:48am | IP Logged
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Now that we have Courtney on the spot , can you tell us if there is any particular way to help a lisper? Any "put your tongue here..." sort of advice?
Trip was (and remains  ) an interesting child...when I pointed out his lisping in my usual calm and natural way, he would make it worse, on purpose! If he could do that, I figured he could fix it, too. He found creative way to do this himself, like learning to whistle with his tongue on the roof of his mouth, and doing that for a while instead of saying "sss".
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MacBeth in NY
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Courtney
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| Posted: July 19 2005 at 9:36am | IP Logged
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There are two kinds of lisps: frontal (tongue btwn the teeth as in "th" and lateral (air escapes on sides of tongue, "s" sounds kinds of spitty).
When you make an "s", the sides of the tongue are pressed up against the teeth, as in the "eee" sound (with a lateral lisper, this isn't happening). You can tell your child to pretend the sides of his tongue are butterfly wings and to make the butterfly put his wings up (obviously a child Trip's age doesn't need this kind of instruction, just tell him where to put the sides of his tongue). The air should be escaping down the middle of the tongue out through the front.
One method to try that I had forgotten about and just tried with my ds is to have your child say "t-t-t-t-t" in succession. When they stretch out this sound (slow it down), you start to hear the "s" sound in there. This will give the child immediate feedback of what a "good s" sounds like. You could try to do this "t-t-t-t-" stretched out and then immediately followed by a word like "sun". Keep in mind that this whole prcess of totally remediating a sound can take awhile. You always want to get the sound successfully produced in isolation first. When they can do that consistently, move on to syllables or short words. Always start with the sound in the initial position of the word.
I hope I've explained this in a way that makes sense. I didn't realize just how rusty I'd become until I really started thinking about tongue placement! One more idea: my ds has a hard time making "l" b/c he appears to have some tongue weakness. Doing simple exercises like holding a cheerio up behind his teeth with his tongue can help strenghten this muscle and prepare it for the "l" sound. When I quit working, oral motor therapy was beginning to become a big thing in my field. I would love to get more training in this area someday b/c I know it is very helpful to those children with more significant delays and oral motor issues. Feel free to ask anymore questions.
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Courtney in Texas
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cathhomeschool
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| Posted: July 19 2005 at 11:09am | IP Logged
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Thanks for the suggestions and encouragement! Noah has a frontal lisp. It sounds from Courtney's posts that maybe it's not too much to worry about, especially not at the moment. Hopefully he'll self correct over time with some encouragement.
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Janette (4 boys - 22, 21, 15, 14)
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Sarah
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| Posted: Nov 04 2005 at 3:49pm | IP Logged
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I'm bringing up this thread from this summer. Courtney's explanation is great. However, I'm still wondering if my lisping ds7 is frontal or lateral. Now that he's 7 it hasn't gotten better. We've never pointed it out to him, nor do I want to make a big deal of it. But, I did read on a brief search online that lisping can become a habit if left alone and its harder to fix the older they are. I don't want to start speech therapy if I don't have to-I'd like to help him at home. Courtney are you still out there? What else can I do? My ds 7 lisps very badly when he's self-conscious and mildly to us at home. I think he's lateral. I really believe you can mess kids up if they are over-worked, but I also don't want to be ignorant and leave it alone if he needs help. I don't think he knows he does it. I also detect it slightly in ds 4. We have some lisping in the adult extended family.
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Courtney
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| Posted: Nov 06 2005 at 10:45pm | IP Logged
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Hi, Sarah. I just emailed you via private messenger.
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Courtney in Texas
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4Real Forums : Mothering and Family Life
Topic: Lisps
