Can a lisp be corrected?

[Sonshine]

I can't deny it any longer. My 10 year old has a lisp. Is it too late to correct this? Does anyone know what's involved? He wants to be a public speaker.

[msjones]

We were able to teach our son to stop lisping. He was 7. The speech therapist was going to be so extremely expensive ($150 per 45 min session) that we decided to at least try it on our own.

 

I searched and searched the internet for help. I did find some great sites. However, I just dug around in my bookmarks for you and couldn't find the links.

 

I remember one of them was something like "homeschool speech therapy." One was a site for teaching deaf children to produce certain sounds.

 

I will try to dig up those links to save you from the search. I'm bummed to see that they're no longer on my bookmark list.

 

We were told that we weren't likely to have any success at home. He was through with his lisp in about 6 weeks. We did the 'therapy' every school day, and I reinforced correct articulation throughout the days. It was very positive and we were both thrilled that he improved so quickly. So, yes, there is hope!

 

I'll dig for those sites.

[msjones]

Found it!

 

http://www.speech-language-therapy.com/lisping.htm

http://www.speech-language-therapy.com/lisping.htm

[Sonshine]

The lisp is only at the end of some words. Does anyone know what that means? I'll try to pay attention and see if I can hear a pattern. I can get speech therapy at a reduced rate, but if it's something I can do with him myself, I would rather try that. We don't have insurance that covers it. I'll look up those links you posted - thank you.

[melissel]

:bigear:

 

I have a 5-year-old thumbsucker with a pronounced lisp, and I know it will not be going away on its own. I'd love to hear what others have done at home to help!

[Sonshine]

I listened to my son more carefully this morning. It seems like he mostly has a problem with s's. Hopefully that means he won't have as much of a problem correcting it?

[amey311]

If you're not completely adverse to involving them, you may be able to get speech therapy through your local school district.

 

You can also see if you have any coverage thru your health insurance company. We had OT covered that way once we got a prescription for it from the pediatrician.

[Myra]

My son had a lisp when he was around 5. I first took him to the dentist for an evaluation during one of his regular dental check ups (that way it was covered under my dental insurance.) The dentist evaluated him and found that it was a problem with closure and jaw type thing and recommended speech therapy to realign jaw correctly for words. Next I took him to the pediatrician for a well-child physical (once again covered by my medical insurance). I asked the doctor to refer us for evaluation by a speech therapist (covered by my medical insurance.) I explained to the speech therapist my financial situation and she said that she would spread the "evaluation" over 4 visits - each 2 weeks apart. At each "evaluation" visit the speech therapist gave us tons of activities to do at home to correct the problem giving us essensially 2 months of therapy under the "evaluation". I never had to pay a cent besides my insurance co-pay and my son no longer had a lisp!

 

 

Myra

 

PS

Our state offers free in-home speech therapy as part of the "Head Start" program. You might check into that route.

[OH_Homeschooler]

I had a lisp when I was younger. I did a lot of speech therapy in school but what really seemed to help was getting braces to correct my overbite. Does your son have an overbite?

[gingersmom]

Please take your son for speech therapy.

 

The sooner you take him in, the quicker the lisp can be eliminated/reduced.

[Lolly]

It depends on what type of lisp. My dd has a lateral lisp. It is very difficult to correct even with therapy. She is a speech therapy drop out. She has pretty much corrected it herself. Her lisp at 16 is very slight unless she is very tired. Then, it becomes a real problem. She has learned not to talk too much if shs is tired.

[snickelfritz]

My daughter does a modified lisp. While it sounds (mostly) right, her tongue does protrude and she gets more and more garbled if she's upset or excited.

 

We are doing speech therapy at a local university with a speech pathology department. It's $19 for 30 minutes and they have a sliding scale which only gets cheaper. So, that might be something to check on. A student does the bulk of the work, but a professor always checks in to observe or participate for part of the session. And a professor was present for the initial screaning and an audiologist was there for the hearing test.

[mamato3 all-boy boys]

There are different kinds of lisps, so you have to know what kind of lisp. It is a tongue positioning problem, as long as everything else physical is ruled out.

 

Yes, they are correctable, but (as a former speech language pathologist) it is hard the older the student. It is a bad "habit," and as we all know, bad habits are hard to break.

 

I've found frontal lisps are easier to correct than lateral lisps, but I've helped a few students conquer lateral lisps. If you can get an initial evaluation from a speech therapist and she/he does some investigating to see how readily your child responds to different corrective techniques, you'll save yourself some time. Then, ask for a home program. Diligence at home can be significantly more effective (imho) than once or twice a week therapy, mostly because you are with your child 24/7 and can provide cues and tips constantly.

 

You can pm me if you have questions.

[snickelfritz]

The lisp is only at the end of some words. Does anyone know what that means?

 

From what I know, that's encouraging. If you could pinpoint the combinations giving him trouble, it would focus your work. There is a progression of ease of use with middle of the word being harder to master than the beginning of words. First, is saying the sound independently. Our therapist started with exercises to get her to say the sound by itself. Now, they are working on various combinations at the beginning of words. First, was /st/. They just added vowels yesterday, /sa/, /se/, etc... All at the beginning of words. When she starts to garble, they go back to a few exercises with just the independent sound.

 

They, specifically, use the /t/ sound and have her repeat it and end with a /s/. ex..../t/ /t/ /t/ /s/. I guess the tongue positioning is the same? But, they've also worked on the way she blows air out. So, it really is more complicated than I can explain.

[jenncslp]

There are different kinds of lisps, so you have to know what kind of lisp. It is a tongue positioning problem, as long as everything else physical is ruled out.

 

Yes, they are correctable, but (as a former speech language pathologist) it is hard the older the student. It is a bad "habit," and as we all know, bad habits are hard to break.

 

I've found frontal lisps are easier to correct than lateral lisps, but I've helped a few students conquer lateral lisps. If you can get an initial evaluation from a speech therapist and she/he does some investigating to see how readily your child responds to different corrective techniques, you'll save yourself some time. Then, ask for a home program. Diligence at home can be significantly more effective (imho) than once or twice a week therapy, mostly because you are with your child 24/7 and can provide cues and tips constantly.

 

You can pm me if you have questions.

 

:iagree: Another SLP here...it's definitely harder the older they get. I think a therapy in conjunction with a home program is the way to go, she will need a lot of practice.

[Sonshine]

Okay - I listened some more today. It isn't only at the end of words but it is only with the s sounds. I also looked at his bite - his over bite has gotten much worse. Maybe that has something to do with it. His lisp seems to have gotten worse too, but I am not sure about that. We had him evaluated for braces two years ago - they said to bring him back when he was older. I am making an appointment for him with the orthodontist ASAP. I want to get that evaluated and then take that information with us to the speech pathologist. I actually work contract at a peds clinic and can hopefully get the speech therapy at the employees rate - whatever that is. Hopefully a lot less than the regular rate.

 

What is a lateral lisp and how does one know if one's child has it?

[happypamama]

I was in speech therapy for years, from about kindergarten to fifth grade. It was fairly successful. I can say "s" and similar sounds now, and most people can't tell that they're not perfect. I know they are not as crisp and clear as most people's though, and when I'm tired, it comes out more. I dislike public speaking immensely, though whether that's partially self-consciousness because of the slight lisp or not, I don't know. I would definitely look into getting speech therapy for your son soon.

[justamouse]

Do they have to be corrected? I have a kid with a slight lisp and I love it. And one of my girl friends has a *very* pronounced lisp and I think she's the sweetest sounding thing ever.

 

I dunno. I watch people give speeches and watch people talk and I can see them lisping. It doesn't bother me int he least. Is there something really wrong with it?

[snickelfritz]

Do they have to be corrected? I have a kid with a slight lisp and I love it. And one of my girl friends has a *very* pronounced lisp and I think she's the sweetest sounding thing ever.

 

Does your girlfriend like her lisp? Is she self-conscious talking in front of people? Sweet sounding may not transfer to professional sounding in front of co-workers. In a boardroom. In front of a jury.

 

I love my dd's lisp and am sort of sad to see it go. We've taken video to preserve it. But what is cute on a 5 year old, I think could create big problems for a teenager/ adult.

[Sonshine]

I think it is important to correct it. I'm trying to figure out why my head was in the sand. Of course, no one ever mentioned it to me until a few days ago. My oldest son (who teaches speech) said it would make people not want to listen to him when giving speeches. That lit a fire under me.

[Jean in Newcastle]

My dd9 is starting speech therapy through the school system this week. She has trouble with th, s and r.

[wapiti]

Sweet sounding may not transfer to professional sounding in front of co-workers. In a boardroom. In front of a jury.

 

This is my DH. Literally. In front of a jury.

 

He had speech therapy in high school which wasn't terribly effective. It's most obvious if he's had a few drinks :tongue_smilie:

 

Two of my kids have lisps. Thank you to this thread for giving me a little kick in the rear to start doing something about them.

 

FWIW, our school district will not offer speech therapy for a lisp alone.

[mamato3 all-boy boys]

 

What is a lateral lisp and how does one know if one's child has it?

 

The stream of air that passes though the teeth is to the sides instead of straight ahead. Often, with a frontal lisp, the tongue is obviously in the wrong place -- it is often pushing against the front teeth, touching the cutting edge of the front teeth or sometimes protruding out past the front teeth.

 

Funny I googled it and wikipedia said, "The "lateral" lisp, where the /s/ and /z/ sounds are produced with air escaping over the sides of the tongue, is also called 'slushy ess' or a 'slushy lisp' due to the wet, spitty sound. The symbols for these lateralized sounds are in the Extended International Phonetic Alphabet for speech disorders, [ʪ] and [ʫ]. Notably the former mayor of New York, Rudolph Giuliani, has this type of lisp.[3]"

 

Poor Rudy.

 

Someone mentioned that their speech therapist uses a "t" to help get a good "s" sound---- and that is a great idea for a frontal lisp. The lateral lisp is a little harder.

[mum]

Another vote for doing something. It is worth the work. The child won't be thanking you now, but they surely will when they are older. I had my dd in to speech therapy from age 5 until about 11 for lisp. She had tongue thrust (which SLP will evaluate for) and so if we didn't get that corrected with therapy then any orthodontia she had done would be reversed by the tongue continuing to push those front teeth forward. She we did the whole thing, and braces too and at 16 it's all a huge success. Dd recently commented on a teachers lisp, and I said, " Aren't you glad your mother took you to speech therapy" and she said "yes!" For me it wasn't about making my child perfect, it was about helping a condition that I knew was treatable and could affect her life and career choices down the road.

Good luck

[justamouse]

Does your girlfriend like her lisp? Is she self-conscious talking in front of people? Sweet sounding may not transfer to professional sounding in front of co-workers. In a boardroom. In front of a jury.

 

I love my dd's lisp and am sort of sad to see it go. We've taken video to preserve it. But what is cute on a 5 year old, I think could create big problems for a teenager/ adult.

 

She talks in front of people all the time. She has no problem with it, and she does conferences where she speaks. No one sees her as unprofessional. Not in the least. She just is more of the, "this is the way I am," type person I guess.

[naturalmom]

My ds had a lateral lisp and it was very hard to correct. I know that sometimes a lateral lisp can't be corrected.

 

There is no one thing that will help with every child. Our therapist tried lots of tactics. Here's what ended up helping:

 

The "t" sound can help. If you say t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-tttttttttttttt (start with individual "t"s and then hold the "t" at the end), it can help with finding that "s". Once we had that, we used words that end in ts. So it would come out like "It-t-t-t-t-t-t-ttttttts a ________". So phrases like "It's a table, it's a chair....and it's hot, it's cold, etc, can be good if using a "t" helps.

 

To help ds identify where his "s" was coming from, he would say it through a straw - if the air came through the straw, it was coming out the front. Once he got that, he would use the straw for a practice word, and then we switched to practice with a straw, then without, alternating. But that would only be needed for a lateral lisp.

 

Ds had a weekly session, and we practiced every day at home. It was a very frustrating process, and awfully hard to stay motivated (for ds). It's a long process, especially because getting the sound right during practice sessions is only the first step. Transitioning to everyday speech is the second hurdle.

 

I do know it's much much harder the older the child is, and I would guess that half of that is the strength of the habit and the other half is that it really requires perseverance, and I think it's just more humbling for an older child to have to say the same words over and over and over and over without seeing a lot of daily improvement.

 

I say all that to really encourage you to find a speech therapist. Don't worry, you'll still be doing plenty at home:) And the more you do at home, the quicker it will go.