Guest article by Ruth Brehaut*
I often talk with parents who are concerned that their child or teenager has a lisp. Lots of people have heard of a lisp but are unsure what it means. However, they do know it’s something that you have speech therapy for! So, what is a lisp?
A lisp is a particular type of speech difficulty with the sounds ‘sss’ or ‘zzz’. I’ll explain more, but first, let’s go over what our mouth does when we make the sound ‘sss’. When we say a ‘sss’ (like a snake), our tongue tip moves either up or down just behind our front teeth. Most of us say it with our tongue tip up but you can try it out; see which way you say it! Either way, with our tongue tip behind our teeth, air flow flows through the small gap and we get a crisp ‘sss’ sound. Our tongue does the same thing for ‘zzz’ (like in zip) but we also have our voice box on to get the buzzy noise. Most children can say the ‘sss’ and ‘zzz’ sounds easily at about 4 years of age.
When asking the question, ‘what is a lisp?’ it’s good to know that the most common type of lisp is an interdental lisp. This is where our tongue tip sticks out between our teeth and ‘sss’ or ‘zzz’ turns into a ‘th’. For example, sun → thun or zoom →thoom. It can sound quite cute when little kids do this but as children get older, it can make their speech sound a little immature and they may feel self-conscious about it. There is sometimes a period of time when the tongue says ‘sss’ or ‘zzz’ sticking out if a child’s top and bottom front teeth have all fallen out at the same time! It is usually good to wait for 1-2 front teeth before trying speech therapy in this case.
Less common types of lisps include lateral and palatal lisps. These lisps are made by your tongue sitting further back along the roof of the mouth with the tongue slightly curled. These make ‘sss’ or ‘zzz’ sound slushy. These types of lisps generally don’t go away on their own so speech therapy can be important to help children learn to say ‘sss’ and ‘zzz’ correctly.
So, as a parent, what can you do to help your child if you think they have a lisp?
No matter the age of the child or speech sound change, you can always repeat the word back correctly so the child can hear how it should sound. You don’t have to make a big deal out of it and the child doesn’t have to repeat you. They are just hearing how it should sound. It might go something like this child: “Emma’s thinging!” adult: “Yeah, Emma is singing. She’s singing!”
If you’re worried about a sound, it’s always a great idea to playfully include that sound in stories, songs, and play. For example, Old McDonald’s farm might have a snake that goes ‘sss’, you might pretend to mow the lawn and say ‘zzz’ as you go. It gives your child another chance to listen the sounds they find tricky. Again, your child doesn’t have to copy you, you’re just giving them a really clear example.
With older children, you might talk about the letters s, z, th and the sounds they make (s=‘sss’. z=‘zzz’, th=thhh). You can talk about how your tongue is behind your teeth for ‘sss’ and ‘zzz’ and in between your teeth for ‘thhh’. Talk about different words that start with those sounds and figure out what letters might match them.
You may notice your child is easily able to say ‘sss’ and ‘zzz’ without any extra help in these situations, great! Saying ‘sss’ and ‘zzz’ easily in more conversations may not be too far away.
Does my child need to see a Speech-language Therapist?
If your child is over 4 and their ‘sss’ or ‘zzz’ sounds ‘slushy’ then I’d recommend assessment by a Speech-language Therapist especially if their speech is generally hard to understand or you think they may be making other speech sound errors as well.
If your child is over 4 and you’re concerned their ‘sss’ and ‘zzz’ sounds more like ‘thhh’, it would be beneficial to chat to a Speech-language Therapist about whether your child needs an assessment especially if your child feels worried or self-conscious about their talking.
You can phone or email Melva for free to chat about whether speech therapy would be beneficial for your family.
*Ruth is a Speech-language Therapist in Hamilton, NZ. She loves helping kids learn to talk, and considers it a privilege to work with their families.