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Lisp
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Hi,
I have a 7 year old daughter who has a lisp. Specifically, she has trouble pronouncing the letter “s” correctly. She’s been doing this her whole life and I had just assumed she’d outgrow it as she got older, but she hasn’t. I decided to try and start working with her this year (2nd grade) to correct it. I’ve tried a few exercises that I found on a speech therapy website along with having her read passages aloud to me every day, being very conscious of how she pronounces her “s’s”. (She is a very advanced reader and reads tons of books on her own.) We’ve even tried to focus on just one word (for example – the word “yes”) for a week to see if she can correct it because I don’t want to overwhelm her by nitpicking every “s” she prounces incorrectly.
None of these things have seemed to make much difference. Let me add that she is physically capable of pronouncing the letter correctly when we work on it.
I’m afraid that I starting working with her on it too late and she made need “real” speech therapy to correct the problem. I have a 3 year old boy who has the same exact lisp. If there is something I can/should do with him at his age, I’d love to hear your ideas so that I can start on him right away.
I would appreciate any thoughts from those of you who’ve had to work through this. 🙂
Thanks in advance,
Anna
There is Speechercise, which I’ve heard good things about. I purchased it but did not use it for long because my son was really too old for it and it just felt embarrassing to him. We did end up i n speech therapy, though for a different reason, and here is what I learned:
Start with one syllable words. Make a sheet of them and have her practice them once a day. About three days later, add a few 2 syllable words and then progress from there. Give her some fun stuff to read from, too, like a fast food menu, or the pet section of the newspaper, etc. Get one of those little handheld recorder thingies and let her listen to herself. Eventually get to where you ask her how she thinks she did before you listen to the recording. Play a game, talk, all with the express purpose of ‘working on’ the speech. Then let it go for the day. If there are other siblings in the home who may want to correct the child, absolutely forbid it. Move to very short sentences. One at a time, then listen. Then get a short passage and type it up as a list of sentences and do the same. Eventually work up to short paragraphs. Get to the point where you as her mom can use a signal or something to remind her to correct her speech during the day; just do it discreetly. Then NOTICE when she makes the correct sound.
For my son, it eventually faded away. I will say, though, that he was 10 when we started speech therapy. We stopped after about 8 visits (our therapist had the nerve to get married and be a stay at home wife!
) and there was no replacement. So, I just took lots of notes and we continued on here. The whole process took about 4 months. It was quite a bit harder because my son was willing to cop a bad attitude with me but would never have done that with the therapist. “But I know you better, Mom!” “Thanks, Son.” I think we spent as much time on character training as we did on speech therapy!Should you decide to try some things at home before going to see a therapist, perhaps you will be able to glean an idea or two from our experience. I will pray for you, Anna!
Blessings,
Cindy
If you are willing to put in the time, lisps are fairly easy to correct, esp since she can say it correctly when she’s focused. Before becoming a mom, I was a speech pathologist in the schools so here’s an example of how we would do speech.
Set up a speech time each day. Make it short-maybe 30 minutes (less is fine too-just do what time you have). For that time, focus on correcting her lisp. Work at whatever level she is ready for (start with syllables, then words, then phrases, then sentences, then get longer and longer). Play games using s words during each time-go fish and memory are the easiest to do this with by just making sure that a “s” word is on every card. You can just have her say “s” words everytime she takes a turn in other games too. Reading would also work just make sure she is reading at the level her speech is at (read only words if that is where she can be successful in correcting her lisp-this reading has nothing to do with her reading ability just her speaking without a lisp ability).
Once she is able to do paragraphs during speech time start working on transitioning to all day everyday speech. Pick a few times to point out her speech to her (maybe meals or school time or something). You could also come up with a signal that only the two of you know to help her remember her “new” speech during other times. Do NOT work on transitioning to all times of the day until she is able to do it easily during speech time-it will only frustrate her.
During the beginning time, work with her on auditory discrimination also. Cover your mouth (or turn around) and say words with the correct “s” and with the incorrect “s” and have her tell you which is which. This will help her tune into the correct and incorrect sounds also.
This may take awhile to transition to all her speech. Just give it time and she will get it!
I have to take off. If you have more questions, I will try to answer them this evening when I get home.
-Rebecca
) and there was no replacement. So, I just took lots of notes and we continued on here. The whole process took about 4 months. It was quite a bit harder because my son was willing to cop a bad attitude with me but would never have done that with the therapist. “But I know you better, Mom!” “Thanks, Son.” I think we spent as much time on character training as we did on speech therapy!
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