Can I Correct My Child's Lisp at Home?

Often at a very tender age, lisp may sound cute or adorable, but later on, it can trigger embarrassing situations both for you and your child. Lisp technically means one’s inability to accurately pronounce the “s” and “z” sounds, for instance, when pronouncing soup, it may sound as “thoup.” Medically, it is referred to as a Functional Speech Disorder. It is certainly a result of poor tongue placement in the mouth resulting in sound distortion. Well, if not tackled shortly, it may become a matter of concern. The top speech therapists in Jaipur suggested close monitoring of children should be done as it majorly happens in preschool age groups. Moreover, this should be treated with intense generosity and sensitivity without causing the child’s sentiments to get hurt.

 According to the finest speech therapists, there are two kinds of lisp:-

• Frontal protrusion lisps: It is most commonly observed in children and is also known as an interdentally (frontal) lisp. Here a child struggles to pronounce “s” or “z” sound and in turn making it sound like a “th.” It’s proclaimed to get better within a time span.

• Lateral omission lisp: In this type, one may spit when trying to pronounce “s” and “z” sounds. Hence, it is more “wet” sounding lisp as children may omit air at the sides of their mouths and cause a mix yet the slushy sound of air and saliva. Therefore, top ENT doctors in Jaipur advise visiting speech therapists.

A radical cause of concern with lisps are when they don’t fade away by the time a child is about five years old. Ideally, a child should coherently verbalize all speech sounds by the time they initiate kindergarten because poor articulation may lead to difficulties in the formation of words and alphabets when they will begin learning about letters. Hence, it may result in improper phrasing and connotations when they will step up the ladder of entering the school.

How can you help your child at home?

 • It is imperative to work with your child at home while reading or learning. It will aid you in better understanding of your child’s articulation and framing of words. The most traditional yet widespread technique is the “butterfly” technique, wherein, you can analyze if your child closes his or her teeth while pronouncing “s” sounds. It basically helps your child by uplifting the sides of their tongue, similarly like a butterfly’s wing. This, in turn, helps in lightly touching the back teeth, which keeps the tip of the tongue from extending beyond the front teeth.

• A child learns maximum form their parents, So, you should be like a role model, you should articulate properly. It can be a challenging activity because you have to be consistent while teaching your child and you may have to it repeatedly without being frustrated or aggressive. Even after a consistent approach, if your child isn’t able to understand properly, then it’s high time to concern Speech-Language Pathologist.

• Make sure you take your child regularly to the therapist, don’t skip even one therapy as well. Consistency is the key and after a few therapies only, you will witness a change in your child’s speech.

• Most importantly don’t compare your child’s progress record with someone else’s child. Don’t be harsh even at home; give your children proper time, eventually, lisp will be fixed as it's not a drastic problem that can't be resolved. A proper speech therapist is a rescue in such situations. Hence, patience is a sword while dealing with a lisp.