Lisping 4 y/o is getting teased, by adults!

[Pawslikepaddington]

My dd has a lisp. She has always had it and I have never drawn attention to it, but we do do exercises every so often (surrupticiously) (sp!) to try and correct it (to no avail). She has a mixed accent as I have no accent and her father is very broad yorkshire, so she has some yorkshire vowels, and this lisp. Recently I have noticed not only older children teasing her, but adults imitating her speech to me and laughing, or saying "haha, doesn't she sound funny!". I feel so and . What can I do? She is 4 and starting to pick up on it. Got to go to work but will be back on at 3.30, thank you xx

[CharleeInChains]

How awful! Adults especially shouldn't mock any shild for a speech impediment.

I would say something to these adults tbh and maybe ask your hv or gp about some speech therapy?

[traceybath]

If it were friends/family i would quietly ask them no to do that.

If its strangers i'd glare at them and ask them what they think they're doing.

It is totally rude behaviour.

Good luck with working on the exercises. I would also explain to your daughter that some people are unfortunately rude and bad mannered.

[Pawslikepaddington]

Thank you both-they were random strangers, or loose "friends", i.e. playground mums park mums etc-her dad's family used to do it, and tell her she was too posh and sounded TH-tupid etc, but he has cut contact with her so they don't see her to do it IYSWIM.

[BlessThisMess]

I helped my DD lose her lisp - I think around about 4.5 - 5yo. On a suggestion from a speech therapist, we talked about 's' as the sammy snake sound and when she lisped we said "ooh, Sammy Snake's got his hat on!" in a lighthearted, happy way. We'd ask if Sammy could take his hat off! We didn't do this every time, but over the course of a few months she gradually got the hang of the normal 's' sound.

about the teasers - I should make a loud comment to DD along the lines of "Don't take any notice of that at all - to me you just sound gorgeous!!" or something like that.

[Pawslikepaddington]

Thank you-it just seems so wrong that adults do this kind of thing to small children, like it is some funny joke. Will try sammy snake-I was worried she had lisped for too long to lose it now

[BlessThisMess]

I was expecting she would lose it naturally, and it was my brother who is a voice coach who (discreetly!) commented on it to me and got me thinking that perhaps I ought to just try and nudge the process along a bit. Good luck! Our next-door-neighbour (DD1's best friend) is 8 and still has a very pronounced lisp and I think it is a shame as it is so easy to put right given a tiny bit of intervention.

[filthymindedSixSixSixen]

Tell them to pith off...

one of ds1's teachers took the piss out of his slight speech inmpediment. He says soogar insted of shugar and sark instead of shark. She said she was only drawing his attention to it in the hope he could correct it

[GooseyLoosey]

Does she suck her thumb? I only ask as ds (5) also has a slight lisp and the speech therapist said that the first thing to do to resolve it was to stop him sucking his thumb and it has actually helped.

[thumblesswitch]

how very rude and ignorant of them! Perhaps they would be less keen to do it if you found something to take the piss out of in their children? Although that is rather sinking to their level and beneath you really.

How about saying "gosh, do you suffer from a speech issue as well? Shame you didn't do something about it earlier!"

[littlerach]

Dd2 has a lisp (4) and we ignore it.
I think I had one until school, then it disappeared.
It is mean to mock.

[Weeteeny]

My little DS (3.75) has a lisp. I think it is gradually disppearing but I am not sure sometimes.
My own mum imitated him once and I immediatley told her off. To be fair she didn't mean to be unkind she just didn't think at the time.
Can anyone advise any excercises I can do with him, or the best way to try and help him with his pronunciation. I don't like to correct him, he has a big vocabulary and is a little chatterbox, and I don't want to dent his confidence.
PawslikePaddington, I would tell anyone that mimics your DD that she has picked up on the fact they are teasing her and not to do it again please.

[BlessThisMess]

Weeteny, You may find that you are allowed to refer yourself/DS to speech therapy without going through the Dr. Many health authorities do this. One assessment and good chat with a speech therapist would probably do the trick. Otherwise I can only recommend the 'sammy snake' trick I mentioned in my first post on this thread - it worked for my DD!

[GooseyLoosey]

Our speech therapist recommended lots of word games involving the "s" sound (like who can say "sammy snake's sizzling sausages" the fastest") and also blowing games like blow football (no idea while these help).

[Weeteeny]

Thanks for the advice blessthis mess I will try the sammy snake excercise first and see how that goes.

[DesperateHousewifeToo]

Weeteeny, I used to be an slt before children.

Does your dd suck her thumb, drink from a baby bottle or use a dummy? All these can contribute to a child saying 's' with their tongue too far forward in their mouth (i.e. lisp) because of the position the tongue is encouraged to be in when sucking. As an earlier poster recommended, try to stop using them if that is the case.

My dd does none of these things but does still have a lisp, so it's not always our fault as parents!

It may take a bit longer for this to resolve but you won't be doing any harm by getting her to copy you saying 's' vs 'th' and talking about keeping her tongue in her mouth vs out (or whatever terms you need to use to help her understand) - obviously, only if she is happy to do this. I wouldn't expect her to be able to say 's' correctly in lots of words at this stage i.e. tongue twisters, until she starts using it in more everyday speech.

My dd (3.5yrs) can copy 's' but still uses 'th' mostly in speech.

I doubt an slt would think this would need therapy until she is a few years older (if at all) but I'm sure they would chat to you over the phone if you become very concerned.

Hope that helps a little and the comments stop.

[LoolaBoys]

DS1(5) has a very slight lisp. Most people don't notice it. He did see a Speech Therapist for something else though, and she said it would get worse before it got better, when his teeth started falling out. She did say he would probably grow out of it himself, but maybe some children do need exercises to help

[melsy]

my dd2 has a lisp,(probably from over dummy use ). A friend of mine is a dentist and she suggested getting her to bring her front teeth together in a big teethy scary grin and just keep saying the Ssssss sound over and over with her. Bless her she cant actually put the teeth together as theres a huge arch between them.

Come to think , is this a concern may be?

oohh gosh , now I know why I get scared coming on mn , I learn more about potential medical bodily problems!

Its a shame people resort to mocking , but Ive said it myself , if I don't rectify it now , I had a feeling it would become an issue for her around others when older. She sounds so adorable to me though. You get used to them sounding this way ,like its part of their identity.

[DesperateHousewifeToo]

Melsy, I always thought that tooth shape was caused by a dummy but, obviously, I'm not a dentist

Maybe I'm thinking of my parents who told me not to suck my thumb as my teeth would stick out. Didn't work though, I still sucked my thumb (and needed braces!)

[melsy]

Think you may be right and the lisp is due to the gap.