lisp (?) in 2 year old - concern? What to do about it?

[Hoopsadazy]

My DS has been chatting a while now and we have always been able to understand so not been too concerned about his pronunciation. However, last few weeks have noticed that his pronunciation is less clear that peers who have caught up with vocab and finally pinpointed it to him pronouncing 's' with his tongue between his teeth.

Will he get it right eventually or should we be trying to correct it now?

How?

bump

no concern, it's normal for his age.

Don't most 2 yr olds lisp?

@ coffeedodger - did someone say something??

DD has a lisp - tongue between teeth. She's coming up to 4 and I'll give it another year to sort itself out and then maybe refer back to SALT. I wouldn't worry at all at 2 yrs esp as your ds's speech sounds really good in general.

phew.

Thanks guys xxx

My daughter had a lisp at 2 and so did a number of my 16 year olds friends. I didn't want to risk it being a teenage issue so I did some reasearch and followed some basic rules and now there is no sign of it.

I got some of this from lisping web sites and the rest I made up. Wikipedia has some information about lisps as there are about 4 different types of lisp, some are technique and some are physical.
The most common is simply a confusion of sounds when they are learning to speak which never gets corrected, then becomes a habit. Most advice is to ignore it, but I have seen so many teenagers
who haven?t lost their lisp my view was to nip it in the bud.
There are a few ?do?s? and don?ts.
1 Most importantly, only one parent should have anything to do with this. We found as soon as there were two people involved it got confusing and she clammed up.
2 If you start, follow through. Stopping and starting is only going to confuse and frustrate him.

3 Don?t tell them why you?re doing it; it?ll make them feel self conscious.
4 Don?t talk about it while they are around.
5 Finish one stage at a time and don?t move on to the next stage till you have mastered the current one.
6 If they relapse, don?t make a big deal of it just go back a stage.

7 Make it fun. When you do the exercises, try singing them or doing actions they will remember.

8 The second he feels frustrated or shy or awkward, stop straight away. Leave it for the day and resume tomorrow.

Lisp exercises

1. Practice the difference between ?s? and ?th?. Tongue IN (teeth together) for ?s?. Tongue OUT

for ?th?. Spend a week at least on this and test them throughout the day with ?give me an ?S? & give me a ?TH?.

1. Use the vowels as a practice platform A E I O U, putting the vowels at the beginning to start with e.g. As Es Is Os Us. Pronounced Ace, Ese, Ice, Owse, Oose.
2. Do the same as above with ?s? on the end of the vowel. Sa, Se, Si, So, Su. Pronounced, Say, See, Sy, So, Sue.
3. Once they?ve got No. 2 & No. 3 down, repeat every day until the end.
4. Pick a word that is used a lot that begins with ?s?. We used Samuel, but it could be anything they say a lot. Practice this word every day until they?ve got it, and then from then on only

accept that you?ve understood the word when it?s pronounced correctly. This bit is tough on the parent because you have to be on the ball all the time. If they get it wrong, don?t say ?NO? just say ?Pardon? again and again until they say it right. Pretend you can?t hear the word unless it?s pronounced right.

1. ?YES? is the big one. Practice it until it?s perfect, then pretend you can?t understand it unless it?s perfect.
2. Keep adding words only when the he has mastered the last. Before you know it, it will be a thing of the past.

I hope this helps someone.