'Lisping' - an issue?

[Levanna]

My DD (2 and 3 months) has recently started to lisp quite noticably. It would be a great help to us if anyone with experience of a child with a lisp, or anyone with a lisp themselves wouldn't mind advising further regarding what to do, if anything, and the pros and cons of leaving well alone?
A bit more information might be relevant - as far as I can remember, she's never had a problem pronouncing the 's' at the end of words, 'yes' for example, but now she lisps, and I can see her tongue tip skewing to one side and protruding slightly as she tries to pronounce the 's'. I can also remember before she was two, a friend was playing 'name the animal' with her, and tried to 'catch her out' by producing a rhino, but DD quite happily pronounced that it was a rhinoceros. Her vocabulary has always been fairly advanced and her speech clear. ????

My dd also lisps quite noticably (to me anyway). I was concerned and the HV referred her to a speech therapist. When they saw her they thought that she was really too young (3.5 then) to do anything, but if it was still worrying us by age 5-5.5, to come back as that's really when they're more aware of the sounds they can make and they can understand more clearly what to do when being taught how to make the correct sound. It would take quite a lot of concentration for her to change the way she uses her tongue to make the 'sssss' sound rather than 'th'. She now almost four (in two wks) and I worry much less about it - she's not aware of it herself and I think, is confident enough to be able to handle herself IYSWIM. I was more concerned about the thought that other children might pick up on it and be cruel, than worrying about the lisp in itself. They did give me a sheet of things to try at home, but TBH we haven't bothered as we don't feel the need for her attention to be drawn to it at this stage. Her speech is very clear so there's never been any question of not understanding her, so for now I think we're leaving well enough alone. Hope this reassures you a bit, but if you're really worried talk to your HV and she should be able to refer you to a speech therapist for a preliminary examination.

My ds varied whether he lisped or not when he started speaking - in fact he started out without the s sound at all! At 2y he spoke incredibly well, but most people couldn't understand him because the sounds he made were completely unclear. At about 2.9y he 'settled' on a more-or-less consistent lisp of all the s sounds. Now, a year later, he lisps some of the s sounds and is clear on others. Because there has been an overall improvement I'm not particularly bothered. All over the world children lisp at this age.

However if your daughter is moving her tongue oddly where this hasn't been happening before, then I feel I would keep an eye on it. Try playing tongue-twisters with her - I used to do this with ds to try and help his speech get clearer. Have a look at this thread

Children do go through phases of trying different ways of doing things, this may be just one of them. But if it goes on for 2-3 months more without any improvement, I would be inclined to talk to the HV.

my dd also has a lisp but it's not all the time with her s's. She's nearly 3. I'm really not very concerned at this stage - didn't note it down on her pre-school forns where they asked 'Any concerns with language' part, etc. If it gets worse in 6 months or so I'll say something then - but most little kids this age have some difficulties with s sounds. No one else really notices it when I ask them - it might be something she grows out of ???

My dd lisped quite noticeably at pre-school and we were referred to the speech therapist. Like Aero we were told she would probably grow out of it. We never corrected her (though I had one particularly irritating friend who imitated her cos she thought it was cute) and lo and behold she grew out of it in reception with no intervention and is fine now

My ds lisps very charmingly. We are having a second speech appointment on Monday (because he started speaking very late), so I will mention it, and re-post when I hear what the therapist thinks.

Thank you for your replies. My DD has yet to have her 2 year check (they're running late in this area it seems!) so I will mention it maybe when it does arrive. I have to say the lisp in itself isn't really a concern, and certainly isn't for DD. It's more that she could once pronounce 's's and now has difficulty, it seemed strange, so I was releived to hear that other youngsters of yours have gone through phases of differing pronunciation.
We've recently got a garden for the first time, so with all the slugs, snails, centipedes, worms, ants and whatnot that DD is delighting in digging up (with her hands, naturally ) she's got plenty of opportunities to try out fun ways of saying 'S's!
Thanks again, and thanks for your offer chinchilla, it would be interesting to hear a speech therapists POV too.

The speech appointment went well. Ds has obvious problems with the 's-cluster' sounds, i.e. 's' with another consonant. She said that this is common, and to keep emphasising the sounds when I say them, but not to correct him. Pretty much what I expected. His lisp is not an issue until 5, when they can attempt to correct it. Apparently it is very common until 5, by which point most children have corrected it themselves.

Thanks chinchilla, that's interesting and reassuring too.

I have a lisp, although people who know me say they don't really notice it. It started, I think, when my adult teeth came in, and contrary to the dentist's advice, never went away.
I hated it when I was at school (was teased - i.e. say "sausages", and I made a conscious effort to say "s" properly), but don't really think about it now. Have to spell things more on the phone - i.e. s for sugar, otherwise people think I'm saying f.
I do worry about whether dd will learn to lisp (or listhp!) her esses, but hopefully not. And lots of people say it's cute (or sexy!) too.