Lisping - when is it a cause for concern?

[jane1974]

I have a just gone 2 year old who has quite a distinctive lisp which at the moment is quite cute. However, as he gets older, I suspect that he won't feel the same way.

I have a slight lisp which does not bother me and apparently, DH had speech therapy when he was small for a lisp - although he does not have an obvious one now.

In the grand scheme of things, he is still very young and I know that it is not a serious speech problem. But is there anything that I can do at home to help him?

My DS still has a lisp, and he is 5. He did have speech therapy for it when he was 4, but it didn't do much long term good. I don't know whether it might have been more effective if it had happened earlier, before he had got into bad habits.

They did lots of good games - pictures of snakes, Sue, stars, the sun, socks, etc. etc., and one good technique was to let him look in the mirror and show him how his teeth should be, with his tongue hidden behind them, and how different the sound is when the tongue is not hidden.

I'll have a think about what else springs to mind that they did in the speech therapy, and if I remember anything else will post again.

I've just remembered: they play a game where they make him say the vowel sound (and) and then make the s sound, and then put it together to make ssss...and. Then onto the next word. He quite enjoyed that one.

DP has a lisp (and apparently I have a fiant one although I have never noticed!!) - it is down to the way his teth are aligned - his front top teeth don't rest properly over his bottom ones so he can't put his tongue in the right place to say S (It is still cute at 33 too!!).

Maybe ot is your son's teeth or jaw that are making his lisp?? Worth checking out.