A Therapy Pathway for Frontal and Lateral Speech Errors (aka “Lisps”)

A Therapy Pathway for Frontal and Lateral Speech Errors (aka “Lisps”) Today we’re talking about “lisps”. But many professionals are moving away from using the term lisp because it often carries a negative or stigmatizing connotation, especially outside of clinical contexts. Instead, we’re focusing on describing speech patterns more precisely using phonetic terms. For example: Frontal lisp is often described as interdental or dentalized productions of /s/ and /z/. Lateral lisp is often referred to as lateralized productions of /s/, /z/, and sometimes other sibilants like /ʃ/ and /ʒ/. I’m speech-language pathologist Carrie Clark and in today’s episode of The Speech and Language Kids Podcast, I’ll going to give you a very clear Therapy Pathway that will lay out how to treat dentalized or lateralized productions of sibilants. Therapy Pathway for Dentalized or Lateralized Productions: Here’s the plan for how to treat these speech sounds: Identify the type of lisp being used Establish correct placement and airflow for one sibilant sound (usually /s/ or /z/) in isolation. Expand use of that sibilant into words, phrases, sentences, and short response. Expand that same placement and airflow to a new sibilant sound, repeat steps 2-3. Continue this process until individual can say all sibilants correctly. Generalize to everyday conversation. Free /r/ Elicitation Pack! Elicitation techniques and exercises to help you teach a child or teen to say the /r/ sound Download for Free! Or, Get the Full Curriculum for the /r/, /s/, and “sh” Sounds How to Establish Correct Placement and Airflow Find a word they can already say it in correctly Watch in mirror: keep tongue behind teeth Find “magic spot” using tactile feedback and start the sound with the tongue tip there Start with /t/ sound, extend it out (exploding /t/) Use /ts/ words Start with “th” and pull back Start with “sh” and move forward Start with “ee” to stabilize back/sides of tongue and then slowly raise tongue tip Use a straw – bite tip of straw and blow /s/ into the straw Free /r/ Elicitation Pack! Elicitation techniques and exercises to help you teach a child or teen to say the /r/ sound Download for Free! Or, Get the Full Curriculum for the /r/, /s/, and “sh” Sounds The post A Therapy Pathway for Frontal and Lateral Speech Errors (aka “Lisps”) appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.