Posts Tagged ‘lisp’

Children who clench their teeth when saying words with the /s/ sound

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

Problem: When teaching a child to say /s/, he is able to maintain the correct tongue position but then clenches his teeth when he says the whole word.

Clenching is his way of ensuring that he keeps his tongue in correct placement. I would handle this by telling the child that he does not have to keep his teeth together for the whole word, only the /s/. Actually, I suggest trying to handle this issue at the syllable level first—CV (consonant-vowel) and VC. Try starting with CV. Demonstrate how to say combos like say, see, sigh, so , sue. Keep your teeth together for the /s/ and then open for the vowel. Have him repeat each syllable after you.

Can’t say the “s” sound in blends and medial position

Monday, July 6th, 2009

Re: Does anyone have a resource in mind or a list of various /s-blends/ in the medial position of words (like hopscotch, basketball, etc.)? Every resource I’ve come across is for the initial position of words.

Medial /s/ can either be approached as inital or final depending upon which works better for the child. Words like hopscotch and basketball can be said as either: hops cotch or hop scotch; bas ketball or ba sketball. Words in which /s/ doesn’t bump up against an consonant, such as kissing, can be presented as: kiss ing or ki ssing.

My book, Help Me Talk Right: How to Teach a Child to Say the “S” Sound in 15 Easy Lessons offers more detailed information on “s” correction.

Articulation and speech that is too fast

Monday, July 6th, 2009

Re: He can repeat words that have any of the sounds already in his
inventory. He repeats them quickly and the same way each time. His rate of speech is on the fast side as well.

Because he can repeat words, try two word repetition tasks using the consonants in his repetoire: win ball, hi mom, high ball, we make and so on. For rate reduction you can try giving out speeding tickets. Demonstrate an appropriate rate and have him practice an appropriate rate by repeating what you say. Once he can do so consistently, tell him that when he talks too fast (demonstrate) he will get a speeding ticket. Getting a speeding ticket comes with a reminder from you to talk without speeding. I like to offer a treat or small reward at the end of each session. Thus, he has to get no more than _____ speeding tickets to earn a treat. Gradually reduce the number of speeding tickets he will need to earn a treat. I would work on rate apart from sound production. If there is no time in the session to focus on each separately, select only one as the goal for now.

Speech problem: the child has funny jaw movement

Saturday, July 4th, 2009

Re: She consistently juts her lower jaw forward giving her an underbite just for these sounds. Her tongue is visible between the upper and lower jaw. We have worked on jaw stability and tongue placement but this posture continues to occur during drill work and conversational speech.

I am not sure what jaw stability has to do with what the child is doing with her jaw. She does the posture with sh, ch, j, s and z. Does she have a correct position for all other phonemes?

I would start by having her understand jaw movement by feeling it. Ask her to place a finger on her chin when her teeth are in a normal closed bite position. Then demonstrate jaw protrusion. She can place a finger on your chin as you do the demo. Ask her if she can do the same with her jaw. When you feel she understands what she is doing, explain that when we say sounds our jaws don’t move forward (as she is prone to do). Then do some phoneme practice (she should say the phonemes with her finger on her chin):
Examples:
/t/—–/s/
/k/—–/s/
/d/—-”sh”
/n/—-”ch”
etc

She will need your feedback as she practices. Once she can produce the target phoneme without the forward jaw movement, work on it in isolation for consistency then CV, VC.

Using the targeted sounds in conversation should not be expected until she is able to repeat sentences with correct production of those sounds. Take you time—-a month away is realistic.