A Lithp is Just a Lisp!

Understanding Lisping in Children

By Mindy Hudon, M.S., CCC-SLP

When I was a kid, the first thing I would do on a Saturday morning was rush downstairs and watch Bugs Bunny cartoons. I loved how Bugs, Daffy and the gang played tricks on one another, told silly jokes and most of all how they talked. I remember how I burst into uncontrollable laughter when Daffy would spit when he spoke or how Sylvester said, "thuffering thuckatash." Today, when I hear, "I thaw a puthy cat outthide," I no longer laugh, because those words are usually coming from one of my clients.

Daffy and Sylvester demonstrate a speech disorder commonly known as a lisp. A lisp is a distorted or mispronunciation of the speech sounds. There are two basic types of lisps:

A frontal lisp is produced when the tongue pushes out between the front teeth when saying "s" and "z" and sounds like a "th." For example, "thoap" for "soap" or "houth" for "house."

A lateral lisp is produced when the tongue lays flat and protrudes between the teeth, causing air to escape into the cheeks rather than straight out of the mouth when producing "s," "z," "sh," "ch" and "j". The result is speech that is distorted, wet and "bubbly" sounding.

A lisp can occur with other sound substitutions or alone. When children exhibit a lisp alone, it usually does not affect their speech intelligibility – that is, how well you understand their speech. Nevertheless, a lisp sounds and looks different. School-aged children can feel embarrassed and become self-conscious about talking. They may not participate in classroom conversations. Caroline Bowen, Ph.D., speech-language pathologist says, "While there is usually little impact on intelligibility, the impact of a lisp on a child's 'image' can be quite powerful."

Television and movies often cast children who lisp because they "sound cute." A well-intentioned parent may disregard their child's lisp for the same reason. As the child grows, parents realize that this type of speech is no longer cute, especially if it starts to impact their written language. Some school-aged children have trouble spelling, because they may sound out words as they write and misinterpret the distorted "s" or "z" sound for a "th".

Want to see more?

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• The Straight Truth About Stuttering Quiz
• Stuttering: When It Becomes a Problem
• Stuttering or Learning to Speak? How to Know the Difference
• Talk about it!