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Expert Q&A
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| By Mindy Hudon Speech and Language Pathologist | ||
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What should I do about my child's lisp?
If a child does not present with other disordered speech sounds and only appears to have a lisp, then what do you do? "The sound 's' is one of the most frequently occurring phonemes in conversational speech," says Jena Piekarski, a school-based and private practice speech-language pathologist. Developmentally, the "s" and "z" sounds are not "mastered" until 7 or 8 years old. However, in most situations children have acquired these sounds way before that time. Many children use these sounds clearly by 2 or 3 years of age.
"I usually wouldn't treat it (lisp) until at least the age of 4 to 4 1/2 unless the child's intelligibility is compromised, the family doesn't understand the child, they're getting frustrated or the sounds include more than just 's' and 'z'," says Piekarski.
Most speech-language pathologists would agree that if you wait too long, a lisp could become a habit.
Therapy for a lisp should be determined following an evaluation by a certified speech-language pathologist, who will also determine if the child is ready for treatment. To find a certified clinician in your area, contact the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association at 800-638-8255 or e-mail actioncenter@asha.org.
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