Correcting the /s/ sound : frontal lisps, lateral lisps, and stopping

When a child produces an /s/ sound incorrectly, it can be for one of three reasons -

1. The child is bringing the tongue a little too forward in the mouth, so that the tongue sticks out in between the teeth. This is known as a frontal lisp

2. The child is making the /s/ with the sides of the tongue, instead of with the front of the tongue. This results in a slushy, "wet" sound, and is known as a lateral lisp.

3. The child is substituting /s/ with sounds like /t/ or /d/ - a phonological process known as stopping.

The first, most important solution for each of these sound errors is teaching a child how to actually produce the /s/ sound.

The /s/ sound is produced by bringing the tongue to the front of the mouth, resting behind the front bottom teeth. Air goes forward, not to the sides, when the sound is made. The exact same rules apply for /z/ - with the only difference being that it is voiced / is not just made with air.

The /s/ sound can be thought of as a "hissing sound" - made with the tongue, like a tongue hissing. And the /z/ sound can be thought of as a "buzzing sound" - the sound a bee makes.

Once the correct production of /s,z/ is established, then we can go down the speech sound correction hierarchy - which was discussed in previous posts on this blog - part 1 can be found HERE. The next steps would be mastering the sound level, the syllable level, the word level, the phrase level, the sentence level, and then the conversation level.

Correcting the /s/ sound is usually a pretty complex process - so it is a good idea to see an SLP, figure out exactly what is wrong, and go through the steps one by one, accurately and thoroughly.

While you are setting up an appointment, or if you are getting support but also want to do additional practice at home - check out Smarter Speech's Speech Sound Packet for /s,z/. This has great exercises -and guides you through several weeks of activities starting from the very beginning of correcting the sound, all the way to mastery.

Happy Talking!

Disclaimer : Smarter Speech is a pediatric speech therapy / speech-language pathology practice for toddlers and children providing in-home and teletherapy services in and around Mountain View, CA and Los Gatos, CA. Smarter Speech Blog aims to provide free speech and language tips for parents educators and therapists. However, this post is not providing speech-language pathology services. This is general information, not speech -language pathology or speech therapy. This article does not assume or create a client – SLP relationship. The author is not liable for any losses or damages due to actions or failure to act based on the content in this article. If you need assistance with a child’s speech or language needs, please contact a speech-language pathologist in your area.