[i-love-my-son]

Hi lovely ladies of EB. My DS, although very eloquent, still has a lisp at 7.5 years old. Eg thimble and symbol sound identical, he can't hiss properly (it's halfway between sssss and ttthhhh) and it's obvious that his tongue is just not getting in the correct position to pronounce the words correctly.

Should I investigate a speech pathologist, or is this likely to resolve of its own accord? And how do you get to a speech pathologist - do you need a GP's recommendation or a paediatrician's recommendation? And does anyone know of any good speech pathologists in the Brisbane (preferably southside) area?

Thanks all!

[eyesabove]

The speechie that works through my cc centre told me that lisps are especially important to catch as early as possible as after the age of 8 they are harder (and often not able) to be fixed (depending on the cause of the lisp).

I would definitely get on it right away. Without intervention its unlikely to fix itself. Most private speechies do not require a referral so you can just ring and book.

Best of luck OP.

[humphreybear]

See a speech therapist. We are going Through the same thing and I think I should have done I earlier (it is the second lot of speech therapy - different issues).


ETA - why does the autocorrect hate Ts?

This post has been edited by humphreybear: 15/04/2012, 11:18 AM

[Guest_Telmatiaeos_*]

Definitely. DS2 is 3. He has a lateral lisp and is seeing a speech therapist for it. It's important to catch it early.

[somila]

I had a tongue-thrust that no-one mentioned to me until my teens. Apparently my parents thought it was cute. I wish someone had taught me how to say sh and ch correctly before then! Do it now!

[tibs]

My 2 year old has a lisp but our GP said she will probably grow out of it and so not to do anything?

[somila]

My 2 year old has a lisp but our GP said she will probably grow out of it and so not to do anything?

Tibs I'm sure my parents thought the same thing. My children had lisps as toddlers - I just kept reminding them to put their tongue behind their teeth (practised SSSSSS with the front teeth closed to demonstrate) until they got it, well before school age. If they hadn't I would have taken them to speech therapy.

[Eight.years]

Lateral lisps are a little bit different to the usual 'th' sort of lisp. They tend to be less likely to resolve by themselves so it's worth addressing them earlier rather than taking a wait and see approach, even in quite a young child.

OP, as a speechie, I'd definitely recommend having a lisp in a 7.5 year old looked at by a speech pathologist, particularly if it is making the child self conscious or is affecting intelligibility.

It shouldn't be too difficult to resolve if the child is motivated and homework is done, but it probably won't go away on its own at this point.



This post has been edited by Sevenyears: 15/04/2012, 02:26 PM

[somila]

Definitely. DS2 is 3. He has a lateral lisp and is seeing a speech therapist for it. It's important to catch it early.

Ooh - is that the Liz Smylie "That's why I chew Extra"- type lisp? Why is it that people with lisps always seem to have those ssss/sh sounds in their names!

[Kay1]

My son is 6.5 and has the same thing. I got an appointment with our local (free) speech pathologist (through our local area health service). We had to wait a while but it was great. She did an assessment and gave us some exercises then we had a review a few weeks later. He can make the sound almost correctly now but we need to work on making it come naturally to him. There is a specific method of doing this and it takes quite a lot of work which frankly we don't really have time to do so he is not progressing as he could.

I didn't want to just leave it though as my cousin had the same thing and still lisps as an adult.