By Pam Marshalla
Q: I have a client who uses a velar fricative for the sibilants. I was experimenting with some of your self-assessment exercises in your book Frontal Lisp, Lateral Lisp, and I noticed that as I dropped my jaw to produce /s/, the sound eventually became a velar fricative. Do you think jaw grading or stability exercises will help my client with this? Position of the tongue relative to the palate is directly related to jaw position, height, and stability as…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: My preschool client has no fricatives or affricates. Do you have advice for getting them started? The fricatives and affricates emerge out of the pre-speech raspberries. I would start there. The raspberries are made both with and without voice and in many places of articulation–– bi-labial, lingua-labial, lingua-velar, and nasal snort. I have my clients makes them big and sloppy at first. Then I teach them to make the soft and gentle. When I move on to the fricated…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: Can you give me a short course on stimulating the tongue to move? This is about as short and sweet as it could possibly be–– The first thing to understand about the oral mechanism is that the muscles of the facial structures are contiguous and integral to the skin. This is different from the entire rest of the body where skin and muscles form completely separate structures. This means that tactile stimulation is the most powerful way to “wake…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: I am targeting /f/ in the initial position. My client is able to produce /f/ at the word level; however, he adds a /v/ after the /f/ for every word; i.e., /fvood/ for /food/. I exhausted all techniques in my bag of tricks! I am currently having him whisper words and trying to add voicing back to the word; however, that /v/ keeps popping back up. Do you have any other ideas or advice on how to target this?…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: Do you think that clients really can improve when parents never attend therapy as is common in the public schools? The notion that children only can improve when parents are involved is a modern idea that runs counter to the way therapy has been practiced throughout the past century. In 38 years I rarely have involved parents all the time. I have parents watch parts of therapy when they are around, and I give them encouraging information about how…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: I am working with toddlers for the first time after a 10-year career with elementary school children. They are different! Can you guide me? This is what I would tell a graduate student–– With a toddler, the most important thing to change from therapy with older children is that you have to STOP trying to get him to do what you want him to, and you have to START doing what he is doing. In other words, stop saying,…
