By Pam Marshalla
Q: How can I get a two-year-old to produce bi-labials? He substitutes /d/ for all of them. It is my observation that the bilabials emerge because the jaw goes up-and-down, not because the lips do anything. A baby begins to babble with bilabials by banging his jaw up-and-down while he is cooing (prolonging his voice). So when I am trying to get the bilabials, I get the child to produce voice, to prolong it, and then I stimulate the jaw to…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: I have heard you say that jaw sliding to the left or right can cause one type of lateral lisp. I have also heard you say that this type of jaw instability is seen in children with dysarthria. Are you saying that a lateral lisp is a form of dysarthria? Excellent question! No. I am not saying that a lateral lisp is a form of dysarthria. I am saying that clients with expressive speech deficit often have problems in…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: Can you give me ideas about how to help a boy who is making R out his nose? He has no other velopharyngeal problems. This is what I do: Use a tube that stretches from the child’s mouth to his ear. Teach him to listen to the oral sound of several vowels. Then stretch the tube from his nose to his ear. Teach him to hear the nasal sound that emerges when he says M, N, and Ng. Then…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: I have a nine-year-old client who inhales as she tries to say R. I have never seen this before. Do you know how to address this? There is a very simple old-time solution for this using a straw, a few sheets of tissue paper, and a few small cotton balls: Teach About Exhalation Place a cotton ball on the table and give the child the straw to hold at her mouth. Have the child blow through the straw at…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: My son is 2-years and 5-months. His therapist seems frustrated by his stubborn personality and his continual effort to get out of doing his speech cards. I know we can help him more if he would only try. Can you suggest anything? It sounds like the therapist is trying to work with him as though he were four or five years of age. He’s only two and a half! Children this young should balk at doing speech cards. …
By Pam Marshalla
Q: I am a professor and clinical supervisor in a prestigious university program. I do not see jaw or tongue movement problems in the articulation and phonology clients I supervise. Are you saying that someone like me does not have good observation skills? No. I am not saying that you have poor observations skills. I am saying that you have not been trained to see what is happening right in front of you. Consider this: An SLP must go through…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: The handout from your live class on the lisps has a method called the “Medial Squeeze.” What is it, and what is it for? The Medial Squeeze is a method I developed to get the tongue to widen. The tongue needs to sit wide on the floor of the mouth at rest, it needs to be wide for a normal swallow, and it needs to stay wide during speech movement. Some of our clients squeeze the tongue medially during…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: I have a 3-year-old whose front teeth had to be pulled due to decay. He likely won’t have those teeth again for 2-4 years. Do I wait to treat S? This depends upon what you are trying to accomplish… First, if you are trying to bring stridency into the client’s phonological system, and are stimulating S to do that, I would do it now. In fact, I would stimulate for all the strident phonemes right away –– S, Z,…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: I just heard the term “velar raspberry.” I feel silly, but I don’t know what it is or why I should be concerned about it. Raspberries are grossly-fricated sounds that babies begin to produce between 4-6 months of age. You know the sound one makes when one sticks the tongue between the lips and blows? That is a raspberry. It is a sound children use to express derision– mockery, scorn, distain, ridicule, and contempt. Raspberries emerge before babbling does,…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: I was appalled by your comments that speech-language pathologists should not teach reading! Reading is a part of language! Why not teach reading? In my opinion, reading teachers teach reading, and speech-language pathologists teach speech and language. This is my opinion and I am sticking to it. You may have a different opinion if you would like. Your opinion will not appall me, and I would suggest that mine not appall you. Sounds like a big waste of energy…
