By Pam Marshalla
Q: My client is 4;0 with a frontal lisp with a very small mandible (underbite) and chronic upper respiratory problems––congestion, nasal drip, mouth breathing, snoring, etc. He cannot breath through his nose. Do you think he is capable of learning to keep his tongue in for the sibilants given his underbite? Yours is a very common question for which we have no clear answers. In all likelihood both the under-bite and the upper respiratory problems are contributing to his speech…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: I have a client who has what you call an “Omni Lisp” meaning that there is no central groove at all and the air comes out the entire front of the mouth from L to R. It sounds lateral because some of the sound is. I have tried your “Long T Method” with this client but it doesn’t seem to be as effective. Have you listened to his T through the straw? I will bet it sounds flat and…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: My client lowers the jaw too much when he speaks, and he has a frontal lisp. He tends to clench the jaw when I tell him to hold the jaw up. I may have taught him this when using a bite stick to position the jaw. Not sure what to do now. As you have discovered, making a strong crushing bite on a firm object is not what he needs. The term “jaw stability” does not mean “jaw rigidity.”…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: I am faced with cutting my caseload down considerably due to budget cuts. We will see the more severe kids a max of one time per week, and that’s fine. However, we are being asked to cut the mild kids more, and even eliminate them from our caseloads. Do you have any ideas? Many therapists are facing this today. Here is a brainstorm I had that may get you thinking outside the box. The idea is to use four…
By Pam Marshalla
I receive many requests from adults who are seeking help for their minor articulation problems. They find me on the web and write to me asking what they should do. (Sometimes I worry these folks are secret “anti-oral-motor people” writing to catch me doing unethical therapy via email so they can shut me down somehow… That’s the paranoid side of me. But usually I believe that these are honest people who genuinely are seeking advice.) The following is a typical question…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: I attended a workshop of yours and recall the recommendation to have the student brush the sides of the tongue to elicit the R sound. I can’t find the method in your handout. Where is it? It is SOOOOOOOO critically important to understand the PURPOSE of a method! One does not brush the sides of the tongue to elicit R and I would NEVER recommend that. Instead one brushes the sides of the tongue to AWAKEN the tactile system there. …
By Pam Marshalla
Q: My male client is six and he has had phonological therapy for three years with another therapist. He was switched to me because he was going nowhere, and now he is going nowhere with me. I think he needs a motor approach but I have no idea how to begin. Can you guide me? Yours is a very common dilemma: You have tried basic phonological therapy that is auditory/cognitive/linguistic in nature and found that your client is not doing…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: Have you tried the SmartPalate? I am considering trying it with a few clients who have stubborn sound errors. I would like some input from people who used it first. The SmartPalate is a clinical electropalatometry tool and I have not used it. I have read all about it, however, and I am sure it will be very useful for some clients, but there are ways to do this without the expense. The SmartPalate provide visual feedback about place of articulation,…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: I have discovered that a mirror helps my young clients understand the idea of breath support for speech. Kids notice that their breath makes a fog on a mirror. I teach them to make longer and longer exhalations to make more and more fog and then they draw smiley faces in the fog on the mirror. Fun! Can you comment? My reading of historic artic books has revealed to me that we all end up developing the same methods…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: My client has no back sounds, and he substitutes Sh and Ch for S. I cannot get a good S out of him. I have tried straws and the Ts technique you talk about, but he always makes a Sh or Ch. What do you think I should try next? I think you should try putting more attention on his tongue-tip to stimulate S and Z. The following excerpt about improving awareness and control of the tongue-tip is from…
