By Pam Marshalla
Q: My client breathes in (inhales) on S. How do I fix this? Teach him to exhale and inhale on demand using a straw or other blow toy. Then teach him to exhale and inhale on S. Teach him to hear and appreciate the difference between an inhaled S and an exhaled S. Teach him which one is correct. Practice the exhaled S. Work on syllables, words, and so forth. Also, see my previous post on this topic.
By Pam Marshalla
Q: I have seen the Long T Method for teaching S on this blog and in your book “Frontal Lisp, Lateral Lisp” (Marshalla, 2007) as well as in the “Straight Up Speech” program by Jane Folk (Folk, 1992). I was wondering if you had to get permission from Jane for this, or if this method is in public domain? I made up that method just as I suspect Jane did. But it turns out that it is a very old…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: My 12-year-old client is bright but has a lateral lisp. He has a gap between his side teeth. How can I tell if the dental gap is causing the lateral lisp, and how should I precede? I stuck cotton between the side teeth but it didn’t help. The dental problem may have contributed to the lisp, OR the lisp may have contributed to the dental problem. This is a chicken-and-egg situation that usually has no clear answer. But it doesn’t…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: My client lets air come out the side of his mouth when he makes Th. It’s not a big deal, but it is noticeable and distracting. This could be classified as a minor lateral lisp. The client is lacking the firm push of the side of his tongue against his side teeth that would prevent the airstream from staying midline. I would use a straw. Place one end of the straw outside the central incisors and tell him the…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: My client makes a whistling sound when he says S. Do you have advice? A high-pitched “whistled S” is the result of an airway space in the mouth that simply is too narrow causing whistling instead of true frication. All you have to do is get him in front of a mirror and have him start experimenting with how much air he is letting out. He may need to pull the tip of his tongue back a little, or…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: My 4-year-old client has no strident sounds and I was thinking about starting with S. Is this right? And how should I teach it? Whether or not to start with S as your first strident sound depends entirely on the client. Here is advice to get you going: Expand Your Horizons Don’t just look at the strident sounds (S, Z, Sh, Zh, CH, and J). Look at all 11 fricatives and affricates together—Th, Th, F, V, S, Z, Sh,…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: Our SLPAs see artic kids for 5-7 minute every day. Some of the kids with frontal lisps also have reverse swallow patterns (tongue thrust swallow, infantile suckle-swallow patterns). Should the SLPAs work on this too? Will these kids fix their lisps without it? Yours is the question I hope the 21st century will answer! I personally do not think that SLPs or SLPAs who are not trained in teaching the correct swallow have any business working on it with…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: I am an SLP with a two-year-old son who has developed a lateral lisp on Sh and Ch. I really don’t want these lateral sounds to get worse and I am tired of hearing that I am over-reacting. Help! Oh you poor thing! Being an SLP and having a child of your own with an artic problem is one of the worst situations to be in! You are NOT over-reacting because you know that some of these so-called minor…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: My 7-year-old male client has a lateral lisp. I have been trying to use T and Ts, but he just can’t get it. He still lateralizes his /s/ and /z/. He can produce /str/ appropriately but I just can’t get S alone. I wish I could generalize it to /s/ and /z/. Let’s ignore the cluster “Str” for the moment. I think it is too complex to work with and, as you have said, he cannot generalize. Let’s assume…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: Can phonemes like R and S be taught to adults? I have received an unusual number of questions recently about the effectiveness of articulation therapy with adults. Where is this notion that articulation therapy cannot be done with adults coming from? Articulation therapy is EASIER with adults because they can understand what you are talking about and they usually are highly motivated to change. The only time this is not the case is when the adult client has a significant…
