How to practice speech at home for a lisp
Best activities for fixing “S” and “Z” articulation
Lisps are one of the most common articulation difficulties. Whether it’s for your child or yourself, a lisp can be easily fixed with speech therapy and effective home practice.
There are two types of lisps: dentalized or frontal lisp, and a lateral lisp.
During a dentalized lisp, your tongue is coming out the front of your teeth, hence the name “dental”, making it closer to a “TH” sound. In a lateral lisp, you won’t necessarily see the tongue coming out, but you will hear a more slushy, less sharp-sounding “S”. This is because the air comes out the sides of your mouth in this lisp, hence the name “lateral”. Not sure which type you have? Ask a speech-language pathologist! They will also help you determine which prompts work best for you, helping place your tongue in the correct location.
To start, let’s produce the sound in isolation first. For accurate “S” and “Z” articulation:
Close your teeth
Smile
Place your tongue just behind your teeth, but do not let it touch your teeth
Tighten the left and right sides of your tongue, leaving the middle more relaxed
Try a “T” sound then hold out the air: “t-t-t-tttssss”
Blow the air out between your two front teeth
If you can’t get the perfect “S” or “Z” yet, that’s perfectly ok! It takes some practice. This is exactly the type of thing we work on here at Leap Speech Therapy.
Once you’ve determined the type of lisp and which prompting works best, it’s time to practice! The two key components for improving articulation, especially in the case of a lisp, are multiple repetitions and varying your level of attention. For example, I have my clients begin with simple tasks requiring their attention only on their tongue placement. This may entail looking in a mirror, slowly saying one “S” or “Z” word at a time to build your self-monitoring while feeling your tongue placement.
Next, our goal is to use activities which increasingly challenge your attention elsewhere. This is why conversations, tongue-twisters, and games are so effective in building your speech skills. Your brain begins to learn to naturally incorporate the correct speech sound, even while your attention is on a game you are playing, or what your conversation partner is saying. Not to mention all the other distractions present in everyday interactions!
Have a trusted friend, parent, or speech-language pathologist participate to give feedback, or practice these in a mirror. Make sure to focus on your sounds throughout the activity. Here are my favorite attention-challenging games to improve you or your child’s lisp:
Would you rather
Name all the states you can think of which have either an “S” or a “Z” in their name.
Categories - Take turns naming items in a chosen category (try desserts, dogs, sports, etc.)
List all the holidays as a full sentence: “January first is New Year’s Day, February fourteenth is Valentine’s Day,” and so on, until the end of the year.
Read 3 pages of your favorite book aloud.
Quick addition and multiplication problems between 60-79, as these numbers have frequent opportunities for “S”. For younger children, simply count from 60-79.
State 3 sentences a person in a certain profession would say. For example, in round one, state 3 things you might say as an artist. Then in round two, state 3 things you might say as a veterinarian.
Heads up, Taboo, or Hedbanz
Describe your dream vacation.
Make a story with two words - I often give my clients two words and they run with it! Try any of these two and add your own: dinosaur, glasses, baseball, roses, music, socks, circle, San Diego, castle.
Don’t forget about the small words like “is”, “does”, “has”, and “was”. I often call them “trick words” because they tend to sneak in when we’re focused on the longer “S” words.
Let me know how your practice goes! Questions? Email: alyssa@leapspeechandlanguagetherapy.com
