What is lisp and how to get rid of a lisp?

What is a Lisp?  

A lisp is a speech impediment caused by misalignment of the teeth and tongue when making a particular consonant. One type of functional speech impairment is a lisp (FSD). An difficulty learning how to produce a particular sound or set of sounds when speaking is known as a functional speech problem.

‘Functional’ denotes an underlying reason unknown for the condition. Adolescence and adulthood may see the persistence of functional speech difficulties. A speech-language pathologist can effectively treat FSDs (SLP).

Your tongue tip should rest on the roof of your mouth, directly behind your front teeth, when you pronounce the sounds /s/ or /z/. But occasionally, the tongue peeks out from between the front teeth when someone lisps.

What causes lisps?

Lisps have no recognized causes. Some believe that after a certain age, pacifier use may be a factor in lisping. Long-term pacifier use, according to them, may strengthen the lips’ and tongue’s muscles, increasing the likelihood of lisps. Nevertheless, not every youngster with a lisp uses a pacifier. Furthermore, no youngster who uses a pacifier develops a lisp.

Additional potential reasons for lisps include:

• The disorder known as “tongue-tie” causes the tongue to get attached to the floor of the mouth. Its mobility is thereby limited. Ankyloglossia is an additional term for tongue knot.

• Issues with the alignment of the jaw.

• Only having picked up the wrong pronunciation of the sound.

Different lisps types 

Lisping can be broken down into four types:

• Lateral in nature: Because of the airflow surrounding the tongue, this results in a lisp that sounds moist.
• Dentized: The tongue’s pressure on the front teeth causes this.
• Frontal” or interdental: Making “s” and “z” sounds becomes challenging as a result of the tongue pressing in between the spaces in the front teeth. When young toddlers lose both of their front teeth, they frequently develop this kind of lisp.
• Palatal: This also results in trouble pronouncing “s,” but the cause is the tongue’s contact with the roof of the mouth.

A speech therapist uses articulation exercises to help patients pronounce sounds correctly in order to treat lisps.

How much time Does it takes to get rid of Lisp? 

The majority of the time, speech-language pathology intervention for lisps is successful and brief. Speech therapists differ in their opinions about how long it takes to help someone overcome a lisp or how to fix a lisp? 

The degree of the lisp and the amount of practice done outside of therapy can sometimes indicate the likelihood of improvement. Your progress will happen more quickly the more you practice.

For best results, speech therapists usually advise setting up frequent appointments over a few months.  Typically, speech therapy entails a sequence of individual sessions. Meetings for lisps speech therapy usually take place once a week and run between thirty and forty-five minutes. Regular attendance at meetings is essential for progress.

The treatment plan that your speech therapist creates will target the particular sounds that are giving you trouble. To assist you with your practice, your speech-language pathologist will provide you with useful advice and demonstrate how to make the desired sounds.

You will also need to practice at home in order to eliminate your lisp. This entails repeating the exercises that your speech therapist prescribes and listening to their instructions.

If you want to see improvements from lisps speech therapy, you must practice with patience and diligence. Individual differences exist when it comes to improvement, so don’t give up easily if you don’t see results immediately away. Your lisp can be fixed with work and time.

Home Remedies  for Lisps  

There are things you can do at home to help your child’s lisp, regardless of whether they attend a speech-language pathologist:

• Address sinus issues and allergies that could cause lisping.

• Stop sucking your thumb.

• To help your child gain strength, have them sip with a straw.

• Use playthings like horns or bubbles to encourage playtime.

How a Lisp Can Be Helped by Speech-Language Pathologists?  

See a speech-language pathologist if you think your kid may develop a lisp or if, as an adult, you have been having long-term difficulties producing your /s/ and /z/ sounds.

Finding the appropriate speech therapist is essential to helping you improve your lisp, since there are many trained ones who can assist with it. After doing an assessment, a lisping speech therapist with lisp experience could suggest therapy. You may improve your communication skills by connecting with the top Online speech therapists in India with 1specialplace. We have a solution if you’re looking for online speech therapy for adults, kids, schools, or corporations.

Through the use of telehealth for lisp evaluation and treatment, we are able to get close to the mouth with the cameras in order to model the sounds and give feedback to the client.