I have read your posts on lateral lisps and tried the techniques but none seem to work. I have a 5.5 year old who has a clear lateral lisp on /l, s, sh, ch/. Our target at the moment is /s/, and she has decreased awareness of tongue placement (in terms of contact with upper inside of lateral teeth, and having tongue shaped like butterfly with sides up). I am trying the butterfly technique, and realized she had difficulty producing “tee,” (which was produced “kee” previously) which apparently was prerequisite for butterfly technique so we mastered that and are in the midst of producing “tee” quickly/repeatedly. It is produced as “tee kee kee” when fast. Also, the child is unable to move the lateral margins of the tongue midline, which may be causing difficulty to place tongue appropriately in top of mouth, keeping midline of tongue downward and lateral margins of tongue upward (“boat” shape we call it). Therefore, been putting tongue depressor perpendicular to tongue, down the midline to practice moving lateral margins of tongue medially. I don’t know if this is the right thinking or not, but any suggestions to help this girl increase awareness and decrease the lateralization?
My Other Stuff on Lateral Lisps:
Increase Oral Proprioception:
- Laura Powell talks about this in her webinar she did for us on the /r/ sound. Go to this link and watch the video at the bottom (there are two) to check out the exercises for increasing oral proprioception and movements
https://members.slpsolution.com/foundational-oral-movements-for-treating-the-r-sound-webinar-recording/
Keep Working on /t/:
- That will be a good way to establish forward air flow if the child can do /t/, so keep working on getting that one solid so that you can eventually use that to get a good /s/ sound.
Watch the Webinar in July!
- Laura Powell is coming back in July 2016 so I will give her this case study and hopefully she’ll have some great ideas as well!
