Improve that lateral lisp-maybe it’s not so hard
In the 25+ years of being a Speech Language Pathologist, I’ve done my best to avoid students who need work on their lateral /s/**. Pawning them off on other therapists was always good ploy. It also helped that some of the school systems I worked with felt that if articulation did not effect school performance articulation was not addressed. So honestly if the lateral /s/ kids were out there, they were never brought to my attention. Now I’ve landed myself at a school that actually wants articulation therapy for their students.
Since I hadn’t really worked on articulation for years, I had to get creative. Last year I took an articulation workshop with Char Boshart. Guess what I learned? That articulation therapy hasn’t changed in 30 years. Many of the techniques and even the tools are the same. It was a nice refresher. One thing Ms. Boshart was big on was getting the mouth into a good rest position. Which is a good starting point for /r/ and /l/ but a little more invasive than I usually like to do. You have to understand this is tricky with older kids. Honestly, I’ve never seen much success with /r/ even with other therapists. I think it is a real speciality and you have to be comfortable with. Another new trend is shorter more frequent sessions. Now that makes sense, more supervised practice. The bigger challenge is getting teachers and administration on board with this. Missing teaching time even 5 minutes is a problem these days when test scores are such a priority.
Now for my lateral lisp student. I never thought I could get a good /s/ from a lateral in isolation but I did! I was easy. /s/ in general is produced like /t/. The tongue is basically in the same place. Have the student produce t-t-t-t-t-t-t then slide into /s/. I got that juicy tidbit during an internet search. Don’t know why that technique didn’t occur to me sooner.
So my 3rd grade student who has a lateral /s/ is on his way to changing his /s/ production. As I listen to him spontaneously read, his correct /s/ production is about 30% without any prompting. During therapy he tells me it’s hard but I think it’s him being a little dramatic. He is able to hear the difference in the sounds, feel the difference with placement and self correct with a reminder. He needs practice an investment, which will come with maturity. I predict he will eventually change his /s/ production complexly. Never thought I could get anyone to do that.
**A lateral lisp is where the air comes out of the sides of the tongue when producing /s/, rather than the front. A lateral lisp might also be called a “slushy /s/”
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Fun read..personal stuff faced in schools is a challenge…nice job…thanks!
When I initially commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get three emails with the same comment. Is there any way you can remove people from that service? Thanks a lot!
As a fellow speech pathologist I am really surprised to read that you don’t treat phonological processes at all, nor do you keep up to date with current research
I don’t know how you got that from a fun little story about articulation. I’ve done this a long time and my point was articulation treatments haven’t changed much at all. I learned that theories might change but actual treatments are similar. We all cringe when we have an /r/ or lat /s/ student. What has changed is that schools don’t give us enough time with the kids to make effective progress when they have dyspraxia or atypical errors. I’ve also observed more atypical and long lasting errors as phonics training/teaching has decreased in schools. My opinion is that the lack of phonics in schools is also causing more auditory perceptual issues in general.
As therapists we have a lot to keep current on and honestly articulation takes a back burner when you work with older kids. Articulation often isn’t even treated in schools any more unless it keeps the student from participating in class. I don’t agree with that rule but it is happening. Are you able to keep current on everything in our field?
This was meant to be a fun little article about a funny little boy I work with.
It is our job, role and responsibility to keep current on current techniques and research. Also, articulation is most definitely treated in schools.
Thanks for looking at my blog and taking the time to comment.
Hello Teresa, I cam across your blog whilst searching information on correcting a lateral s that my 7 year old daughter has just be told she “suffers” from. We have just engaged with a local speech therapist near where we live but we want to try to understand what we can do to help outside of the therapy. I think having short video’s of what you are suggesting would be great from a parents perspective as we need to “hear” examples of the exercises. Are you able to point me to any online resource like this? many thanks in advance.
Hello
Thanks for taking a look at my blog. Working with a speech therapist is the best step to take. I would not recomment working on your child’s sound production until you get the ok from your therapist. I never send work home to practice until I know the student can practice the sound correctly. If you practice the sound incorrectly it may be counter productive. I wrote this story because it was unusually easy to correct that particular students lateral lisp. I had not had that kind of success in the past. A lateral lisp can be a very challenging sound to correct. A question to ask her therapist is…”how close is she to being able to approximate a correct /s/ sound?” I am currently working with a lateral lisp student about the same age who is far from being able to approximate a correct /s/ at this point no matter what I try.
Teresa