What Is A Lisp?

Written by: Anna Pasternak / Lisps / July 05, 2023 / 8 minutes read

A lisp is a speech impediment that typically affects the production of the /s/ and /z/ sounds. People who have a lisp do not have clear production of the /s/ and /z/ sounds where the sounds are often described as ‘slushy’ sounding. The individuals who have a lisp will have difficulties with moving their tongue or airflow correctly to produce a clear sound. 

Lisp most often appears at a young age. Children with lisp are recommended to see a speech pathologist. When seeing a speech pathologist early and receiving proper treatment the lisp can often be resolved so that the lisp does not carry-over into adulthood. Many adults who do not receive proper treatment for their lisp at a young age may still continue lisping into adulthood. Lisp is still treatable in adults though sometimes it may take a longer time to see progress as the /s/ and /z/ have been produced a certain way for a long period of time which takes longer and more practice to see noticeable changes at the conversation level.  A lisp may also begin in adulthood for various reasons such as changes in dentition, and when using Invisalign/braces/retainers. Lisp does not affect a person’s intelligence though often especially as someone gets older self-esteem and confidence when speaking can be affected. People with lisps may feel less confident when speaking which can affect their social and professional lives. 

Adults who have a lisp that feel affected by it on a daily basis are recommended to seek out help from speech pathologists. To also help support overall confidence when speaking check out the Communication Wellness Course. 

A speech pathologist can teach the individual appropriate production of the affected speech sounds to help improve their overall communication skills. They may work on tongue placement where they teach the correct placement and position where the tongue  should be to create a clear sound. They will also teach appropriate airflow and how that can be accomplished if someone is not correctly pushing out the air to create a clear sound. The speech pathologist will also make sure that the client can hear the differences  when a clear /s/ or /z/ is produced through auditory drills. This can help build awareness especially when the individual has to take what they learn home for practice. If they are able to distinguish themselves when they are lisping and when they are not lisping this will improve overall progress, as the client is able to catch their own mistakes and self-correct. After learning how to correctly produce the sound, a speech pathologist will then begin to increase the level of complexity of the sound. Starting with single words until the client can begin to use the correct sound production at the conversational level. 

People who have a lisp do not have clear production of the /s/ and /z/ sounds where the sounds are often described as ‘slushy’ sounding.

Progress varies for all individuals depending on how fast they are able to grasp correct production of the sounds and how often they are practicing and conscious of correcting their lisp when not in speech therapy sessions. It also depends on how severe their lisp may be to begin with. The speech pathologist will recommend the frequency and duration of how often sessions should be attended. Once a client is able to reach their goals at the conversational level it is often recommended that clients also do check-ins with their speech pathologist every so often to ensure that they are maintaining and continuing on the right path. 

There are different types of lisps that an individual may experience. The most common one is the frontal lisp.   This is when the individual pushes their tongue past their teeth like in the ‘th’ sound.  This also causes the airflow to be obstructed. This results in a slushy sounding /s/ or /z/ sound that sounds more like the ‘th’. A word like  ‘soap’ may come out sounding like ‘thoap’. 

The lateral lisp is caused when the individual does not produce central airflow, instead the airflow is produced laterally. Typically, a clear /s/ and /z/ sound uses central airflow where the air flows down the centre of the tongue, when someone has a lateral lisp they push the air down the sides of their tongue like in the /l/ sound. This results in the /s/ sounding more slushy. 

A dental lisp is when the individual pushes their tongue against their front teeth rather than the alveolar ridge where the correct placement for /s/ and /z/ should be. The alveolar ridge is the bumpy ridge on our gums directly past our upper teeth.

The palatal lisp  is when the individual pushes too far back on their palate which is on the roof of the mouth. This creates a lisp sound for the /s/ as it affects correct tongue positions and obstructs airflow from going down the central pathway.  

Individuals may show signs of only one type of lisp or a combination of a couple different lisp types. A speech pathologist after assessment will be able to determine what kind of lisp the individual has and create a personalised treatment plan to target personal goals. 

To speak with a psychotherapist or one of the speech-language pathologists at Well Said: Toronto Speech Therapy, schedule an initial consultation by clicking the link below or calling (647) 795-5277.