A four year old has a lisp (Jonathan Ross type) is this something that may be helped?

Question

He has a large vocabulary and is a great talker and listener, and I don't want him to become self conscious by correcting his pronunciation all the time. Any ideas? Thanks

Answer 1

You can help but dont worry as this happens with many children, and most will outgrow it by age 7 with no intervention at all. Pointing out that he's lisping won't help your child stop and may harm his self-esteem.
Treat any allergy, cold, or sinus problems so your child can breathe with his lips together and through his nose. An open-mouth breathing posture causes the tongue to lie flat and protrude. Work on nose blowing, too, as a stuffy nose is often the culprit.
Keep your child's fingers out of his mouth as much as possible, since thumb-sucking can contribute to a lisp. It's not an easy task to help your child stop sucking his thumb, though. Target the times he's most likely to suck his thumb, such as when he's watching TV or riding in the car, and substitute another comforting activity, such as playing with a favorite toy or puzzle. Switch to a cup without a sippy top if you haven't already done so. Although sippy cups cut down on spills, they don't promote good oral-motor strength, which is important in speech development. Using a straw is a good exercise that does promote good oral-motor strength since you're using your lips instead of putting pressure on your teeth.
Take your child to the dentist if one of his baby teeth is accidentally knocked out, and have it replaced with a fake tooth. That will stop your child's tongue from poking through the gap where his tooth should be — a habit that can hinder his speech development and one that's hard to correct after his adult teeth come in around age 7.
Encourage play activities that improve oral-motor strength. Have your child blow into a party horn with a small round mouthpiece. This is a good exercise because the effort needed to make a solid sound also strengthens the lips and cheek muscles, and tends to push the tongue back in. Blowing bubbles is another option. I hope this has helped x

Answer 2

If you can't afford the speech therapist you can wait until your child in in 4+. Because of the new government guidelines, the schools should actually pick on to those things and arrange the necessary support. My friend's son got help from a speech therapist organised by her primary school, who she didn't have to pay for then. The only downside is that some schools are not that pro-active & you might have to put pressure on them to get the process going. Also the time from identification until the sessions start are of course quite a bit longer than if you pay for the therapist yourself.

Good luck! :)

Answer 3

A speech therapist might probable help. A Greek logician solved his concern by utilising attempting to talk with pebbles in his mouth. i think of pubescent lisps are cute, yet I do sympathize with you -- a competent pal continually had to be a radio or television announcer, yet he had a mushy, raspy voice, no longer the "liquid" kind that they seek for. And a nicely-known expert race motor vehicle driving force I as quickly as knew nicely had the cutest lisp every time he pronounced "shtring" or "shpring" -- i ask your self if he nonetheless does? Do you, Billy? try analyzing stuff out loud slowly and precisely until you at the instant are not extensive wakeful of your tongue. a great number of prepare could do it, with or without a therapist. sturdy success. (And be conscious that many professional actors have interior of reach accents that they have discovered to suppress, so your lisp isn't lots extra of a project.)

Answer 4

Well I am not sure if the little guy is really bad semi bad or just alittle bad. When I was his age I was semi bad I had a hard time saying words like they are suppose to sound like pillow was pellow and beautiful was bu-fol. ummmm... Valnurable -valnabul like thats not nesecery-nesesesesesary and now I am 24 years old and words still sound wrong when they come at me fast. If I say the words slower and hear myself saying them I can say them correctly. But when S-F-T letters are used in a word more than once and I say it fast good luck to me with that. It never goes away completely.

Answer 5

Yes. Locate a qualified speech therapist. It might cost a little bit of money, and a few trips, but it will be well worth it in the long run. Speech is a very important tool.

Answer 6

You're going to have to correct him if you want him to stop it,he's only going to become self conscious if you laff at him or mock him for it. I had a lisp when i was younger and my mum took the time to correct it,it will be hard but stick at it.

Answer 7

Yes! Try a speech therapist. They are trained to help with all kinds of speech issues. My brother had a stuttering problem as a child and it worked for him. Kids with these problems are usually very intelligent and misunderstood. Your son needs positive reinforcement. I'd suggest starting with some tongue twisters with lots of S's. Make a game of it and praise his successes.

Answer 8

I would go to your doctors and ask for advice on what to do. My son had, well still has one and he is 6 but its not as bad as it was. The doctor told us that they would not do any thing till he got to 6 but its not that noticable. We just got him to say the letter that he was having problems on a few times a day and it has helped him a lot.
Good luck

Answer 9

take him to a speech therapist ur DR , health visitor or nursery teacher cand do this 4u get ur child to them b4 schol i,ve just done this with my son who is also 4 he did,nt feel self conscious they were quite good with him did,nt make him feel as he was bein corrected Good luck with this

Answer 10

you must correct it now as this is the only way to correct it,see a speach therapist