Frontal Lisp/Interdental Lisp | Speech Therapy Ideas & Word Lists

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What is a frontal/interdental lisp and why does it happen?

Carrie Clark 0:00

Hey, hey, hey, this is Carrie Clark from SpeechandlanguageKids.com. You are listening to the Speech and Language Kids Podcast, which is the podcast with resources and activities for parents of children with speech and language delays, as well as the professionals who serve them. This is episode number 29, and today we are talking about frontal lisps, also known as interdental lisps. This is when that tongue tip is going a little bit too far. forward so stay tuned to listen to that but before we get there I did want to give a huge thank you to everyone who participated in my launch of my recent membership site the Speech Therapy Solution we have 70 members in there I'm so So excited and everyone is giving me great feedback.

Carrie Clark 0:41

Everyone's super excited about what's going on and I am I couldn't be more excited to to have everyone in there and um for all the kind words from everybody who supported me through this launch. So thank you to everyone who was in it or gave me those kind words. And if you are interested in finding out more, you can still get in on it. Launch period is over, but it is still open, and you can find that at speechandlanguage kids.com/slash T S T S. Okay, without further ado, let's jump right in. So what do we do with a frontal lisp? Well let's first talk about what is a frontal lisp. So as I said, this is also known as an interdental lisp, and it occurs when the child says the S and the Z sounds, or one or the other, with the tongue tip pushed too far forward.

Carrie Clark 1:25

So that can make the S and the Z sound more like a TH sound. So like soap would be soap and zipper would be zipper. So that would be where the tongue is just a little bit too far forward. I do want to mention that frontal lisps are sometimes called by caused by something called tongue thrust. And this is when the tongue is consistently too far forward, including when the child is swallowing or when they're just at rest, when they're not doing anything with their mouth at all. That tongue is just hanging out in a position that's way too far forward. And this can cause problems with the teeth, a lot of orthodoxy. Or dentist will point this out. And there are there is a specific speech therapy just for tongue thrust, but that is not what today's episode is about.

Carrie Clark 2:09

So not all frontal lisps are caused by tongue thrust, but some of them are. And like I said, tongue thrust requires additional types of therapy that I am not going to go over today, but just keep in mind that that could be going on. So if you are concerned about Tongue thrust, you can ask a speech language pathologist, or you can also seek some advice from a dentist or orthodontist who would have some idea if the teeth are being affected by a tongue thrust. But for today, we're just going to talk about treatment for the planal frontal lisp, assuming that you have already looked into tongue thrust and it's not an issue or it's being treated elsewhere. So, what do we do for a frontal lisp? Well

How do I assess a child’s frontal lisp and which word lists should I use?

Carrie Clark 2:48

So I have broken this down into six steps for you. So the first step is assessment. And the first thing you need to do is just figure out what kind of Lisp they have, what sounds they're Lisping on, how bad is the Lisp, is it on every S sound or just some of them? And you don't need any standardized tests for this. You just need a list of words for the child to say so that you can evaluate which ones have the Lisp and which ones don't. Now I recommend that you test both the S and Z in all word positions. So I'm talking beginning of the word, middle of the word, and end of the word, but also all the different S blends, both at the beginning and at the end of words. So this is gonna be a lot of different words to have this child say.

Carrie Clark 3:32

And I also think that you should not just have the child say you know, S at the beginning of the word and one word. You need to try this with multiple words with S at the beginning of the word using different vowels following the S. So you need a lot of different examples of this because what you will find, or what you will hopefully find, is that this child lisps on most S's and Z, but if it's an S followed by the Uwel, he does okay.

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Chapters

8 chapters

1 What is a frontal/interdental lisp and why does it happen? 0:00–2:48 2 How do I assess a child’s frontal lisp and which word lists should I use? 2:48–6:07 3 How can I identify the child’s natural tongue placement for /s/ and /z/? 6:07–8:37 4 What elicitation techniques can help a child produce a correct /s/ sound? 8:37–11:02 5 How does the “exploding t” technique work for teaching /s/? 11:02–13:40 6 How should I move from isolated /s/ or /z/ sounds to single‑word practice? 13:40–16:51 7 What is the best way to practice the target sound in sentences and conversation? 16:51–20:00 8 What are the final steps and resources for fully eliminating a frontal lisp? 20:00–20:42

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Carrie Clark 19 min

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Recorded26 Jan 2015

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Frontal Lisp / Interdental Lisp | How to Fix itA frontal lisp, or interdental lisp, occurs when a child pushes their tongue out between their teeth on sounds like /s/, /z/, “sh”, and “ch”. We can help these children fix their speech errors with speech therapy techniques. This page contains therapy plans, word lists, and techniques for eliminating frontal lisps. Articulation CurriculumA Structured Program for Treating Lisps and Other Articulation ErrorsView the Articulation CurriculumWhat is a Frontal Lisp?Let’s start at the beginning. A frontal lisp, also known as an interdental lisp, occurs when a child says the /s/ and /z/ sounds with the tongue pushed too far forward. This causes /s/ and /z/ to sound more like “th”. Frontal lisps are sometimes caused by tongue thrust, which is when the tongue is consistently too far forward, including during swallowing and at rest (when the tongue is not doing anything at all). Not all frontal lisps are caused by tongue thrust but some are. Tongue thrust requires additional types of therapy that are not discussed in this article. Today’s article will just focus on treatment for a plain old frontal lisp. Alternatively, there is another type of lisp called a lateral lisp. This is where air comes out the sides of the mouth, making the /s/ and /z/ sounds “slushy”. There is also often a lot of saliva associated with a lateral lisp. For more information about treating lateral lisps, click here. How Do You Treat Frontal Lisp? I’m so glad you asked! Frontal lisp therapy can be broken down into six steps. 1. Assessment for a Frontal Lisp: The first thing you will need to do for frontal lisp therapy is to assess the lisp. You don’t need any standardized tests for this, you just need a lot of words for the child to say so you can see if there are any words where the child is already producing a good /s/ or /z/ sound. I recommend you test both the /s/ and /z/ in all word positions. This means testing when the sound is at the beginning, middle, and end of the word as well as in consonant clusters (blends) at both the beginning and end of the word. Simply have the child say words with the sounds in all of those different positions. If the child can read, just have him read word lists. If the child cannot read, you can have him label pictures that represent the words. Below are my word lists for /s/ and /z/ in all positions, or you can download my articulation cards which contain pictures of /s/ and /z/ words in the initial, medial, and final position as well as /s/ blends in the initial position of words. Just write down which words the child can say correctly and which words are lisped. Lisp Words: Word Lists for Assessing Frontal LispsInitial /s/ Say See Siren Soap Soup Second Simple Sock Sad Soot Sun Sound Soy Medial /s/ Medicine Motorcycle Pieces Pacifier Castle Whistle Dinosaur Glasses Recycle Pencil Baseball Popsicle Final /s/ Base Crease Ice Close (like opposite of far) Moose “s” Kiss Boss Class Bus Mouse Initial /s/ Blends Smile Smell Small Smooth Swing Sweet Swim Snake Snow Snack Sticker Stop Stairs Spoon Spaghetti Spider Strawberry Street stripe Final /s/ Blends Coughs Laughs Forests Tests Claps Tips Wasps Asps Fox Mix Mask Whisk Asks Whisks Best Lost Initial /z/ Zebra Zoo Zipper Zap Zero Zig zag Zone Medial /z/ Puzzle Scissors Bulldozer Lizard Wizard Raisin Tweezer Desert Present Newspaper Final /z/ Maze Sneeze Eyes Nose Lose Fizz Jaws Fuzz Cows Boys 2) Find a Natural Tongue Placement to Eliminate Frontal Lisp Ok, take a look at your results. Was the child able to say the /s/ or /z/ sound correctly in any of those words? If so, that’s where you’re going to start! Have the child say that word (or words if the child had multiple words he could say) and ask him to feel where his tongue is for the /s/ sound when he says it. Talk about how the tongue is behind the teeth. Ask the child to tell you if his tongue tip is up or down. Either way is acceptable and some children do it with the tongue tip up behind the top front teeth and some do it with the tongue tip down behind the bottom front teeth. Make sure the child is saying the /s/ sound in the word in a very crisp, clear manner without any lisp. If he starts to lisp on it, try a different word. Practice this correct /s/ sound (in those words if necessary) until the child knows exactly what his tongue is doing. If the child does not have any correct productions after testing all of those words, you can either keep trying new words to try to find a good one, or try some elicitation techniques to get an /s/ without having a word that he can already produce correctly. Elicitation Techniques for /s/ and /z/: If the client is having a hard time getting a good /s/ placement, try some of these tips. Watch the video below for tips for speech-language pathologists to help a child produce this sound. Exploding /t/ Sound: Start by having the child say the /t/ sound. Have him say it over and over again (“t…t…t..t…t”). Then, tell him that you want him to say it 5 times but explode the last one. Take that last /t/ and force it out as hard and long as you can. It should sound like this “t…t…t…t…tsssss”. You should get a nice /s/ sound after the /t/. Don’t tell the child that’s the /s/ sound right away. Practice it a few times until you know he can do it and then say “Hey, that makes an /s/ sound at the end”. If you can get the exploding “t” sound, then you can practice it in words that end in “ts” like “bets” and “cats”. Or, you can practice holding out the /s/ part of it and then putting a pause in the middle of the /s/ so that the child gets practice starting the /s/ sound again, like “tssss…sssss”. The Straw Technique for Teaching the /s/ Sound: This is a great strategy for teaching the /s/ sound. Use a straw to get help the child keep their tongue back and blow the air right through the middle. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Speech and Language Kids (@carrieclark_slp) Coarticulation: Coarticulation is when you put a different sound next to the target sound so it comes out more clearly. In the above example, we used the /t/ to facilitate the /s/ sound because the /t/ sound is produced in the same place in the mouth as the /s/ sound. You can use coarticulation by saying a word that ends in /t/ right before a word that starts with /s/. For example, you could say “cat soup” to try to get a good placement for /s/. You could also use the /n/ sound, like “tan silo” because the /n/ sound is also produced in the same place as the /s/. Or, you may find that other sounds work well to help the child say the /s/ or /z/ sound, such as sounds that require the tongue to be in the back of the mouth like /r/ (bear soup) or /k/ (black sock). Try a bunch of different sounds to see if any help. Turning Voice on for /z/: If you are able to get the /s/ sound but are struggling to get /z/, have the child practice turning his voice on by humming. Have the child place his hand on his throat so he can feel the vibrations when he turns his voice on and hums. Then, have him say the /s/ sound and then turn his voice on or hum. If he’s having trouble with this, have him hum a simple tune while saying the /s/ sound. 3. Eliminate Frontal Lisp in Single Words Once you are able to get the child to say a good /s/ or /z/ sound (either in single words or by itself), you want to start working on saying that sound in single words. If you were able to get the child to say either /s/ or /z/ in one or more of the words from the assessment, start with those words and other words like them. For example, if the child was able to say “bus”, try other words that have the “uh” vowel and then the /s/ sound, like “us”, “Gus”, “Rus” (you may have to get creative). Then, slowly branch out to words that are slightly less similar. For this example, you could start trying other words with /s/ at the end but with different vowels. If you weren’t able to get any of the words before but were able to get a good /s/ using the elicitation techniques, try having him put that good /s/ into some words and see what’s the easiest. For example, if you used the exploding /t/, you’ll want to start with words that have /ts/ in them. If you need to, go through the list again and see if any words are easier now that the child has a good /s/ in isolation. Then, start with those words. Gradually shift to other words that are similar. Once you pick where to start, focus on just that sound in just that position. For example, if you start with “bus”, you should only work on /s/ at the ends of words until the child can do that one well. Or, if you choose “best” to start with, you should only use /st/ at the ends of words until the child has mastered it. 4. Practice that Sound/Position in Sentences Once the child can say that one sound in that one position or context, practice saying those words in sentences. You can have the child repeat simple sentences that you say or make up his own sentences. Just make sure that he’s really mastered that sound in that position before you move on. 5. Go Back and Do It Again: Eliminate Frontal Lisp in a New Position Now that the child has mastered that sound in that position in sentences, you’ll want to go back and pick a new target to practice in single words again. You’ll want to do another mini assessment because some of the other /s/ or /z/ words may have fixed themselves while you were working on that one context. From your quick re-assessment, look for words that are getting close but aren’t quite there. Or, choose a position that’s similar to what you already worked on. I would stick with the same sound you chose to work on first instead of switching back and forth between /s/ and /z/. Just pick a new position (like /s/ at the beginning of words or /s/ in /st/ initial blends) and practice it in single words and then sentences. Keep repeating this process until the child can produce the /s/ or /z/ sound in sentences in any position or context. At this point, you can either repeat the process for the other sound or move on to conversational carry-over with the first sound. 6. Eliminate Frontal Lisp and Interdental Lisp in Conversation Once the child is able to say the sound in sentences, you’ll want to work on the sound in conversation. For more information on practicing sounds in conversation, check out my post on increasing self-awareness and carry-over: Click Here to Learn About Teaching Sounds in Conversation Structured Curriculum for Lisp Speech Therapy:Articulation CurriculumA Structured Program for Treating Lisps and Other Articulation ErrorsView the Articulation CurriculumAbout the Author: Carrie Clark, MA CCC-SLPHi, I’m Carrie! I’m a speech-language pathologist from Columbia, Missouri, USA. I’ve worked with children and teenagers of all ages in schools, preschools, and even my own private practice. I love digging through the research on speech and language topics and breaking it down into step-by-step plans for my followers. Fun Fact: In college, I did a brief stent as the secretary of the Herpetology club….which in case you were wondering is all the creepy crawly reptiles and amphibians like snakes, lizards, frogs, etc. Can’t say I had more than a passing interest in those things but my friend was in the club and there were only 5 members so I got drafted into a leadership position. Connect with Me: The post Frontal Lisp/Interdental Lisp | Speech Therapy Ideas & Word Lists appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

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