Lisp 1, Lisp 2, Lisp3, Lisp 4

4 Types of Lisps

Most people with a lisp speech disorder are actively looking to fix it. In order to fix a lisp speech you must understand that there is not just one type of lisp, in actual fact, there are four.

So, the very first step to fixing your lisp speech is to uncover the type of lisp that you have. Moving forward from there, you want to take some specific, and some general exercises to fix your lisp. So what are the different types of lisp speech disorders?

1. Lateral Lisp

Let's start off with the Lateral lisp, because this is not typically found in normal speech development. With this disorder, the tongue position is in the same position when making the "L" sound. The result of this is that air-flow is pushed over the sides of the tongue.

This is fine when it comes to producing the "L" tones, but it sounds slushy or wet when trying to make out the "S" tone.

2. Palatal lisp

This type of lisp speech disorder is not a common one either, just like Lateral lisp. It is probably the least likely one that you may have because of the complexity of producing the sound. Yet, it is categorized so do not over-look this one.

What happens here is the middle of the tongue comes into contact with the soft palate, or the soft part of the roof of the mouth. This is quiet far back in the month. You can feel it by gliding the tip of your tongue there.

If you have this lisp then you will be producing the "S" sound by putting your tongue in the position of the "H" sound closely followed by the "Y" and by keeping the sound coming out.

3. Interdental lisp

This type of lisp disorder is common in children developing speech until they are about 5. As they develop, this lisp sound slowly, but surely goes away.

You can usually see the problem with this lisp by looking into a mirror, unlike the other types. The tongue comes in between the front teeth and the air-flow is pushed forward.

This basically will create the "TH" sound, instead of "S" - so instead of the word "sad" you will say "thad"

4. Dentalised lisp

If you ever get the feeling that you have a slight lisp, or if someone has told you that your speech is a little unclear, then it might be that you have a dentalised lisp. Also, when some people are heavily intoxicated, they can at times produce this type of lisp.

Instead of producing a slushy "S" - what happens here is that the "S" sounds muffled, or unclear. The tongue is usually pushed against the front teeth, which causes the air-flow to be pushed forwards.

http://ezinearticles.com/?The-4-Types-of-Lisp-Speech-Disorders&id=3250781

CARTOON Sylvester and Elmer, Back Ally Uproar

Lisps from two characters that we are all familiar with...some professionals use these two cartoon characters for relatability when discussing lisps.

George Watsky- S for Lisp

JUST A QUICK DISCLAIMER...SOME MAYBE OFFENDED BY THIS VIDEO IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOR!

Lisping Grouped by Severity

Grouping is a method that can be applied to any experiments and studies. Mixing similar and opposite variables always produces mixed results. In this investigation subjects were grouped together according to the severity of their lisp. The reason of the study was to compare and contrast the relationship among frontal lisping, protrusive lingual force, and lingual diadochokinetic rates. The results of the investigation showed that when comparing the subjects with the lisp to normal speakers, the lispers in each group had weaker protrusive lingual forces and this increased as did severity and all groups except for the moderately severe lispers had slower lingual diadochokinetic rates. In conclusion it seems that grouping the lispers by the severity of their lisp before examining their misarticulations may offer vital information about the diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of their speech issues.
http://libproxy.uncg.edu:2079/pubmed/7354629

http://libproxy.uncg.edu:2079/pubmed/17223125

Lisping in Young Adults

Much of my research on lisps, all types, has reported that lisping is common in young children, and with the proper speech therapy can be nonexistent. One of the studies that I read about was done of young adults. These young adults were entering students at Ghent University in Belgium, in the speech language pathology department. The study was done because many of the young adults that had previously entered the university still presented frontal lisping problems at an older age.
The actual experiment was that 748 students were video-recorded reciting the Dutch version of a text from the International Phonetic Association. Of the 748 students, it was equal parts of 374 males and females. The video recording yielded a 23.3% presence of lisping in the students. There was no difference found between males and females. The conclusion of the study showed that due to the high percentage of lisping found in young adults, maybe lisping continuing into an older age is quite normal in adults.

Review 3: Lisping Health Article

http://www.healthline.com/galecontent/lisping-1
First off, I had high expectations for the lisping article when I read that it was on a health website. I must admit, the article did appease my expectations. For starters it is five pages long. The website offers an abundance of information which is categorized into various topics. Headings such as "When to call the doctor", "Prognosis", make it easy for the reader to navigate through the pages and focus specifically on what it is they want to know about. At the end of the website, books and references are listed for future use if needed by the reader. New information that I had not previously known was offered in the article. the section "Demographics" would be very valuable when it came to reporting statistics about lisps and speech disorders. I would definitely recommend this article for someone wanting to research lisps.

Review #2: LISPING When /s/ and /z/ are hard to say

http://members.tripod.com/caroline_bowen/lisping.htm
An applause is in order for this article. After reading the article mentioned in the first review, I decided to research one of the speech pathologists cited in the work. The article on the above link provided the most information I have seen yet about lisps. The author, who is renowned Speech Pathologist, took the time to explain from level 1 what a lisp was and the history. After all lisps did not come from thin air. Also this article tells about the four types of lisps, whereas most articles are known for only citing the most basic two. Yes this article seems more scholarly and for an audience that has more than a general interest in lisp, but even as somebody who doesn't know a lot about the topic, the jargon used was not to a point where any reader could follow. Many of the articles that I have read thus far about lisps, focus on children; however this article gives some insight to the adult suffering from a lisp and possible preventive methods. Another thing I liked about Dr. Bowen's writing was that she broke down what an actual speech therapy session would entail for someone suffering from an interdental lisp.

Review #1: A Lithp is Just a Lisp! Understanding Lisping in Children

http://www.preschoolerstoday.com/resources/articles/lisp.htm
The article on the website listed above discussed lisps and how they affect children of the preschool and early elementary age range. One strength of the article was how the author used familiar cartoon characters to lighten the mood and make a connection with readers. The references to Sylvester the cat and Daffy Duck served valuable as they gave excellent examples of lisps. Although the author is a SPL, Speech Language Pathologist, the article seemed to offer only the general or basic information concerning lisps. The was no in depth analysis of the speech impediment or its history. Since only the minimum information was in the article, it makes the audience, which is parents or those individuals who deal directly with younger children, very appropriate to the general overview given. This was smart on the author's behalf, for if the discussion had been too in depth, the audience might have been lost. I do not recommend this article if you are looking for a substantial amount of information on the topic.