Speech Therapy for Adults with Lisps

Speech therapy for adults with lisps can help more than you think. Although adult lisps are rare, they are more common than you'd think. Up to 23% of the general population has a lisp! Although there is no exact cure, there are approaches you can take to diminish your lisp, even if you're an adult.

What is a lisp?

A lisp is a speech disorder where an individual has an inability to pronounce consonants. Common struggles include pronouncing the 's' sound.

There are 4 types of lisps:

• Frontal lisps: the most common type is when the tongue guts out, obstructing airflow when one speaks.
• Dental lisps: happens when someone puts their tongue in front of their teeth.
• Palatal lisps: when someone touches their tongue to their soft palette, making 's' and 'z' sounds hard to pronounce.
• Lateral lisps: forcing air out of the sides of your tongue.

What causes a lisp?

Lisps may be caused by a variety of internal and external factors, including but not limited to:

• Jaw alignment issues
• Learning the incorrect way to pronounce sounds growing up
• Tongue-tie (learn more about tongue tiredness from our blog post)
• Tongue misplacement (e.g. tongue protrudes out of the mouth)

What can a speech therapist do for you?

Speech therapy for adults with lisps can use articulation exercises to help people of all ages diminish or eliminate their lisp.

Some common speech therapy techniques include conversation practice, straw exercises, and word repetition. You can learn more about speech therapy exercises from our blog post here.

Frequently asked questions

Here are a few answered frequently asked questions about adults with lisps:

• Can adults benefit from speech therapy?
• Can lisps develop over time?
• What causes lisps in adults?
• Who helps with stuttering?
• Can lisps be fixed in adults?
• How do you correct a lisp?

Contacting a speech-language pathologist to learn more in-depth about the answers to these common questions.

Visit our site to learn more about what an SLP can do for you to reduce your lisp. Or book a free consultation to see if our services are right for you.