September 15, 2017 by Kids Chatter Speech Pathology

8 ways to use picture books to help develop early language skills

How to read picture books for early language development mum and toddler reading

Some of the best memories I have as a child is the fun sleep overs at my grandparents’ place. Nanna would spoil us with a yummy dinner followed by ice cream sandwiches, literally ice cream squished between two wafer biscuits. Never will I forget the packets of lollies, (typically the natural confectionary snakes) she would hand us at the end of our sleep over. I can also remember the times that she would read us a bedtime story and my Pa would act out some of the characters’ voices and make me giggle in delight to no end. These are cherished memories that I won’t forget and now looking back, I realise how lucky I was to have been exposed to such a rich experience using books, stories and language. And now as an aunty, I try to read to my niece as often as I can as I love reading story books with her and enjoy that special time together.

For those of you who have kids, grandkids or nieces and nephews of your own, I’m sure you’ve heard it said many times that you should read to your kids from a very young age as it helps with their learning and development. As a Speech Pathologist, I give this advice to parents often so that they can help develop their children’s early language skills. However, the common responses I usually receive from parents is that they say things like “he/she gets bored”, “they can’t sit still and listen to the whole book” or “he/she won’t answer questions when I ask them about it”. Does this sound like your children? Or some parents are worried that they’re just not sure HOW to read to their children and make it fun, interesting and to help them with their language development. Fear not! You’re not the only one! Sometimes for little children, sitting through a whole book and listening to the story is just too hard, and reading to children can be quite an “art form” in some cases. But don’t worry, there are plenty of ways to use picture books to help your child understand and learn language, without having to read it cover to cover while also making it enjoyable and not feel like a chore.

Benefits of using pictures books to develop early language skills

Reading picture books to young children has multiple benefits for both you and your child.

You have quality time that you get to enjoy with each other.
Reading can help develop children’s love for books and will help to increase their imagination skills.
Story books can often be a springboard into helping children learn their letters, sounds and some basic written words.
For younger children, picture books are a great tool to help children develop early language skills, particularly for children who are ‘late talkers’, but also kids with typically developing or advanced language skills.
By modelling language for children to hear whilst showing them the items in a book, it allows them to more easily link meanings to words.

Although most picture books that are targeted at the younger ages are quite short stories already, you don’t have to read a story from beginning to end if your child isn’t up to sitting through a whole book. Picture books can be used to target multiple areas of language with even just a few pages, and you can work on a variety of goals depending on your child’s needs. So below are 8 different ways that picture books can be used to help develop your child’s early language skills.

1. Build up vocabulary (nouns)

Children need to learn words to be able to label things around them and refer to them by the words we all know. Using pictures is a great way to do this as we don’t always have every type of object around the house to teach kids using the real item, so this is where pictures are great. In the book, point to items/objects on the page and label them for your child to hear. Tell them the names of the animals and also talk about the different sounds they make. For example, say “Look, can you see the cow? There’s the cow. Cow. The cow says moo”. See if your child can say the word “cow” and if they can’t, get them to imitate the sound it makes (moo). This is great to do with children who are late talkers or those who are just learning to talk. Showing items and labelling the picture with spoken words can help children connect the picture/object with the word. If you are modelling new words, make sure you REPEAT REPEAT REPEAT. Say the word multiple times for children to hear. Repetition is key to learning these new words.

2. Learn action words (verbs)

Who has heard the rule “every sentence has to have a verb” when growing up? I’m sure most of you would be familiar with this. And it is true! Every complete sentence has to include a verb (action word) for it to be considered a sentence. However, verbs are the types of words that a lot of parents don’t always think to model to their kids. It’s easy to tell them the words of things (nouns), but the verbs are often neglected. And to help children move on from saying single words to using 2 – 3 word phrases, they need to become familiar with using verbs in their vocabulary too.

Use your picture books to teach your child verbs. The characters in the story are always doing something, so label the actions for your child to hear and if possible, model the actual action too. For example, you could point to the picture and say “baby is clapping, clap, clap, clap” and then model the action for your child to see and for them to copy. This will help your child to learn early sentence structure like noun + verb such as “mummy eat”, “daddy kick”, “boy is swimming”. Drawing attention to lots of action words will help your little ones increase their use of phrases and sentences.

3. Learn describing words (adjectives)

Children’s picture books are often very visual and colourful with lots of details in the illustrations. You can use these pictures to label and model the things/items and use lots of describing words. Describing words can include things like colour, size, shape etc. For example, when pointing to a picture of a cat you can say “Cat! He has black fur, he is so fluffy. Look at his pointy ears and long tail”. Children learn language through listening to others, so the more you model your language with lots of describing words the easier it will be for your child to use describing words in their own language and also increase the length of their sentences beyond just single words.

In this video, Speech Pathologist Monique Speakman goes through some examples of how to use picture books to help with early language development. Click here to buy your own copy of the Where is the Green Sheep book.

4. Expand object knowledge

This means we can use picture books to talk about the function of an object – how is it used or what is it used for? We can name the objects on the page and talk about them, for example, “soap – that’s for getting nice and clean”, “gloves – they keep our hands warm when it’s cold outside”, “clock – that tells us the time”. Being able to identify objects and understand what they are used for makes it easier for children to understand what the items/objects are and why they need them.

5. Understanding and answering questions

Picture books are great for developing children’s understanding and answering of questions. Ask questions relating to the objects or characters within the book. We can vary the questions (who, what, where, when, why and how). For younger children aged between 1 – 2 years, ask more simple questions like “what is that?” or “where is the sheep”? As children get older (3 – 5 years of age) they begin to understand more complex questions like “why is he running away?”, “how do you know the duck is feeling sad?”. This will help to expand your child’s knowledge of positions/locations using where questions, or cause and effect using why and how questions. Picture books are a great way to practise answering different questions.

6. Learn correct use of pronouns (he/she his/hers, they)

If this is your goal, pick a book that has a couple of characters (both boys and girls). Again, point to the picture and model the correct pronoun. For example, “she is a girl, she is brushing her hair”. “He is a boy, that is his room”. Remember to REPEAT REPEAT and REPEAT the words so children have the opportunity to hear it and learn it for themselves.

Children are made readers, in the laps of their parents

7. Fill in the blank technique

How often do your kids ask you to read the same story over and over again? Kids often have their favourites and although you may be getting sick of reading it every night, it’s wonderful when children want to hear the same story as you know that they will be engaged and will listen to you. But what it also means is that each time you read it again and again, they learn something new that they may not have picked up on the previous times. So they are continuously seeing and learning new things because they can are so familiar with most of the story already, that they can take in different parts of the story with each subsequent reading of it. They don’t need to worry about a huge amount of brand new information that is sometimes too much for one little brain to absorb in just one time of hearing a new story.

Repetition of the same story also creates the opportunity for your child to “fill in the blank”. You do this by reading the story and purposely leave out one word at the end of a sentence and wait for your child to tell you what that word should be. Take a nursery rhyme as an example; if you sing “twinkle, twinkle little……….” you know you that you just want to fill in the blank and say “star” (I bet you were singing the tune in your head too like I was!). You know the missing word because you’re so familiar with this nursery rhyme and for kids, it’s the same too, when they’ve heard it enough. Use this technique to get your child to use spoken words with predictable answers and help them grow their vocabulary and language.

8. Increase children’s ability to create and tell stories

Once children are using lots of words, encourage them to make up their own stories. You can start with simply seeing if they can fill in the words of a story they know well, or finish off your sentence (fill in the blank as per above example). This encourages them to start using their own words and start creating their own sentences. Older children may be able to predict what is going to happen next in the story or create their own ending. So even after you finish reading the story, ask them “what will happen next?” There is no real right or wrong answer here as they can make it up, as long as their response makes sense based on the existing story.

Another great task to practise creating your own stories, is to pick two characters out of the picture book and create a whole new story together. They don’t have to write the words themselves, but they could draw the pictures to create a new book and have your child tell the new story to other people in your family. Or they can use soft toys such as this fluffy green sheep to create their own version of the story.

There you have it! 8 different ways to use picture books to help develop early language skills and it doesn’t require you sitting down for ages reading cover to cover! Now that you know how to use a book to help develop early language skills, pull out those books from the shelves and give it a go. Remember, reading with your child doesn’t always have to be about completing the whole story, you can use the pictures to talk about anything and everything. Model lots of language for your child to hear and learn. And most of all, when reading to your children, make it fun! Put on those funny character voices, make those silly faces and really engage your child. Happy reading!

Have you got a favourite picture book? Please share what you and your kids love to read so we can all get to know new favourites to add to our collections!

Monique Speakman
BA, MSpPathSt, CPSP, MSPA
Speech Language Pathologist

Monique Speakman is a Paediatric Speech Pathologist in Brisbane with over 14 years experience, mother of a son and twin daughters, business owner and blogger. She aims to educate parents about child development and communication through the Kids Chatter Speech Pathology Blog and Facebook Page and to provide information and tips on anything to do with Speech Pathology.

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. All opinions are my own.

September 1, 2017 by Kids Chatter Speech Pathology

Help! Nobody Understands My Child’s Speech!

How Clear Should a Child’s Speech Be?

My daughter was 3 years old when I found her upset and crying in her room. I asked her what was wrong, expecting her to tell me that she had hurt herself or her twin sister had done something to annoy her, but she said through her streaming tears “I tan’t bind my tow” and she was absolutely distraught. What she was trying to tell me, was that she couldn’t find her cow, her beloved soft toy that she sleeps with every night.

How many times have you heard your child mispronounce a word? I’m sure every parent will put their hand up and will probably be able to tell you a list of some of the funny things their kids have said. There are tons of videos floating around the internet with kids mispronouncing words like the classic “truck” being mispronounced as a certain swear word. We all find them funny and can usually have a good laugh, but at what point, do you worry that your child’s speech errors are not just funny anymore and actually a sign that there might be a problem with their speech development?

If your child is still mispronouncing words, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a problem as speech errors are a normal part of speech development while kids are learning to talk. But let me help you work out when those speech errors are considered part of normal development and at what point they may not be anymore. Below, you will find a list of ages and stages when it comes to specific speech sound development and when certain errors are expected to resolve on their own, including a free download that you can keep for your own reference.

What is speech?

Before we get into the specific speech errors and their development, I want to ensure that we are all talking about the same topic as there can sometimes be a bit of confusion. When I’m referring to SPEECH development, I mean the speech SOUNDS that children say that has to do with their overall clarity of speech – how well you can understand what they’re saying. LANGUAGE development has to do with a child’s ability to understand and use words (how many words they are saying i.e. vocabulary), follow instructions, put grammatically correct words together to form sentences etc. Many parents think that speech and language are one and the same thing, but they are in fact two very different things (which I’ll talk about in a future blog). So in this blog, we’re talking about the speech sounds, the overall clarity of a child’s speech when they’re talking.

Why do children have speech errors?

The act of using spoken words to communicate is actually quite a difficult skill for children to learn. When babies are born, their main form of communication is by crying. This eventually turns into making noises and babbling and ultimately they start to say words that match what we as adults use every day. We probably take for granted as to how hard this process can actually be. The precise tongue, lip, teeth and jaw movements that we have to use to make certain speech sounds, is a fine art that most of us have perfected, but young toddlers and children are just starting out to learn this skill when they first start to talk. So it is perfectly normal for children to have speech errors when they’re young as they’re working out how to make the sounds. Some speech sounds like /m/, /b/ and /d/ are much easier for children to learn, hence why they tend to develop first, but other sounds like /s/, /r/ and /th/ are much harder and typically develop much later. This is normal! Not every speech sound will be correct from the time children start to talk, because some sounds are simply more difficult to produce and will take more time to learn. It’s when speech errors are still happening after certain ages and/or multiple errors are occurring, that it may become a cause for concern.

What causes speech errors?

In most cases, we don’t know what causes a child’s speech errors. Unless there’s a known disability such as Cerebral Palsy where the muscle movement and strength is affected or children who are born with an anatomical problem such as a Cleft Palate, we don’t always have a clear answer for why some children have speech errors that don’t resolve on their own whereas other children go on to develop clear speech without intervention. In this blog, I’m referring to those kids who do not have a known diagnosis/disability that would be contributing to their ability to learn speech sounds.

What is normal in a child’s speech sound development?

If you often find yourself having to translate your child’s speech for another person, or perhaps even an older sibling is translating for them, then that’s probably a good indicator that your child’s speech is unclear. Parents, particularly us mums more so than dads (sorry dads, I’m not having a go at you), but more often than not, mums hear their child’s speech all day, every day, so we are much more familiar with our child’s speech than strangers, or family members and friends who don’t see your child every single day. So we don’t always realise how unclear our child’s speech may be to others because we don’t notice it as much. So, if you’re always translating for your kids, take that as a sign that this may need some further investigating by a Speech Pathologist.

As I mentioned before, it is very normal for young children to make speech errors while they’re learning to talk, but let’s look at the overall clarity, or what is also known as speech intelligibility, that we expect at certain ages. Below shows the percentages of how much a stranger i.e. someone who is not familiar with your child’s speech, should be able to understand.

By 1 year of age, an unfamiliar person should be able to understand 25% of a child’s speech
By 2 years of age, an unfamiliar person should be able to understand 50% of a child’s speech
By 3 years of age, an unfamiliar person should be able to understand 75% of a child’s speech
By 4 years of age, an unfamiliar person should be able to understand 100% of a child’s speech

Flipsen, P., Jr. (2006). Measuring the intelligibility of conversational speech in children. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics. 20(4), 202-312.

Now, that does NOT mean that your child doesn’t have speech errors, all it means is that those errors, aren’t impacting too much on us being able to understand what they’re trying to say. For example, if a child said “tan I pwease have some duice?” you know that they’re saying “can I please have some juice?”. There are 3 speech errors in that sentence, but you can still quite easily make out what he/she was trying to say.

The overall intelligibility of a child’s speech can be affected by their age as younger children typically make more speech errors than older children, but the number of errors a child makes as well as the type of errors can also affect this. There are typical errors that we expect to see in speech development that follows common patterns, but when children make unusual or atypical errors, or they are using multiple errors, that’s when their overall clarity will be decreased even further. There are also different types of speech disorders that children may have. They can have an Articulation Disorder, a Phonological Disorder or some children may have a diagnosis of Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS), which is a motor based speech disorder. CAS is quite rare so we will discuss this in more detail in a future blog and for now, we’ll focus on the two most common speech disorders that we see in our Indooroopilly clinic on a daily basis.

What is an Articulation Disorder?

An articulation disorder is where children have difficulties saying a speech sound in isolation. It’s usually due to the incorrect placement of their articulators (tongue, lips, teeth, jaw) which results in a distorted production of the sound. Articulation errors are NOT considered part of typical speech development and may not always resolve on their own. An interdental lisp is an example of an articulation disorder as the tongue sticks out between the teeth when saying the /s/ or /z/ sounds when it should stay behind closed teeth.

The table below shows the ages by which specific speech sounds should have developed. If your child is not yet saying certain sounds by the listed ages or is not producing them correctly, please seek advice from a Speech Pathologist as these children usually require speech therapy intervention to help in correctly saying their sounds.

What is a Phonological Disorder?

The other common speech disorder we see in our clinic is a phonological disorder. This is where children often CAN say the individual speech sounds, but when they are saying words and sentences, they are swapping some of their sounds to another sound, or they are deleting sounds in their words. Common ones that you have probably heard children say is “wabbit” instead of “rabbit” or when they’re counting, young kids will often say “one, two, fwee, bour, bibe”. What about “nake” instead of “snake” and “boon” instead of “spoon”.

Sound familiar?

These are all very common and normal errors that we see in kids, up until a certain age. When children continue to use these errors beyond the expected ages, that’s when it would be considered a phonological delay and more often than not, children will need to see a Speech Pathologist to help correct these errors as they do not always grow out of this on their own.

When children produce atypical/unusual phonological processes, that’s when it is a phonological disorder as they are using errors that we do NOT typically expect to see in speech development. For example, children using a process called backing, which is where they produce a sound like /t/ and /d/ and swap it to a /k/ and /g/, so “turtle” become “kurkle” or “dinner” becomes “ginner”, it is a much bigger concern because is it not part of normal speech development. Another pattern that some children will use is called initial consonant deletion, which means that they are deleting the first consonant sounds in all of their words. So for example, “dog” becomes “og” and “car” becomes “ar”. If you hear a child using these errors, it is highly recommended to see a Speech Pathologist as those errors should not occur at any age and they will also significantly affect a child’s overall clarity of speech.

For a full list of phonological speech errors that children make, download our free speech chart here. This chart lists the ages of when we expect those errors to disappear. So if you hear your child making any of the errors and they are older than the age listed and/or they are using multiple phonological errors, please seek advice from a Speech Pathologist.

Do children grow out of speech errors on their own or do all children need speech therapy?

A lot of children will figure out a lot of the speech sounds over time and may correct their errors without any intervention, however, this is not the case for all children. As mentioned above, it all depends on a child’s age, the type of errors and how many errors they make as to whether or not speech therapy is warranted. And if you have any concerns yourself, the best thing you can do is ask a Speech Pathologist for advice as speech development is a very complex process.

The most important piece of advice I can give you though, is not to ignore speech errors and just assume that children will grow out of it, because not all children do. If left untreated, speech sound errors can affect a child’s phonological awareness, reading, spelling and writing skills and can also have a huge impact on their confidence, social skills in the playground with their friends, withdrawal from educational tasks such as not wanting to speak in front of their peers or asking/answering questions, or having difficulties making new friends in fear of being ridiculed or bullied.

Thankfully, there are lots of things a Speech Pathologist can do to help your child to prevent ongoing speech difficulties, but it starts with listening to your child’s speech and taking action on seeking advice from a Speech Pathologist when their errors are not resolving on their own. Remember to download your free copy of our speech chart and contact us if you have questions or concerns about your child’s speech.

Monique Speakman
BA, MSpPathSt, CPSP, MSPA
Speech Language Pathologist

March 12, 2017 by Kids Chatter Speech Pathology

Why isn’t my toddler talking? Will they grow out of it or should I be concerned?

As a Speech Pathologist, probably the most common question that parents ask me, is “how many words should my child be saying?”.

You’ve probably noticed that there’s a big variety in development because you’ve seen other kids at your childcare centre, or kids at the park or even your own friend’s kids and some are talking a lot more and some are talking a lot less. So you’re probably questioning, well, what is normal? And if your toddler isn’t saying as much as their peers, you’re probably worried whether your child is behind for their age and would they catch up, or are they developing ok for their age.

Parents often ask their friends, their family or post in parent groups on Facebook asking whether they should be concerned about their child’s language development, and the common responses parents often receive are:

“Don’t worry, they’ll grow out of it.”
“They are fine. Every child develops at their own pace.”
“Don’t worry, boys talk later than girls.”
“My child didn’t say a word until she was 5 and then she started talking in full sentences overnight.”
“Just send them to childcare and they’ll learn to talk there.”
“Einstein didn’t speak until he was 4 and look at what he achieved.”

Sound familiar?

I know this sort of ‘advice’ is well intentioned as most people just want to offer support and not make you worry any more, but this wait and see (and do nothing) approach can actually be quite detrimental in some cases. Now before you think I’m being over the top, let me help you by explaining what is considered normal/typical language development in children and what is not. I also want to explain the other developmental areas (besides just the number of words kids are saying) that we look at when it comes to a child’s communication development and more importantly WHY it’s so important to get it checked if there are concerns.

What is normal in a child’s early language development?

There are many markers in a child’s development that help us to work out if a child is delayed or if they’re on track with their development. Even though there will be some variety between children, typically developing children will follow the same sort of patterns within the same sort of age ranges.

Here is a breakdown of how many words children with typically developing language are using:

By 12 months children say 2 – 6 words other than “Mum” or “Dad”.
By 15 months children say 10 different words.
By 18 months children say 50 different words.
By 24 months children say 200 – 300 words.
By 30 months children say 450 words.
By 36 months children say 1,000 different words.

LinguiSystems Guide to Communication Milestones cites sources as Child Development Institute at www.childdevelopmentinfo.com. Nicolosi, Harryman, Kresheck (2006). Owens (1996).

Some parent will look at these numbers and think that their child isn’t saying as many words as they should, but because they understand everything that’s being said to them, they’re fine and will just catch up. Or because of the ‘advice’ that other people have given them as listed before, parents don’t think they need to worry because they will “just grow out of it”. Well, as a Speech Pathologist, this concerns me greatly. Not only is this advice given by people who are usually not trained professionals in early language development, but there are also a number of other factors to consider besides just how many words they are saying. There’s also the fact that parents (as well as some professionals), sometimes have a skewed perception of “normal” because we see so many children in our everyday interactions who have language delays and you may not even realise that they are in fact delayed. Speech Pathologist, Laura Mize explains this in further detail on her blog.

So what’s the risk? Don’t all kids learn to talk eventually?

Well, most likely, yes, however, research has proven to us that
when communication delays are left untreated in early childhood, the risk increases exponentially for future academic and learning issues. Learning to use and understand language is essential for nearly every other kind of learning a child needs, not just learning as a toddler, but also as they get older. When children don’t catch up in their language skills, they have ongoing language difficulties well into their school years, including difficulties with their reading and writing. So waiting to see whether or not a child will catch up on their own, is something I know I wouldn’t want to risk for my child when early intervention can make a huge difference.

Although it’s true that children will develop at their own pace and that the precise ages at which children reach a specific milestone, will vary somewhat, speech and language development is actually quite consistent and follows predictable patterns. Therefore, if certain milestones haven’t been reached by certain ages, it becomes cause for concern and it’s important to find out WHY a child isn’t reaching them.

What are the reasons why a child may not be talking?

A child’s language may be delayed due to a number of possibilities:

Some children don’t have as much of a need to use their words to communicate because parents get very good at anticipating or guessing their child’s needs (you know what they want before they have to ask you).
An older sibling might be doing a lot of the talking for them, so once again, they haven’t needed to talk as much themselves because they still get their needs met.
Some children are not getting enough exposure to language in their environment or the language around them is not used at an age appropriate level for them to learn sufficiently.
Sometimes there could be more serious reasons as to why a child isn’t talking such as an undiagnosed hearing problem as a result of multiple ear infections over time, or a diagnosis of Autism or global developmental delays are also reasons as to why a child may not be talking.

Because there are a number of reasons as to why a toddler may not yet be talking, it is important to see a Speech Pathologist with experience in early language development to identify the cause of their language delay. Just counting the number of words they say is not the only factor in determining whether or not your child will be one of the lucky ones who may catch up in their own time, or whether they are the ones who need specific intervention to help them develop language because they won’t just grow out of it.

What key areas do we look for when seeing a late talker?

When we see a toddler who isn’t talking much, we look at a number of areas to determine whether or not they are a TRUE ‘late talker’ or whether or not there might be something else going on.

A true late talker is a specific set of children as described by the following:

They are between the ages of 18 – 30 months
They have good understanding of language
They have typically developing play skills e.g. using toys appropriately, engage in pretend play
They have normal development in their fine and gross motor skills
They have normal thinking/cognitive skills
Have good social skills
Have limited spoken words

When we assess a child’s early language development, we look at the number and types of words a child may be saying, but we also look at the following skills to either rule out or confirm difficulties in other developmental areas:

Interaction skills
- Do they want to interact with another person?
- Do they initiate some form of communication such as pointing to something or making a sound to get your attention?
Eye contact
- Do they look at the person they are communicating with?
- Do they look at you while you are telling them something?
Non-verbal communication – what are they communicating without using spoken words?
- Do they use gestures to communicate e.g. pointing to things, waving, pulling you towards the fridge if they’re hungry etc.?
Attention and listening skills
- Do they respond to their name being called?
- Do they turn to the person talking to them or do they ignore them completely?
Play skills
- What is the level of the child’s play?
- Do they know how to play with toys in the correct way e.g. build a tower with blocks and not just kick them around the room or just line up the blocks in a row?
- Do they engage in play with another child/adult?
- Do they get excited with trying new toys or show no interest at all because they’re fixated on one toy only?
Understand language
- Do they understand what is said to them and follow instructions? Do they understand the words and phrases being used? There is a difference between situational understanding and understanding everything, so for example, if you fill the bath and say “let’s have a bath”, they don’t need to understand the specific words to be able to work out what’s going on.
How do they get their message across?
- If they’re not using spoken words, how DO they get their message across e.g. gesturing (pointing, sign language) or do they throw tantrums and get frustrated or do they simply do nothing and move on to something else?

As you can see from the list above, there’s a lot more to communication than just the number of words being used. So when a child isn’t talking much, I cannot stress enough how important it is to seek advice from a Speech Pathologist to determine if a child is showing any other red flags in these areas of their development. We need to confirm which child is a true late talker who may grow out of it or needs a small amount of intervention with strategies to help develop their spoken language, versus a child who may have a more serious underlying diagnosis that will require a more in-depth treatment plan. Once we’ve worked out the missing pieces of the puzzle, we can help you and your child with their specific difficulties and prevent them from falling further behind in their development that will otherwise affect their academic success and everyday communication as they get older.

So if you have any concerns regarding your child or another parent is asking whether they should be concerned, please recommend them to speak to a Speech Pathologist as they are able to evaluate all the necessary developmental skills and give the best advice based on the child’s needs. To contact Kids Chatter, call us on 0432 735 044 if you have concerns about your child. We see lots of families in our clinic on a daily basis and have helped them with their language development. We know that early intervention works and using the right techniques and strategies can make a huge difference for your little one’s development.

Monique Speakman
BA, MSpPathSt, CPSP, MSPA
Speech Language Pathologist

Monique Speakman is a Paediatric Speech Pathologist in Brisbane with over 10 years experience, mother of a son and twin daughters, business owner and blogger. She aims to educate parents about child development and communication through the Kids Chatter Speech Pathology Blog and Facebook Page and to provide information and tips on anything to do with Speech Pathology.

September 8, 2016 by Kids Chatter Speech Pathology

Will my child grow out of a lisp?

I hear this question all the time from parents whose child has a lisp. Unfortunately, it’s not quite as simple to answer without explaining a few things first.

Have you ever noticed that your child is poking their tongue out when they’re speaking or that they sound “slushy”? Do you or other people find it difficult to understand their speech clearly? This could be a sign that your child has a lisp.

Some parents already know their child is lisping, but you’d be surprised to hear how many parents never realised their child has a lisp. This is usually because they are so used to hearing their child’s speech every day (and they can usually still understand them), that this speech error goes unnoticed, or they don’t know what a lisp is. We successfully treat lisps on a daily basis in our clinic, plus we have a trained ear, so we can show you what to look and listen for.

What is a lisp?

There are in fact four different types of lisps, and this is why it isn’t always as straight-forward as people may assume.

Interdental lisp or also known as a frontal lisp
This lisp is probably the most common one children have and usually the one most people are familiar with. This is where the tongue sticks out between the front teeth on all /s/ and /z/ sounds, and essentially makes a sound like a /th/. So instead of “snake”, kids will say “thnake” or “bus” will sounds like “buth”. Children can also have an interdental production (i.e. putting the tongue between the teeth) for other sounds like /t/, /d/, /l/ and /n/. Check out the video below for an example.

Dentalised lisp
With this lips, the front of the tongue pushes against the inside of the front teeth and makes the /s/ and /z/ sounds quite muffled.

Lateral lisp
This lisp is usually described as a “slushy” or a “wet” lisp. This is because the airflow that’s produced for the /s/ and /z/ sounds, is coming out the sides of the mouth into the cheeks, rather than out the front/centre of the mouth where the airflow should be going. The lateral lisp can sometimes affect the /sh/, /ch/ and /j/ sounds as well.

Palatal lisp
This lisp occurs when the middle of the tongue touches the soft palate of the mouth. It’s really difficult to comprehend what that would sound like, but if you tried to say the /h/ sound closely followed by the /y/ sound, you would have a pretty good production of a palatal lisp.

Here is a video of my daughter Scarlett showing you what an interdental lisp looks and sounds like. She is currently attending speech therapy sessions to correct her lisp and I will begin a blog series to cover her progress over the coming weeks with hints and tips for you to try at home.

Other people tell me my child has a lisp, but I don’t hear it

Have you ever had to translate your child’s speech to another person because they had trouble understanding what they said? As a parent, you hear your child speak everyday, so you are familiar with how they sound, so you get pretty good at knowing what they’re saying. So it can come as a surprise sometimes that others find it difficult to understand your child or that you yourself don’t always realise your child actually has any speech errors until someone else points it out.

It depends on the severity of the lisp and how many sounds it’s affecting in a child’s speech, as to whether or not people have trouble understanding them. With children who only have a mild lisp on just the /s/ and /z/ sounds, you’ll probably find that despite this error, their overall clarity of speech isn’t affected too much. On the other hand, children with a significant lisp that’s affecting multiple sounds, can be much harder to understand, particularly for people who are not familiar with that child.

I will aim to answer the questions that you will mostly likely have, so hopefully by the end of this post, you’ll have a much better understanding of how to recognise if your child has a lisp, whether or not you should be worried, and more importantly, how we can fix this. If you have a question that I haven’t covered below, please comment on this post or get in contact with us and we will answer your questions.

Your lisp questions answered

What causes a lisp?
Lisping is NOT seen in typical speech development in children. It is a speech error that can happen for no reason sometimes and it’s just one of those things that some children have from the time they started to talk. Other times though, there may be an underlying cause such as a tongue thrust swallow. Prolonged dummy use or thumb sucking can also contribute to lisps as the continuous forward sucking motion of the tongue (as described in our tongue thrust post), can affect speech as well due to the muscle memory which can be very strong. It can happen to any child, for example my own daughter has an interdental lisp, and she has never sucked her thumb or a dummy, doesn’t have a tongue thrust swallow, and her mum is a speech pathologist!

Will my child grow out of a lisp?
In most cases, children will NOT grow out of a lisp! There are plenty of websites and other speech pathologists out there who say that children can grow out of a lisp, however I question how often that really happens, and here is why I think that… Because a lisp is a tongue placement issue and muscle memory is often our biggest enemy in treating it, unless someone has taught the child how to correctly say the /s/ and /z/ sounds, I wonder how we can expect children to correct this entirely on their own without any form of intervention? And out of all speech errors that people can have, one of the few that are carried through into adulthood, is a lisp (think Jamie Oliver). You don’t often hear an adult say “dod” for “dog” because they haven’t learned the /g/ sound… Both personally and professionally, I have never seen a lisp resolve on its own yet in the 17 years I’ve been working as a speech pathologist. Now that doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened, but those children who supposedly have grown out of it (I’d love to hear about them), did someone along the way show them how to make the sound correctly, or did they truly figure it out on their own? It’s often such an ingrained habit, it doesn’t just fix itself from one day to the next.

Why should my child need therapy to fix a lisp?
Ultimately, no one can force you or your child to do therapy, and having a lisp is probably not a big deal for some people in the big scheme of things. Having said that though, while some people will say it’s “cute” while they’re little, once children grow up into teenagers and adults, they are often teased or made fun of because they sound different. Sometimes there can also be the thought that someone with a lisp is not as intelligent as someone without a lisp (by the way, a lisp has no influence on intelligence at all!), but the reality is, that’s what some people assume if they don’t know anything about lisps. So think of the potential future consequences in adulthood if your child did not get their lisp corrected.

What is the best age to start therapy for a lisp?
This can vary depending on your child. Typically speaking, early intervention is the key, as the continuous movement of the tongue sticking out (interdental lisp) only reinforces this habit. The longer this habit remains (as with almost any habit), the more difficult it becomes to treat. Usually from 3.5 years of age onwards is a good time to start, bearing in mind the child’s maturity, personality, ability to follow instructions and attending to the task. If a child has a lateral lisp, which is definitely not considered as part of typical speech development, therapy is definitely recommended as soon as possible. At Kids Chatter, we see children as young as 3 years old for a lisp and have successfully fixed many children’s lisps.

Does a lisp affect a child's education? Kids Chatter Speech Pathology

Does a lisp affect my child’s education?
This can depend on the type and severity of the lisp. Having a lisp does not affect a person’s intelligence, so their ability to learn at school should not be affected. However, when a child is difficult to be understood by others, or the child is ashamed to speak up in class or if they are being bullied because of it, this can lead to them not wanting to participate in class, especially with things that require talking (oral presentations, reading aloud, answering questions etc.). So it’s usually the negative attention from the people around them that can result in a child struggling at school because they don’t want to talk. The social pressure can be huge for some children and we all know how mean some kids can be to others.

My child can say a proper /s/ sound on its own, so why aren’t they using it in their everyday talking? Are they just being lazy?
I can assure you, they are not being lazy! It takes quite a bit of effort and practise to change a long term habit into a new one. Especially in this case, where muscle memory is our biggest enemy, it’s not going to happen overnight unfortunately. As I often explain to the parents in our clinic, imagine if you, who can (presumably) say the /s/ sounds clearly, were suddenly expected to say all your words with a lisp on all /s/ and /z/ sounds (remember, they occur at the beginning, middle and end of words), could you do it? Chances are you probably can’t! We are essentially expecting our kids to do the same, but in reverse. This is why in speech therapy, we teach the child and their parents the systematic steps to get from that single sound all the way up through to conversational level. At Kids Chatter, we follow our Articulation Tracker that we have designed to show you exactly where your child is up to and what steps we still have to get through to work towards the ultimate goal of everyday conversation.

How do I know if it’s truly a lisp and not something else?
Hopefully, this post has given you some information about what a lisp is and how to recognise it. If you still find it difficult to identify what your child’s speech errors really are though, because it may not be an exact match of any of the descriptions above, then the best thing you can do is see a speech pathologist. We will be able to check exactly what type of lisp your child has, or identify if there’s another problem. If the errors are considered age appropriate, then we can monitor it over time, or if they are not age appropriate, we can discuss how we can treat it.

Can a lisp be fixed?
Yes! With the right speech therapy, motivation, practise and a bit of time, lisps can usually be successfully treated. You want to ensure though that if there’s an underlying cause for the lisp such as a tongue thrust swallow, that this problem is also addressed as in this case, the lisp is more of a symptom of tongue thrust, rather than the lisp being a problem on its own. So make sure your speech pathologist is qualified and experienced in checking for a tongue thrust swallow (very few speech pathologists actually have experience with this area) to rule it out or identify and treat accordingly. Thankfully at Kids Chatter, we deal with lots of children who have tongue thrust swallows, which can also be treated successfully.

If you’d like to purchase your own /s/ and /z/ articulation cards, you can find them on the Teachers Pay Teachers website. In order to buy from Teachers Pay Teachers, you will need to create a free account.

My child’s front teeth are missing, will that cause them to lisp?
If a child does not already have an existing lisp and then they lose their front baby teeth, then theoretically there should be no reason why they should start lisping. Because the /s/ and /z/ sounds are TONGUE sounds, and not specifically teeth sounds, it is the tongue position that is important, whether or not there are teeth present. Now, it is quite likely that the quality of /s/ and /z/ sounds will change a little because the teeth do help in making it sound “hissy”, but most children adjust quite well and continue to use their tongue in their correct spot despite the gap.

My child’s front teeth are missing, does that mean they can’t do therapy?
As per the question above, the /s/ and /z/ sounds are based on tongue position, so it can be possible to do speech therapy to treat a lisp. However, if your child is new the speech therapy when they have a gap, sometimes we may recommend to wait until the teeth do grow back, because it will make it a little easier, especially when trying to achieve that “hissy” sound, but if they are already receiving therapy when their baby teeth fall out, they can usually continue. The speech pathologist can usually give you more specific advice based on your child’s circumstances.

Why do some adults still have a lisp?
Without intervention, lisps can persist into adulthood, especially for those children who have never been to speech therapy or didn’t complete all their therapy. Some adults have accepted their speech the way it is and have no desire to fix it, while others are really bothered by it and want to be able to fix it. Adults can attend speech therapy to treat a lisp and it works much the same as how we would treat it in children, probably minus the kid’s games though!

So, a lisp can sometimes be a very straight forward problem, while at other times it can be a little more complicated if we’re dealing with a lateral lisp or an underlying problem like a tongue thrust swallow. If you think/know that your child has a lisp, contact us for an assessment to determine what type of lisp your child has and we can explain how we can fix it as the longer a lisp is left untreated, the harder it can be to correct. If there is no lisp or other speech errors, we can reassure you that your child’s speech development is doing just fine and there is nothing to worry about. Should speech therapy be recommended and your child is ready, motivated and you can are able to commit to doing the follow-up homework practise, I believe the earlier therapy is started, the better the outcome will be and it will save you time and money in the long run.

If you found this post useful or you know someone with a child who has a lisp, please share this post so we can help other families.

Monique Speakman
BA, MSpPathSt, CPSP, MSPA
Speech Language Pathologist

Monique Speakman is a Paediatric Speech Pathologist in Brisbane with over 15 years experience, mother of a son and twin daughters, business owner and blogger. She aims to educate parents about child development and communication through the Kids Chatter Speech Pathology Blog and Facebook Page and to provide information and tips on anything to do with Speech Pathology.

April 6, 2016 by Kids Chatter Speech Pathology

Is your child a thumb sucker?

This can be a much more serious problem than it may seem. This is because thumb sucking beyond the age of 1 – 2 years can be detrimental to a child’s teeth as well as their swallow and speech.

Isn’t it normal for babies to suck their thumb?

Yes! Sucking is a baby’s first instinct. It is healthy and normal for babies to suck their thumb and fingers and is usually linked to their need for food and exploration.

Thumb sucking can vary greatly between individual babies. Some babies suck their thumb often while other babies show little interest in doing so. The need for sucking tends to decrease around six months of age when they start eating solids and usually lessens or completely stops around 12 months of age. Thumb sucking is normally little cause for concern regarding dental development up to the age of 12 months. However, after the age of two, thumb sucking can be a problem.

How does thumb sucking affect a child’s teeth?

Overbite - damage from thumb sucking Kids Chatter Speech Pathology — Malocclusions as a result of thumb sucking

Thumb sucking can result in “malocclusions” which means that the upper and lower teeth come together incorrectly. The most common type of malocclusion that kids can have due to prolonged thumb sucking, is when the upper teeth are pushed forward, as though they are moving toward sticking straight out. This is called an “overjet”, which is slightly different from the more commonly heard term “overbite”.

Chewing food properly may be difficult for some kids because their teeth aren’t lined up properly for them to chew effectively. The other problem often seen in kids who have their teeth pushed forward as a result of thumb sucking, is that there can be some facial distortion as the forward position of the teeth and jaw affect the overall shape of the face.

How does thumb sucking affect a child’s speech and swallowing?

Due to the constant forward and backward movement of the tongue as they’re sucking, a child is likely to have a tongue thrust swallow pattern. This can affect their ability to swallow properly, their dentition and their speech sounds. See our tongue thrust swallow page for more information.

Speech disorders are also a common problem as a result of thumb sucking. An interdental lisp is usually the most common problem that we see, which is the tongue pushing out between the front teeth when producing the /s/ or /z/ sounds. The habit of the continuous forward motion of the tongue however, not just affects the /s/ and /z/ sounds, but can also affect other sounds that we produce with our tongue such as /t/, /d/, /n/, /l/, /sh/, /ch/ and /j/.

As you can see, that’s quite a few sounds that can be affected in a child’s speech as a result of prolonged thumb sucking. This is why early intervention is the key! Not just in doing speech therapy to correct a child’s speech errors or their tongue thrust swallow, but tackling the underlying problem – breaking the thumb sucking habit.

Tips for breaking the thumb sucking habit

It is crucial to try and prevent a child from forming a habit of thumb sucking beyond the age of two years, and especially before their permanent teeth come through around the age of five to six years. Prevention is better than cure. So when you notice your baby sucking their thumb on a regular basis, gently pull out the thumb when you see it. By not letting it become a habit in the first place, it will save you a lot of time, money and frustration down the track when it can be much harder to break.
Simply telling your toddler/child to stop sucking their thumb, or asking them to take it out, just doesn’t work for most. Instead, try rewarding and praising your child every time they are NOT sucking their thumb rather than focusing on the times that they are. Concentrate on the expected behaviour (not sucking the thumb) by using lots of praise such as “wow, I like how you’re not sucking your thumb” or “I like how your hands are sitting nicely on your lap” (good to use when they’re watching TV for example). Give them something to play with using their hands to keep them occupied such as Playdoh, drawing or building a tower with blocks. Make sure you praise every time they are not sucking their thumb to encourage this behaviour. Reward charts such as sticker charts are also a great tool use as an extra incentive.
In addition to using positive reinforcement to break the habit for thumb sucking, using a fabric or plastic thumb cover may help. This is because it will make it difficult to get the thumb into the mouth and/or it simply
Thumb guards

doesn’t feel the same. These thumb covers are particularly good to use at night time as the child is unaware they are doing it. Some children however, find a way to get these covers off in their sleep and the thumb finds its way back into their mouth. You may need to come up with an inventive way of keeping it on your child’s thumb.
One of the more commonly known thumb sucking habit breakers is the use of special nail polish. This discourages putting the thumb in the mouth due to its terrible taste. This might be a better solution for children during the day than some thumb covers as it still allows the child to have full use of their hands. A potential drawback of this option is that some children do not seem to be bothered by the taste and/or the urge to suck their thumbs is stronger. It is highly recommended to use this option in conjunction with the positive reinforcement strategy to break the thumb sucking habit.
Dental devices to break thumb sucking habit

What do you do if you have exhausted all your options to break the thumb sucking habit and your child has still not kicked the habit? See your dentist/orthodontist about getting a dental device fitted. These go by various names, depending on design, but research has shown them to be very effective in stopping this habit. The downside of these devices are that there is a notable expense, not to mention some of the pain and discomfort the child may experience during the fitting stage (similar to getting braces fitted). Children will have to wear these devices 24 hours a day for a few weeks, however, it will stop the thumb sucking habit.

Stopping thumb sucking EARLY (or even better, preventing it) means that none of this has to happen and the child’s teeth will not be misaligned and their speech, language and swallow can develop correctly. It will save you thousands of dollars in dental appointments, speech therapy sessions and the overall time and hassle of trying to fix a problem that could have been prevented if thumb sucking did not become habit.

If your child is having difficulties with their speech and/or swallowing development as a result of previous or current thumb sucking, it is highly recommended to see a speech pathologist. They will be able to assess how their speech is developing and look at their swallow pattern to determine the nature and severity of the difficulties. A speech pathologist can also help to correct lisps and other speech errors as well as correct tongue thrust swallowing.

Have you got any additional tips on how to break the thumb sucking habit? Leave a comment below if you’ve found a good solution and let us know how your child’s thumb sucking journey went.

Monique Speakman
BA, MSpPathSt, CPSP, MSPA
Speech Language Pathologist

Brisbane Speech Pathology

8 ways to use picture books to help develop early language skills

Benefits of using pictures books to develop early language skills

1. Build up vocabulary (nouns)

2. Learn action words (verbs)

3. Learn describing words (adjectives)

In this video, Speech Pathologist Monique Speakman goes through some examples of how to use picture books to help with early language development. Click here to buy your own copy of the Where is the Green Sheep book.

4. Expand object knowledge

5. Understanding and answering questions

6. Learn correct use of pronouns (he/she his/hers, they)

7. Fill in the blank technique

8. Increase children’s ability to create and tell stories

Help! Nobody Understands My Child’s Speech!

How Clear Should a Child’s Speech Be?

What is speech?

Why do children have speech errors?

What causes speech errors?

What is normal in a child’s speech sound development?

Flipsen, P., Jr. (2006). Measuring the intelligibility of conversational speech in children. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics. 20(4), 202-312.

What is an Articulation Disorder?

What is a Phonological Disorder?

Do children grow out of speech errors on their own or do all children need speech therapy?

Why isn’t my toddler talking? Will they grow out of it or should I be concerned?

As a Speech Pathologist, probably the most common question that parents ask me, is “how many words should my child be saying?”.

What is normal in a child’s early language development?

Here is a breakdown of how many words children with typically developing language are using:

So what’s the risk? Don’t all kids learn to talk eventually?

What are the reasons why a child may not be talking?

What key areas do we look for when seeing a late talker?

Will my child grow out of a lisp?

What is a lisp?

Here is a video of my daughter Scarlett showing you what an interdental lisp looks and sounds like. She is currently attending speech therapy sessions to correct her lisp and I will begin a blog series to cover her progress over the coming weeks with hints and tips for you to try at home.

Other people tell me my child has a lisp, but I don’t hear it

Your lisp questions answered

Is your child a thumb sucker?

Isn’t it normal for babies to suck their thumb?

How does thumb sucking affect a child’s teeth?

How does thumb sucking affect a child’s speech and swallowing?

Tips for breaking the thumb sucking habit

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