Name: Anonymous 2009-03-21 5:44
It's important for a speech pathologist to establish whether a child has problems with language or problems with pronunciation. To that end, she might give the child a series of words and ask him if he can tell the difference (e.g., "saw" and "thaw"). If he can't, then what he has is not a LISP; he may have a developmental phonological disorder of some type, or he may be partially deaf. In either case, he will probably need professional help of a different sort than a speech pathologist can provide (though a speech pathologist might be able to work in tandem with the doctor who diagnoses the problem).
If the child does have a LISP, then he can go through a series of exercises to change his pronunciation. Any child with a functional speech disorder -- so long as that's all he has -- can learn proper pronunciation of sounds, given enough time. Much of this training is simply breaking out of one habit of speech and learning a new one.
Of course, plenty of people continue to LISP into adulthood, especially if they did not go through speech therapy as children. Some of them are not bothered by this; since LISPing (unlike some other speech impediments) does not make a person hard to understand, he or she can usually function just fine in society, and some even develop a kind of pride in their unique way of speaking. It certainly didn't seem to cramp Moses' style.
Other people, however, feel awkward and ashamed of the way they speak, and worse, they're under the mistaken impression that it's too late to fix it. It's not. Speech therapy can work for anyone.
If the child does have a LISP, then he can go through a series of exercises to change his pronunciation. Any child with a functional speech disorder -- so long as that's all he has -- can learn proper pronunciation of sounds, given enough time. Much of this training is simply breaking out of one habit of speech and learning a new one.
Of course, plenty of people continue to LISP into adulthood, especially if they did not go through speech therapy as children. Some of them are not bothered by this; since LISPing (unlike some other speech impediments) does not make a person hard to understand, he or she can usually function just fine in society, and some even develop a kind of pride in their unique way of speaking. It certainly didn't seem to cramp Moses' style.
Other people, however, feel awkward and ashamed of the way they speak, and worse, they're under the mistaken impression that it's too late to fix it. It's not. Speech therapy can work for anyone.