Lisping is so common in young children that it's often regarded as normal. Raisingkids.co.uk's guest expert, speech therapist Claire Dorfan, explains the possible causes.

Raisingkids member's problem
My daughter is aged 5 yrs and 8 months. She has quite a noticeable lisp, which has not really improved any over the years. She's seen a school nurse/doctor and I asked her to comment on it, but this met with pretty much no reaction (or no attention needed). What would you recommend I do? Should I leave it and hope she'll still grow out of it, or push further for some speech therapy?

Claire's advice
By 'lisp' do you mean that the 's' and 'z' sounds are distorted? If so, my previous reply about lisping may help.

I can understand your frustration with the 'no comment' responses to your daughter's speech difficulty. Often it's regarded as a part of normal development as it's so common. One definition of a speech problem is that it draws attention to itself of interferes with communication. You may also take the stand, however, that children at your daughter's age are under some pressure at school to read and write. Therefore, it's preferable that they are able to start differentiating accurately between sounds and letters.

As discussed in my previous reply, your daughter's teeth will need to be checked - are there any gaps that are creating difficulties? Whether or not her teeth seem fairly well-aligned you could still help her with the accurate placement of her tongue for 's' and 'z' production. Teeth are shut lightly, tongue-tip tucked loosely behind the upper or lower front teeth. The airstream then 'whistles' over the tongue and through the teeth (not yet possible if her milk teeth have gaps).

Not all children respond well to home work on sounds. You could have a try at home but don't hesitate to ask your health visitor for a speech and language therapy assessment referral. You may only need a few sessions and detailed home programme for progress to be noticeable.