Ok - I am trying to describe a student's speech issue in proper terms, but I don't know how and searching the internet is not helping me at this point.
The problem is with the "s" sound. When I make the sound that the child does I have to touch my tounge to the insides of my top teeth. It sounds like you have extra saliva in your mouth. Almost an "sh" sound, but more "spitty" sounding. Sorry - I know that is not a great description, but that is why I am having trouble filling out the paperwork! It is NOT a traditional lisp, with the tongue thrusting out between the front teeth, but maybe it is a specially classified lisp? This child is in 4th grade I am I really need to get her some help for this, so THANK YOU for any help you can give me!
YES! Thank you! It is the lateral lisp or the "slushy s" or "Slushy lisp". WHat is strange is I tried looking up bilateral lisp (I must have heard that term before somewhere) and that search was no help at all!
I KNEW the mamas here could help me out! Now to fill out the paperwork and get a move on.
I also realized that I was not very clear in that this is not my personal child, but one of my students. Not that is matters, but I am a stickler for details!
DD's speech therapist (dd is 5 and has been seeing her for almost 2 years) calls it a lateralized lisp. Lateral, as in the sound comes from the sides of her mouth/teeth rather than the front. I can't really even mimic the sound, but this seems to be what you're describing. Until she pointed it out, I honestly hadn't even noticed!
4th grade? Yes, ask the school for some assistance.
I don't know the technical term for it, but I had what sounds like that problem in early grade school. They called it a "lazy S". I went to a special class for speech impediments and it really helped.
My son's speech pathologist called this a "slushy s and z"
I thought that "slushy" was the perfect description and just the word I was looking for.
ETA I just googled slushy s and that came back as lateral lisp as Yarmatey suggested. For my son, that's also an apt description. His issue is that his jaw alignment is messed up from an underbite that can't yet be corrected (we're waiting on more teeth to come in, he's 8) so he has big gaps where his side teeth don't meet and that slushy sound is escaping out the sides vs the front, which is where the sound escapes in a traditional lisp due to the tongue sticking out.
Sounds like a lateral lisp to me.
