Tell me straight, is a lisp normal at 2.5?

winery

Or is my kid going to need speech therapy?

I don't care either way, but a part of me thinks that he just pronounces "s" and "sh" sounds the incorrect way (with his tongue between his teeth rather than pressed into his palate) because he's just learning how to talk.

Can your toddler enunciate "s" and "sh" sounds like you do now (assuming you don't have a lisp)?

And is something like that hereditary?  MH just told me he talked like that until he was in 3rd grade.

Mominator

Huhm, I'm not sure, but my DD is nearly 2.5 y/o and still says "yesh" for yes. I'll be interested to see the other answers here.

liebschein

my DS also speaks with a bit of a lisp....so I'm hoping to find out what the others say.

squishywife

blends are hard for kids.  if in preschool he still has a problem (next year) then perhaps you could explore speech therapy, but i think its probably normal now. 

noel has a hard time with the th blend.

co18co

Benjamin is 2.75, and doesn't say S right.  It's not really a lisp, at all, but he doesn't say S.

We've talked about it with the pediatrician, and more recently, with his ENT and audiologist, and they both said not to worry about it for a couple/few months.  We'll revisit if he still has the problem later this summer.

Rebekah1021

DD is the same way. I have been really working on the "s" sounds with DD. One of the mom's at theplayground is a speech therapist and she says that it's super common and they won't even begin to work with kids on them until the 2nd or 3rd grade depending on the severity.

She really put my mind at ease, but did tell me to make the "s" and "sh" sound with her as often as we can. DD also has troubles with L's.

Sulla

There's a chart out there somewhere. For some sounds, they have till age 6 or 7 to get them right. My 4.5 year old still can't say "th."

butterbeansmama

He doesn't really say the "th" sound very well yet, but he can say "s" correctly.

MomToTGH

One of my BFF is a speech pathologist and whenever I talk to her I always ask her if what my DS is doing is normal.  Mine has a lisp too.  She says a lisp is perfectly normal and ok up until like age 5.  They are still figuring out how to sound stuff out and it's ok.  Truthfully, I think it's absolutely adorable at this point in time.  When he's older, not so much, but right now it's fine.

Sulla

Here you go. Looks like you don't have anything to worry about yet. https://www.talkingchild.com/speechchart.aspx

Marchmamma

I was freaking out about blends not to long ago and our SLP told me that the sh blend is not mastered until 8.  And the S sound is like a 6 year old mastered skill. 

Both DH and I had speech, so it does worry me and just want to be on the top of my game incase the girls need it too.

REOM

No, the s and sh sounds aren't expected to be mastered until grade school!

https://js165.k12.sd.us/Topics/sound_acquisition_chart.htm

 

LanaM

I think it's pretty normal (from what I've read).

My 4 year old did not have any s-th problems before... but now his bff always says th instead of s and f insteaf of th....  Ethan does the same.

weekends - he speaks normally again.

weekdays - he comes home saying teef, wtf? his bff calls him Efan. 

winomom22

I think it's normal.  I had one when I was little and outgrew it by Kindergarten- I think it's fine as long as he outgrows it by school, it he doesn't they will refer him to a speech therapist.  I remember actually going to one when I started school for an assessment and everything checked out fine.

CubbyMama

Keira has always said them correctly, but now lately she's developed a lisp that I think is on purpose for some reason.  She's playing around a lot with words (my water bottle is now a "watty bot," for example) and I'm wondering where she even got the idea from to talk with a lisp, or if it's a phase, or what.  I think any kind of speech "issues" like that are considered pretty normal at this age, though.

SLPgirl

I am a speech therapist- don't worry about S until 5 or 6.  A frontal lisp (where the tongue comes out in front) is very normal for a young child. A lateral lisp (where air is blown out the sides of the tongue) is more abnormal.

meldoo2002

I'm a speech pathologist and I'm going to say that the /s/ and /sh/ sounds are later developing.  I wouldn't worry if they were not pronouncing them clearly until 5 or 6.  BUT having a lisp is different than not pronouncing them correctly and some research shows a lisp can be harder to fix.  I still wouldn't worry about it at 2.5, but maybe if it continues til he's 3.5 or 4 then I'd have it looked at to make sure it won't be a lasting problem.