If you didn’t have a speech sound corrected when you were a child, you’re never too old to correct an articulation problem. It is easier to correct a sound when you’re young. But often a child is not motivated and doesn’t see the importance of correcting the error. While the habit is more ingrained as a teenager or an adult, the motivation is there. The sounds that are the usual suspects are /s, r, l/.
/s/ problems may include:
- /s/ made with the tongue too far forward, known as a frontal lisp
- air escaping over the sides of the tongue which is called a lateral lisp
- the ‘hissy’ /s/ is too whistly and for those people who work with microphones this distortion becomes amplified.
/r/ problems may include:
- rounding the lips which sounds like /w/ for /r/
- the tongue isn’t placed in the correct position causing a distortion.
/l/ problems may include:
- rounding the lips which sounds like /w/ for /l/
- lifting the back of the tongue instead of the tongue tip which causes a distortion
- The tongue comes too far forward which produces a weakened sound.