How I Help My Students Fix a Lisp (3 steps)

Hey everyone! Wanted to share a quick lesson that has been helping my students who have been dealing with a lisp in their singing and speech.

Now I’m not a speech pathologist, I’m sure they’ll have plenty to offer.

But I am going to speak from experience on what’s helped when I teach my private students over Zoom.

So today, let’s break down what exactly I mean by a lisp? What causes it? And most importantly a series of exercises than can help you start to improve it.

Real quick! For those of you who don’t know me. My name is Ivan, I love making music and also teaching singing to students all around the world. On this newsletter my goal is to make learning to sing simple. If that’s up your lane, consider subscribing. If you want to improve your voice faster, check out the links down below for ways to work with me

If you want to inspire our next episode! Drop in the comments below what you want me to talk about next.

Anyway let’s dive in

Now there are different types of lisp! But let me talk about the most common one, since it’s the only one I’ve had experience with.

Speech pathologist call it “interdental lisp”

What is a interdental lisp?

A interdental lisp is when sibilant sounds like “S” or “Z” sound more like “TH”

So for example if I say the word WHISPER, it might come out like

[SEE THE VIDEO FOR DEMONSTRATION]

What causes a “interdental lisp”?

Now there could be many reasons.

Maybe it’s muscular habits, it could also be anatomy (some people have shorter or longer tongues)

But typically the crux is when the tip of the tongue is rests between your top and bottom teeth hindering airflow for sounds.

Now this is great when you’re saying words like THING.

But not so great when saying words like SING or holding out vowels.

So let’s use this series of exercises to help you explore and train in a better position.

Step 1: Start with vowels only and explore

So let’s start somewhere easy.

Let’s just hold out a note and go for the 5 vowels. [UH, EH, EE, OH, OO]

Take this time to explore different resting positions of the tip of the tongue.

For me personally I find it resting behind the bottom teeth, nice and relaxed. To be a pretty sweet spot.

But explore it yourself and see what works for yourself

Now one way to tell if we’re doing it well is of course, listening to the sound.

But you can also compare it to tongue position, when you pronounce “TH”. Does your tongue ever go to that spot or get close?

Step 2: Let’s introduce the consonant S again

[SUH, SEH, SEE, SOH, SOO]

You can also introduce the Z. Basically the same thing. This time it’s just voiced.

What we’re trying to notice is where our tongue rests once again.

If you want to be sure, you can compare to a TH (THUH, THEH, THEE, THO, THOO).

Step 3: Alternating between TH and S (as you change vowels)

This is just encouraging us to move between them

I would highly recommend slowing things down. Just enough for you to notice it.

EXAMPLE 1: THUH SEH THEE SO THOO

EXAMPLE 2: SUH THEH SEE THO SOO

What we’re trying to do it because enough of a muscular habit that overtime, your tongue will just want to sit in this better position.

[See video for demonstration]

Anyway! I hope this answers your question.

If you found this episode useful, please share or give it 5 star wherever you’re listening from. This really helps spread the word and means the world to me. If you’d like to study with me, links are down in description. Take care!

Extra Links/Resources

🌍 Book Private Singing Lessons here: https://calendly.com/singingsimply 

🌍 Step By Step Singing Course: https://www.singingsimply.com/courses/singing-fundamentals 

🌍 Stream my music: https://linktr.ee/singingsimply

🌍 Business/other inquiries: [email protected]