Why do lisps go uncorrected?

[RoJoHen]

It confuses me these days whenever I hear an adult with a lisp. My brother had one when he was younger, so his teachers sent him to the speech pathologist for a couple months, and it was quickly corrected. Now he speaks perfectly fine. I mean, I'm sure there are probably schools that don't have speech pathologists, but it just seems like something that people would work to correct when their kids are young.

(I bring this up because I was listening to Kings of Leon, and I can't bring myself to enjoy them because the lead singer has a pretty strong lisp that distracts me from the music)

 

[Michael Chris]

Probably the same reason that crooked teeth often go uncorrected. In other words various reasons such as regional norms and financial means. I don't see that it matters.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Or maybe they just don't care because it's not that big a deal. If it was good enough for Bogart and Karloff-- and Thomas Jefferson-- it should be good enough for anybody.

 

[Misfit Toy]

Elton John has a pretty pronounced lisp too, but I don't think it interferes with his abilities.

 

[thestrangequark]

It's also not always so easily corrected. I have a very slight lisp (often people don't notice it, though it becomes much more pronounced --hee-- when I'm tired or drunk) that is a holdover from my hearing problems when I was little. I didn't speak at all until age 4 and only my mother could understand me until 5. I had speech therapy for 3 years and the lisp remains.

 

[T'Baio]

Why should they?

 

[Kelthaz]

It's also not always so easily corrected. I have a very slight lisp (often people don't notice it, though it becomes much more pronounced --hee-- when I'm tired or drunk) that is a holdover from my hearing problems when I was little. I didn't speak at all until age 4 and only my mother could understand me until 5. I had speech therapy for 3 years and the lisp remains.

That sounds just like me, except I don't think I had any hearing problems. I had a pretty bad speech impediment when I was a kid and it was hard/impossible to understand me. I had some therapy for it and I'm left with a lisp. I suppose I could fix it with some speech therapy as an adult, but it honestly isn't a big deal to me.

 

[Joshua Howard]

Rumor has it that when I was a kid I had a tendency to mumble or otherwise speak unclearly; I have a hard time remembering. In any case, if I did, I got over it before I was old enough for it to matter.

 

[thestrangequark]

It's also not always so easily corrected. I have a very slight lisp (often people don't notice it, though it becomes much more pronounced --hee-- when I'm tired or drunk) that is a holdover from my hearing problems when I was little. I didn't speak at all until age 4 and only my mother could understand me until 5. I had speech therapy for 3 years and the lisp remains.

That sounds just like me, except I don't think I had any hearing problems. I had a pretty bad speech impediment when I was a kid and it was hard/impossible to understand me. I had some therapy for it and I'm left with a lisp. I suppose I could fix it with some speech therapy as an adult, but it honestly isn't a big deal to me.

Also, lisps are cute!

 

[Gary Mitchell]

Also, lisps are cute!

I'm sure that's true on you, but they aren't cute an everybody.

One of the managers where I used to work had one and it definitely wasn't cute on him. He had to have been 6'5" and was one of those guys who can grow a full beard in 3 days. He had so much nostril hair that when he sneezed he looked like a party favor. I'm 6'1" so you can tell where my line of sight was...

 

[AstroSmurf]

^ Eeeeeew!


I have a very small lisp. It really isn't noticeable until I have been drinking. And I have had it ever since I had braces in middle school. I learned to talk around this retainer thing they put in to straighten out my front teeth. Once they took it out, I couldn't figure out how to stop talking around it even though it wasn't there. So I lisp my "S" ever so slightly and have for the last twenty-two years. (My dentist also says my tongue is to big for my mouth... what ever that means.)

But I don't really care. You can still understand me. If I was worried about something it would be my squeaky voice first.

 

[auntiehill]

Hubby had a lisp when he was little, but the public school had a speech therapist who helped him to correct it.

Now hubby's nephew has a very pronounced lisp. His parents never got him into any speech therapy; they just make fun of him and let the kids at school tease him mercilessly. The boy is now 14 and still speaks in baby-talk. I swear to GOD, in a few short years, he will be in a clock tower somewhere with a rifle.

 

[JonathonWally]

(My dentist also says my tongue is to big for my mouth... what ever that means.)

Sounds like a clever pick-up line!


I'm going to remember that one.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Now hubby's nephew has a very pronounced lisp. His parents never got him into any speech therapy; they just make fun of him and let the kids at school tease him mercilessly.

Don't worry, that's the approach my family used to get me to conform and I turned out okay. I think.

 

[Velocity]

Some people have a physical problem like a malformed tongue or one that has been altered due to disease.

 

[TGTheodore]

Back in the Stone Age, when I was in elementary school, speech therapy was free. There was a special teacher designated for it. (I stuttered and stammered and mumbled. Mostly because my brain was going faster than my mouth could speak)

It was cut out of public school budgets almost 40 years ago. I think minor speech impediments can be endearing.

But I really dislike them when the point of the person involved is communication. Can't stand hearing them in news commentators or radio disc jockeys.

--Ted

 

[IndyJones]

Back in the Stone Age, when I was in elementary school, speech therapy was free. There was a special teacher designated for it. (I stuttered and stammered and mumbled. Mostly because my brain was going faster than my mouth could speak)

It was cut out of public school budgets almost 40 years ago. I think minor speech impediments can be endearing.

Not everywhere.

I'm still in my 20's, and had years of speech therapy at my public school.

 

[AdAstra]

It confuses me these days whenever I hear an adult with a lisp. My brother had one when he was younger, so his teachers sent him to the speech pathologist for a couple months, and it was quickly corrected. Now he speaks perfectly fine. I mean, I'm sure there are probably schools that don't have speech pathologists, but it just seems like something that people would work to correct when their kids are young.

(I bring this up because I was listening to Kings of Leon, and I can't bring myself to enjoy them because the lead singer has a pretty strong lisp that distracts me from the music)

I very vaguely remember having a lisp when I young. I had some sessions, in school, at a speech therapist thingymajic person and got rid of it.
The only thing I remember of the sessions is the sad snake and the good snake.

Though I'm sure my mother will be able to provide you with all the details, she has a memory for these things!!

 

[K'riq Sa]

Why do lisps go uncorrected?

because they usually always check their facts?





k'riq

 

[Cakes488]

It confuses me these days whenever I hear an adult with a lisp. My brother had one when he was younger, so his teachers sent him to the speech pathologist for a couple months, and it was quickly corrected. Now he speaks perfectly fine. I mean, I'm sure there are probably schools that don't have speech pathologists, but it just seems like something that people would work to correct when their kids are young.

(I bring this up because I was listening to Kings of Leon, and I can't bring myself to enjoy them because the lead singer has a pretty strong lisp that distracts me from the music)

If lisps went corrected we would of never been graced with the classic Brady Bunch episode where Cindy has the lisp! Do you really want to be deprived of that...further do you want to deprive the world of Suzy seeks seashells by the seashore???