My oldest and youngest children are doing pretty well at school. So I was looking forward to their parent-teacher interviews, in that smug sort of way mums who have a child who struggles at school (my middle child) do.
My first interview was with my oldest son Philip’s teachers. They job share. They are two of the most awesome, lovely teachers you’ll ever meet.
They both shared the same concern.
“Have you ever considered speech therapy for Philip’s lisp,” one of them said.
“No. I think it’s cute,” me, giggling stupidly.
“But what about when he starts high school,” one of them said. “You might want to do something about it before them.”
The first time I became aware that lisps were a ‘bad’ thing was when I watched Cindy struggle with hers on iconic TV show The Brady Bunch. Post continues after the video.
Then I walked down many stairs to reach my youngest child, Caterina’s classroom. She is one of those awesome women who I get along with really well and if it wasn’t for the fact she was my daughter’s teacher, I’m pretty sure we’d be best friends.
“Caterina has a strong lisp,” she began, “and sometimes it makes her mispronounce words and letters and then she writes down the wrong letters in her book. See?”
Top Comments
It's not about you. Your kid is the one who has to go through life having multiple problems because you think it's cute. As a man in his early forties with a lateral lisp, because his mother and father never dealt with these issues, I think it is completely backward stupid to not send your kid to speech for any reason. And you say it's cute so you don't want to get him help for it?
My lisp was the root cause of all my problems in life such as hating and dropping out of school for example. Mental health issues. Depression and anxiety. Not achieving my full potential. Not being comfortable talking to people unless I knew them very well. Losing friends. Not being able to make new friends....etc...