CantaLingo

Speech sounds · IPA /s/

The S sound /s/

About 9 in 10 US children say /s/, as in “sun,” by age 4 (4;0 to 4;11). Crowe & McLeod, 2020 (opens in a new tab)

The symbol

S, c and more

/s/ is spelled s in sun, c in cell, and is part of x in tax. The letter s also often spells /z/, as in “is” and “dogs.” Univ. of Manitoba (opens in a new tab)

So when you choose S words, listen for the hiss. “Nose” ends in z, not s.

How to say it

How S is made

S needs a narrow stream of air aimed at the front teeth.

  • Tip up or tip downThe tongue tip is near the ridge behind the top front teeth, or rests behind the bottom teeth. American English uses both. Stone et al., 2012 (opens in a new tab)
  • Sides bracedThe sides of the tongue touch the upper back teeth, so air goes down the middle. Gick et al., 2017 (opens in a new tab)
  • Teeth closeThe teeth come close together, which makes the sharp hiss.
  • Voice off/s/ is voiceless. Its voiced partner is /z/.

See it move: Seeing Speech (opens in a new tab) · Univ. of Iowa (opens in a new tab) · ASHA place, manner and voicing chart (opens in a new tab)

Age

When children say S

9 in 10 childrenSay /s/ by age 4 (4;0 to 4;11). Crowe & McLeod (opens in a new tab)
VariationAges spread by about 6 to 18 months; the spread differs from sound to sound. Wisconsin DPI (opens in a new tab)
Lisp cluesA lisp that sounds slushy or wet may be lateral. A lisp that sounds like th is frontal. An SLP can tell which. Bowen (opens in a new tab)

Common errors

What errors on S sound like

Pairs: lisp, stopping and blends (10 pairs)

The first four target the frontal lisp, the next two stopping, the last four blends.

  • sink / think
  • sick / thick
  • sum / thumb
  • mouse / mouth
  • sip / tip
  • sail / tail
  • stop / top
  • snail / nail
  • spot / pot
  • slip / lip

Practice

S word lists

Practice the position your SLP chose. Open one list at a time.

Start of words (14 words)
  • sun
  • sock
  • soap
  • seal
  • sand
  • sit
  • sing
  • soup
  • sad
  • sea
  • seven
  • salad
  • sandwich
  • circle
Middle of words (12 words)
  • messy
  • pencil
  • bicycle
  • dinosaur
  • baseball
  • glasses
  • whistle
  • lesson
  • eraser
  • muscle
  • icy
  • faucet
End of words (12 words)
  • bus
  • house
  • mouse
  • horse
  • kiss
  • dress
  • face
  • juice
  • rice
  • goose
  • glass
  • ice
S blends (12 words)
  • star
  • snake
  • spoon
  • sky
  • sleep
  • smile
  • swim
  • stop
  • snow
  • spider
  • slide
  • sweet
Phrases (6)
  • six socks
  • a sunny day
  • sip the soup
  • a mouse in the house
  • sweet snacks
  • see the sea
Sentences (6)
  • The sun is hot.
  • Six seals swim in the sea.
  • Sam sat on the bus.
  • I see a snake.
  • The mouse ate rice.
  • Sip the juice slowly.

Prints every list on one page.

S practice songs

The pilot library has 8 /S/ songs, split by lisp type so the SLP can match the song to the error.

/S/ SAMPLE · INTERDENTAL LISPSnake at the Sea

A sea so sweet, a sunny day, A little snake came out to play. Hiss like a snake, sssss!

For an interdental (frontal) lisp

  • Snake at the Sea
  • Snake’s Picnic
  • Sixty Silly Snakes
  • Spaghetti Night

For a lateral lisp

  • Two Scaredy Cats
  • Ooh, Ah, Rockets
  • The Prince and His Bike
  • The Puppets Push the Van

Why songs? What the research says

For parents

A 5-minute S routine

  1. 01

    Smile and hiss

    Smile, teeth together, and make a long snake sss.

  2. 02

    Teeth check

    In a mirror, the tongue should hide behind the teeth.

  3. 03

    Sound detective

    “Sink or think?” Your child decides.

  4. 04

    Five words

    Pick the position your SLP chose: start, middle, end or blends.

  5. 05

    Snake game

    Play the song and hiss along on every chorus.

For SLPs

Clinical notes on /s/

Classify the error first: frontal, lateral, or stopping. Treatment differs, and the songs in this library are split by lisp type.

For lateral /s/, the goal is air down the middle of the tongue instead of over the sides. Bowen (opens in a new tab)

Look for a word position or neighbor sound where the child already says s well, such as the ts in “cats.” ASHA describes starting practice from these facilitating contexts. ASHA Practice Portal (opens in a new tab)

Related sounds

Sounds to compare with S

Z /z/ · SH /ʃ/ · TH /θ/

Questions

At what age should a child say s?

About 9 in 10 US children say /s/ by age 4 (4;0 to 4;11). Crowe & McLeod, 2020 (opens in a new tab)

What is the difference between a frontal and a lateral lisp?

A frontal lisp sounds like th. A lateral lisp sounds slushy because air goes out the sides. ASHA Practice Portal (opens in a new tab)

Do lisps go away on their own?

A frontal or dentalized lisp can be a normal phase until about age 4½. A lateral lisp is not part of typical development, so ask an SLP about it at any age. Bowen (opens in a new tab)

Why does my child say “top” for “stop”?

Dropping the s from a blend is cluster reduction. ASHA lists it as usually resolved by about age 5. ASHA patterns (opens in a new tab)

Sources

All sources (14)
  1. Crowe, K., & McLeod, S. (2020). Children’s English consonant acquisition in the United States: A review. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 29(4), 2155-2169. ASHA Journals (opens in a new tab)
  2. Same paper on PubMed. PubMed (opens in a new tab)
  3. ASHA Practice Portal. Selected phonological patterns. ASHA (opens in a new tab)
  4. ASHA Practice Portal. Speech Sound Disorders: Articulation and Phonology. ASHA (opens in a new tab)
  5. Russell, K. IPA symbol [s]. University of Manitoba. Univ. of Manitoba (opens in a new tab)
  6. ASHA Practice Portal. Place, manner, and voicing chart for English consonants (Roth & Worthington, 2018). PDF (opens in a new tab)
  7. International Phonetic Association. The IPA chart. IPA (opens in a new tab)
  8. Seeing Speech: IPA charts with ultrasound and MRI. Seeing Speech (opens in a new tab)
  9. University of Iowa. Sounds of American English. Univ. of Iowa (opens in a new tab)
  10. Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. Sound Development Chart (2021). PDF (opens in a new tab)
  11. ASHA (public). Speech sound disorders. ASHA (opens in a new tab)
  12. Bowen, C. Lisping: when s and z are hard to say. speech-language-therapy.com (a source ASHA cites for its phonological pattern ages). Caroline Bowen (opens in a new tab)
  13. Gick, B., Allen, B., Roewer-Després, F., & Stavness, I. (2017). Speaking tongues are actively braced. JSLHR, 60(3), 494-506. PubMed (opens in a new tab)
  14. Stone, M., Rizk, S., Woo, J., Murano, E. Z., Chen, H., & Prince, J. L. (2012). Frequency of apical and laminal /s/ in normal and postglossectomy patients. Journal of Medical Speech-Language Pathology, 20(4). PMC full text (opens in a new tab)

Links go to third-party sites and are not endorsements. Last checked October 17, 2026.

For clinics

8 /S/ songs your SLP can prescribe

CantaLingo’s pilot includes songs for frontal and lateral lisps, plus /R/ and /L/, for ages 4 to 6.

See the pilotHear samples