Guided Practice Script

Let’s practice saying the /s/ sound. The /s/ sound can be heard at the beginning of the word super and at the end of the word bus. Can you say the word super with me? Now let’s say the word bus together. [1] Great job!

When you make the /s/ sound, it is important that you put your top and bottom teeth together, and it is important to make sure that your tongue stays behind your teeth. Think of your teeth as a gate, for once they are closed, nothing can escape through it. Producing air when saying this sound is also important, as you should feel air traveling on both the left and right side of your tongue. [2]

To help you produce the /s/ sound, let’s practice making a similar sound like the sound /z/. Let’s pretend that we are busy bees! Let’s start making a buzz sound. Now let’s pretend to be sneaky snakes. While holding out the /z/ sound, slowly turn off your voice box. As you move between the /z/ and /s/ sounds, you should feel no vibration when you touch your throat. Now we have become sneaky snakes! [3]

Target Techniques and Considerations

Elicitation Techniques in the Script

1. Modeling
2. Phonetic Placement
3. Verbal instructions using a metaphor and sound approximation

Common /s/ Sound Errors

• Some children may have an interdental lisp that causes them to slur their /s/ sound and prevents them from articulating the sound correctly. Children might also substitute the /s/ sound for a sound that has less complex motor movements like /t/.

• • Likely Cause: Children may have an interdental lisp because they push their tongue past their front teeth, which causes more air to escape through the teeth, which creates a slurred sound. Substituting /t/ for /s/ is a sign of stopping, in which a child uses a stop sound, which is easier to articulate, to replace a fricative sound that requires more complex motor movements to produce.

Accent or Dialect Variation

• In African American English, an individual may not produce the /s/ sound at the end of plural words like in mainstream English because it is a part of their dialect. This can result in the deletion of the /s/ sound from many words.

Source

Ellen Kester, Bio, R. F., Kester, E., Founder, P. &, Dr. Ellen Kester is the dynamic leader behind Bilinguistics, & Name. (2025, August 26). African American English articulation differences and language characteristics. Bilinguistics. https://bilinguistics.com/african-american-english-articulation-differences-and-language-characteristics/