Inhalation of Sibilants

Question

I have been working with a 5 year old boy for the past 2 years. He has had a severe phonological problem plus he inhalates all sibilants. We have worked very hard and now the only phoneme left to address is the /r/. He is catching on very well with thi

Answer

From your description of this client's difficulty I assume he continues to inhale sibilants but has become noticeably less noisy in his production (fricative production). The first area to concentrate on is achieving speech on exhalation only! Inhalation should be faster and exhalation slower, so a good starting point is awareness of vocalization on expiration and timing. Make the inhalation faster and this may deter the propensity to vocalize during inhalation. Vocalize on vowels to start as they present with a wide open vocal tract, and ignore problem sounds to begin addressing the awareness problem. Then begin to differentiate "noisy" sounds, such as fricatives from open "resonant" sounds such as vowels. The other issue to tackle is why the inhalation phonation is occurring. Determine and ultimately rule out psychological based productions, meaning make sure the problem is physical in nature and not a decision to phonate on inhalation.

Dr. Bridget A. Russell received her B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Since that time she has been employed as an Associate Professor at the State University of New York College at Fredonia. Her main research interests are professional voice, and voice/respiratory disorders affecting speech production. She has published works in JSHLR and Voice and Speech Review and has served as editorial consultant for JSHLR. She is director of the Speech Production Laboratory at SUNY College at Fredonia and is currently researching the efficacy of voice therapy with patients at the Voice Center of Western New York.