"Help Me Talk Right", How to Teach a Child to Say the "S" Sound in 15 Easy Lessons [Paperback]

Mirla G. Raz (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0963542605 | ISBN-13: 978-0963542601 | Publication Date: May 1, 1993

Free of technical jargon and easy to use, this book is for speech pathologists, speech assistants, and parents who wish to teach a child how to say the "s" sound and use it in conversation. Everything you need to know about teaching a child to say and use the "s" sound is clearly shown in a step-by-step format. Each lesson builds upon the successes of previous lessons so that the child is challenged to use the "s" more often until he is able to use it in conversation. The book comes complete with worksheets, suggestions for games and fun exercises, and a certificate of achievement.

Editorial Reviews

Review

I wish I had known about this book before spending several hundred dollars on speech therapy for my daughter. Author Mirla Raz has done parents a great service in providing them with the information allowing them to help their own children. The book contains instructions for carrying out 15 therapy sessions, practice requirements, worksheets, and trouble-shooting ideas for use when things aren't progressing. Children are motivated with a great deal of positive reinforcement, games, prizes, and contests. Directions are clearly and concisely spelled out. You won't need any additional materials other than some games and toys that you already have on hand. Much of what I saw in this book we experienced personally with our speech therapist -- Practical Homeschooling, Dec. 1995/Jan. 1996

This manual is complete and detailed. Materials and suggestions for activities are a nice addition and appear well planned and appropriate. This program is an asset for use as a supplement to professional speech/language treatment -- American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, May 1994

From the Publisher

New in 2004 - Updated lateral "S" section

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Gerstenweitz Pub (May 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0963542605
• ISBN-13: 978-0963542601
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #612,456 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Light on Lateral Lisp, March 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: "Help Me Talk Right", How to Teach a Child to Say the "S" Sound in 15 Easy Lessons (Paperback)

My interests are in what's called a 'Lateral Lisp', where the air escapes laterally (from the sides of the tongue rather than straight out the front) during the 'sh', 'ch', and 'zh' (like measure). So if you are looking at this book for use with the more traditional lisp, this review doesn't really apply to you.

The book contains an appendix that addresses the lateral lisp, but it only has about five pages of helpful information and instructions. And although this appendix suggests that the rest of the book is appropriate for a lateral lisp, the exercises there concentrate on the 's' sound, and not the 'sh' sound, which is the problem in the case of the lateral lisp.

Although ambiguous on the point, the appendix for lateral lisp seems to imply that a speech pathologist is required for this kind of speech problem. What I was looking for was a description of some techniques and hints that might be used to correct a lateral lisp. But there just wasn't enough in this book that focused on that topic to allow me to recommend this book for those with interests in the specific topic of a lateral lisp.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent "do-it-yourself" manual for the motivated parent, March 10, 2004

By 

Mom in CT (Connecticut) - See all my reviews

This review is from: "Help Me Talk Right", How to Teach a Child to Say the "S" Sound in 15 Easy Lessons (Paperback)

My three and a half year old daughter had been doing private speech therapy (at $100 an hour) for her lisp for about one month before we moved to German-speaking Switzerland. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to find a native English speaking speech therapist in Switzerland, so I bought this book before we left the U.S. We have completed this book and it went very successfully. There are three important things to know however: (1) don't be deceived by the "15 lessons" title. There are 15 chapters, but each "lesson" is followed by 2 or 3 practice sessions. You can only do one lesson or practice session a day. Overall I think there are over 50 days of lessons/practice sessions. (2) You must be motivated to do this. The sessions are not difficult, but you must be consistent in actually doing them on a fairly regular basis. I failed miserably at this at first until I decided to do speech therapy with my daugher every day immediately after dinner. She couldn't get dessert until she had finished her speech therapy. (3) Even when you are done with the 50 or so sessions, your child's speech will not be perfect yet. After we were done with the book, my daughter could correctly make the "s" sound when reminded to do it, but she couldn't always remember to do it. You have to constantly remind your child to properly pronounce the "s" sound. The better you are about correcting your child's speech the faster he/she will progress.

Overall this book was a tremendous help to our child, and well worth the purchase price.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful book, March 25, 2006

By 

B. Leach - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: "Help Me Talk Right", How to Teach a Child to Say the "S" Sound in 15 Easy Lessons (Paperback)

My 7-yr-old's lisp was pretty mild, and the pace of this was very easy for him, but he enjoyed having such easy success. And it is helping. It is certainly a lot easier and cheaper than going to a speech therapist regularly!