The prevalence of lisping in young adults

This paper reports the results of a pilot study that investigated the prevalence of lisping in a cohort of young adults. The motivation for the study was the observation that a substantial number of incoming students in speech language pathology at the Ghent University (Belgium), still presented with frontal lisping of the /s/, /z/ and sometimes other alveolar sounds too. Seven hundred and forty eight students (374 females, 374 males), native speakers of Dutch, were video-recorded while reading aloud the Dutch version of the text “The north wind and the sun…” from the International Phonetic Association (1974). Analysis of the samples yielded an overall prevalence of lisping of 23.3%. Significantly less participants presented with lisping among students of humanities than among students of natural sciences or social sciences. No significant difference was found between males and females. It remains to be determined if this high prevalence of lisping in adults represents a recent trend or if the persistence of the pattern of lisping into adulthood in some individuals is perhaps quite normal.Learning outcomes: As a result of this activity, the participant will be able to (1) discuss the nature and prevalence of residual phonological errors in general and (2) to discuss the prevalence of lisping in young adult native speakers of Dutch in particular.