How do you know if your Child has a Lisp?

[fionagreen]

How do you know if your Child has a Lisp?
My boy is 26 months and speaks extremely well, can pretty much communicate everything he wants to.
I have noticed however that the 's' sound is extended, similar to a Lisp. How do i know if my child has a Lisp? Is this normal while still learning to speak?
If not, is there anything I can do to help him with this?

[specialmom]

articulation errors  at that age are pretty typical, I think.  My son had his speech evaluated by a phd speech pathologist at our Children's Hospital at a little older than your son.  There are several letter sounds that kids have trouble with in the early years.  While he isn't having trouble with the sound, he is just holding it longer it sounds like. I wouldn't worry too much and expect it will self correct.  If it doesn't, I'd do a speech eval after he turns 3.  

[moody2]

26 months is still quite young, and it is not at all unusual for children to not consistently produce certain sounds accurately until they are 3 or 4 or even older.  Sounds like 's', 'z', 'th', 'ch', 'sh', 'j', 'r' and 'l' typically develop later than 'b' or 'n', for example.  I'm inclined to agree with specialmom; if he still has this problem a year or more from now, you might want to get an evaluation, but do not worry about it for now :-)

Good luck!