Can a 5 yo child develop a lisp when they didn't have one before?

My 5 yo DS has always had very good language & vocab skills from a young age. This year he started Prep & at his parent-teacher interviews his teacher was very happy with his progress.

However, in the last few weeks he has started talking with a lisp. Is it possible to develop one if he didn't have one before? All his s sounds are th's now, both at the begininng, middle & end of words. I've been trying to ignore & take notice if he does it all the time, which he does most of the time.

My gut tells me he is just pretending ... but I would hate to make an issue of it if he is not. I just don't know what action (if any) I should take.

Any advice would be appreciated Huggies experts!

Sounds like a hard one! a couple of ideas...
Could his speech be being obstructed by some new teeth maybe?
Does he have a new friend who talks with a lisp who he might be copying?
I know you are trying to ignore it but do you correct him when he does it?

Sounds like a hard one! a couple of ideas...
Could his speech be being obstructed by some new teeth maybe?
Does he have a new friend who talks with a lisp who he might be copying?
I know you are trying to ignore it but do you correct him when he does it?

Thanks beach mummy, it is so very hard to ignore. He's not consistent - sometimes when I have corrected him he says properly; other times when I ask him to say it again he says it worse! (which is why I think he could be pretending).

But then other times, when he's just playing or talking to his sister he's still lisping ... it's taking an awful lot of effort if he is pretending. I've asked if any of his new friends speak that way & he says no. As far as I know he has no new teeth (or loss of teeth!) Sometimes he looks quite teary when I'm correcting him - which is why I'm now trying very very hard to ignore & just see if it's just a phase & goes away.