When To Seek Advice For A Tongue Tie: Feeding & Speech Perspective

When should you consider feeding or speech therapy if your child has a tongue-tie? Current research indicates that between 4.2% – 10% of children are born with a tongue tie. The medical term for tongue tie is ankyloglossia. Many times, tongue ties are realized soon after birth because of infants having trouble feeding and gaining weight. However, what if your child presents with a tongue tie but had no trouble feeding as an infant? When should you seek a professional opinion about your child’s tongue tie?

If there is no visible effect on your child’s speech or feeding development, than it may not be necessary to get your child’s tongue tie looked out. However, there are some signs and symptoms that may warrant a professional opinion in terms of whether a medical procedure may help your child.

Feeding symptoms that may warrant a second opinion:

1. Long and/or painful feeding on the breast

2. Clicking noises while taking breast or bottle

3. Excessive dribbling when taking a bottle or breastfeeding

4. Poor weight gain

5. Difficulty transitioning to solids or purees from breast feeding

Speech symptoms that may warrant a second opinion:

1. Difficulty pronouncing certain sounds

a. The following sounds all need tongue mobility and may be affected by a tongue tie: l, r, t, d, n, th, sh, and z

2. Difficulty understanding your child when they speak. A 3 year old child should be between 75%-100% intelligible by adults (Weiss, 1982).

It is important to remember, that even if your child does display these signs and symptoms, it may not warrant any medical treatment for your child’s tongue tie. Just because your child has a tongue tie does not mean that it is the cause of your child’s speech or feeding symptoms (Webb, 2013). It is important to get a second opinion from medical professionals to determine whether treatment for your child’s tongue tie is necessary. Medical professionals such as speech language pathologists, Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) doctors, pediatricians and pediatric dentists who specialize in tongue tie are a great place to start when determining whether your child would benefit from tongue tie release surgery maidthis. Speech language pathologists can help with oral motor and feeding therapy to help relieve some of the symptoms of having a tongue tie. See our site to know more.

The following article When To Seek Advice For A Tongue Tie: Feeding & Speech Perspective Read more on: Speak Live Play Website

What Is Speech Therapy?

Speech therapy is the assessment and treatment of communication problems and speech disorders. It is performed by speech-language pathologists (SLPs), which are often referred to as speech therapists.

Speech therapy techniques are used to improve communication. These include articulation therapy, language intervention activities, and others depending on the type of speech or language disorder.

Speech therapy may be needed for speech disorders that develop in childhood or speech impairments in adults caused by an injury or illness, such as stroke or brain injury.

Why Do You Need Speech Therapy?

There are several speech and language disorders that can be treated with speech therapy.

• Articulation disorders. An articulation disorder is the inability to properly form certain word sounds. A child with this speech disorder may drop, swap, distort or add word sounds. An example of distorting a word would be saying “Thith” instead of “this”.
• Fluency disorders. A fluency disorder affects the flow, speed, and rhythm of speech. Stuttering and cluttering are fluency disorders. A person with stuttering has trouble getting out a sound and may have speech that is blocked or interrupted or may repeat part of all of a word. A person with cluttering often speaks very fast and merges words together.
• Resonance disorders. A resonance disorder occurs when a blockage or obstruction of regular airflow in the nasal or oral cavities alters the vibrations responsible for voice quality. It can also happen if the velopharyngeal valve doesn’t close properly. Resonance disorders are often associated with cleft palate, neurological disorders, and swollen tonsils.
• Receptive disorders. A person with a receptive language disorder has trouble understanding and processing what others say. This can cause you to seem uninterested when someone is speaking, have trouble following directions, or have a limited vocabulary. Other language disorders, autism, hearing loss, and a head injury can lead to a receptive language disorder.
• Expressive disorders. Expressive language disorder is difficulty conveying or expressing information. If you have an expressive disorder, you may have trouble forming accurate sentences, such as using incorrect verb tenses. It’s associated with developmental impairments, such as Down syndrome and hearing loss. It can also result from head trauma or a medical condition.
• Cognitive-communication disorders. Difficulty communicating because of an injury to the part of the brain that controls your ability to think is referred to as cognitive-communication disorder. It can result in memory issues, problem-solving, and difficulty speaking or listening. It can be caused by biological problems, such as abnormal brain development, certain neurological conditions, a brain injury, or stroke.
• Aphasia. This is an acquired communication disorder that affects a person’s ability to speak and understand others. It also often affects a person’s ability to read and write. Stroke is the most common cause of aphasia, though other brain disorders can also cause it.
• Dysarthria. This condition is characterized by slow or slurred speech due to a weakness or inability to control the muscles used for speech. It’s most commonly caused by nervous system disorders and conditions that cause facial paralysis or throat and tongue weakness, such as multiple sclerosis (MS), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and stroke.

Read More: https://www.healthline.com/health/speech-therapy

Related Article: Speech Therapy Treatment Can Provide Help With Patients With Difficulty Swallowing