I Never Knew I had a Tongue Tie!

After being trained in orofacial myofunctional therapy a year ago, I realized about 2 months ago that I had a posterior tongue tie. What is that you ask? Well, it is a tongue tie which cannot be diagnosed like an anterior tongue tie which most of the public could see and identify. It must be …

Diagnosing Disfluencies (stuttering)

One of the most common diagnosis people think about when finding out what I do for a living is stuttering. Stuttering is a diagnosis that is on a continuum, there are some cases that are severe and others that are mild. Additionally, there are many different stuttering types. See below for the types of disfluencies …

Speech-Language Screeners

The purpose of screening is to determine if your child should be evaluated with formal and informal assessments. It should be noted that screeners are flawed in so far as a child may answer the right amount of questions that qualifies a “pass,” when in reality they guessed to achieve that pass or if the …

Rhyming

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com Rhyming is a necessary building block for developing your children’s ability to use and manipulate words. Not to mention how fun and silly it can be for them. The typical age that a clinician expects children to rhyme is at 3-years-old. At this age, your child should be able to …

Story Telling

Photo by Tatiana Syrikova on Pexels.com One of the key components to expanding a child’s vocabulary, developing precise grammar, and increasing social skills is teaching your child how to create a story or a narrative. This key skill assists children with learning how to structure their thoughts to produce an organized narrative. Hence, if your …

Words, Words, Words!

Using specific words with children is important for their vocabulary development. For example, the directive, "Put it over there," is very unclear. A specific way to give instructions would be to say, "Put the cup on the table." This utterances labels two objects (nouns), the cup and the table. It also uses the the location …

Healthy Mouth Development

Does your child snore? Is your child's mouth open at rest/sleep like the baby in the photo above? Does your child drool? Does your child mouth non-edible items? Does your child resist toothbrushing? Do you consider your child a picky eater? Did/does your child have a tongue tie? Does your child have speech sound errors? …

Manners

Should we teach children manners? Yes, absolutely! Manners should be taught once children have language. For children who do not have language, their attempts to communicate are for the primary purpose of living, in other words getting their wants and needs met.  By expecting children to use please to request what they want, they are …

Stuttering

Did you know that stuttering is also known as speech fluency? All people experience dysfluent speech at times. Dysfluent speech ranges from word finding difficulties to initial sound, syllable, and word repetitions. Dysfluent speech becomes problematic when it impacts one’s ability to successfully communicate with others. Patient and family education is an important part of …

Picky Eaters?

Did you know children are not born as picky eaters? Eating is very complicated with experiences being shaped from birth, such as breastfeeding versus bottle feeding to when children are exposed to solid foods. Picky eating develops from parents’ eating habits, eating experiences or lack of, lack of skills necessary for eating a variety of …