A Day In The Life Of An Independent Speech And Language Therapist
I often get asked how many clients/children I see per working day or what my working day/life looks like. I always reply that every day is different, which is true, but there is a sort of average working day which looks a bit like this:
I usually start preparing for my first client of the day at around 9.30 am: I clean the room, wipe down all the toys and materials (that’s if they are coming to my clinic room) and then it takes me about 30 minutes to select and sometimes make suitable materials, games and activities for the child’s therapy programme. Client arrives at 10.30 am and the fun begins. They leave around 11.30am, and the cleaning and wiping down starts again – yes it’s the pandemic but to be fair I would do this anyway. I quickly write up my notes and send home work to the client via email. Now it’s 12 noon and I start preparing for the next client at 12.30 pm. This might be online parent-child interaction coaching and so I need different materials and activities that are suitable for teletherapy. We finish around 1.30 pm and I will write up my notes before having some lunch.
Lunch tends to not be around 30 minutes. Around 2.00 pm I start prepping again for the next client: selecting activities, going over their last session, making sure I have everything I need to start at 2.45pm – we finish at 3.45pm, I write up my notes and then have a cuppa. The next client might be more on-line coaching or a child coming to see me: room cleaned and tidy, materials and activities prepared: client arrives at 4.30 pm and we finish at 5.30 pm. I clean the toys again, write up my notes and it is 6.00 pm ready for dinner. So that was four clients between 9 am and 6pm allowing for preparation, aftercare, cleaning and coffee and lunch.
Other days I might see three clients and do more admin like ordering toys or books or teletherapy activities, or making materials (we therapist make tons of materials, we’d put Blue Peter to shame!) Sometimes I do two home visits, one in the morning and one in the afternoon – the travelling/parking in London is so time consuming that it really reduces the number of clients I can see which is why I don’t do many of those.
I hand pick my clients to make sure that we are a good fit, and my service is bespoke: no one client gets the same treatment as another; each client is unique, usually very well-known and always highly valued. That takes time and means that in reality each client gets about 2 hours of my time, that is the actual session plus all the preparation and aftercare.
I love this way of working and would not ever want to return to seeing tons of clients each day, not knowing any of them really well, due to high caseload numbers, staff shortages and an overload of administration.
My way of working affords all my lovely clients the help they need to be able to feel empowered and to then support their children to make progress; when working with children they make the best progress they can make, fulfilling their potential. My lovely reviews and testimonials tell me that my clients appreciate the extra attention.
Find a speech and language therapist for your child in London. Are you concerned about your child’s speech, feeding or communication skills and don’t know where to turn? Please contact me and we can discuss how I can help you or visit my services page.
As a speech therapist, few things are as rewarding as helping a child find their clear, confident voice. Among the various speech sound disorders, the ‘lateral lisp’ – often described as a ‘slushy’ or ‘wet’ /S/ sound – presents a unique challenge. While it can be tricky to treat, I’m thrilled to share that I’ve had significant success in helping children overcome this particular hurdle.
What is a lateral lisp?
Most people are familiar with a frontal lisp, where the tongue protrudes between the front teeth, resulting in a /TH/ sound for an /S/ (e.g., ‘thun’ for ‘sun’). A lateral lisp, however, is different. Instead of the air escaping over the front of the tongue, it escapes over the sides, often giving the /S/ and /Z/ sounds a distinct, muffled, or ‘slushy’ quality. This happens because the tongue is not forming the correct central groove, allowing air to spill out laterally.
The science behind a perfect /S/ vs. a slushy one
To understand how to fix a lateral lisp, it’s helpful to understand how a ‘perfect’ /S/ sound is made. Imagine a narrow, focused stream of air. For a clear /S/ sound, your tongue forms a shallow groove down its centre, directing a precise, thin stream of air right down the middle, over the tip of your tongue, and out through a tiny opening between your tongue and the roof of your mouth, just behind your front teeth. This focused airflow creates that crisp, sharp /SSSS/ sound we recognise.
Now, picture what happens with a lateral lisp. Instead of that neat, central channel, the tongue is often flatter or positioned in a way that allows the air to escape over one or both sides. Think of it like a river overflowing its banks – the air, instead of flowing in a controlled stream, spills out sideways, creating that characteristic ‘slushy’ sound. This lateral airflow is what we need to retrain.
Why is it tricky to treat?
Treating a lateral lisp can be challenging for a few reasons:
Habitual muscle memory: The way the tongue moves and positions itself for a lateral lisp is deeply ingrained. It’s a motor habit that needs to be unlearned and replaced with a new, more precise movement.
Subtle differences: The difference between a lateral lisp and a correct /S/ sound can be quite subtle to perceive, both for the child and sometimes even for parents. This makes it harder for the child to self-monitor and correct.
Oral motor control: It requires fine motor control of the tongue muscles to create and maintain that central groove for airflow.
My success with children aged six years and over
I’ve found great success in treating lateral lisps, particularly with children aged six years and older. Why this age group? By this age, children typically have:
Increased awareness: They are more aware of their speech and often more motivated to make changes. They can better perceive the difference between their ‘slushy’ /S/ and a clear one.
Improved cognitive skills: They can understand and follow more complex instructions and strategies.
Better self-monitoring: Their ability to listen to themselves and correct their own speech improves significantly.
Enhanced oral motor control: Their fine motor skills, including those of the tongue, are more developed, allowing for greater precision.
My approach focuses on a combination of auditory discrimination, tactile cues, and targeted myofunctional exercises to help children ‘feel’ the correct airflow and tongue placement. We use a variety of engaging activities to make the process fun and effective.
It is crucial to understand tongue functioning and focusing on correcting improper oral resting posture and muscle function, which are often significant contributors to a lateral lisp. For example, if the tongue rests low and wide in the mouth consistently, or if there’s a tongue thrust during swallowing, these habits can prevent the tongue from achieving the precise, midline placement necessary for a clear /S/ or /Z/ sound. Through targeted exercises I aim to re-educate the oral and facial muscles, promoting correct tongue posture at rest, during swallowing, and, ultimately, during speech production. By strengthening the muscles responsible for tongue lifting and encouraging a more appropriate swallowing pattern we can establish the correct oral motor skills needed to overcome a lateral lisp and achieve clearer articulation.
The recipe for success: Little and often
The single most crucial ingredient for success in treating a lateral lisp is daily home practice of all the strategies given. This isn’t about long, arduous sessions; it’s about consistency. Think of it like building a muscle: short, frequent workouts yield better results than sporadic, intense ones.
My recommended formula is ‘little and often’. This means:
Short, focused sessions: Aim for 5-10 minutes of practice, 2-3 times a day. This prevents fatigue and keeps the child engaged.
Integrate into daily routines: Practise while waiting for dinner, during a car ride, or before bedtime. Make it a natural part of their day.
Positive reinforcement: Celebrate every small success! Encouragement goes a long way in building confidence and motivation.
Parental involvement: Parents play a vital role in providing consistent cues and encouragement at home. I equip families with clear, easy-to-follow strategies.
Overcoming a lateral lisp requires dedication, but with the right guidance and consistent practice, a clear, confident /S/ sound is achievable. If your child is struggling with a ‘slushy’ /S/, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Together, we can achieve success!
Sonja McGeachie
Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist
Owner of The London Speech and Feeding Practice.
Find a speech and language therapist for your child in London. Are you concerned about your child’s speech, feeding or communication skills and don’t know where to turn? Please contact me and we can discuss how I can help you or visit my services page.
Spinning and swinging are often observed behaviours in autistic children. While these actions might seem repetitive or unusual to some, they serve crucial functions for these children. Understanding the underlying reasons for spinning and swinging can provide valuable insights into how to support autistic children and incorporate these activities into therapeutic settings.
Why do children spin?
Spinning is a common sensory-seeking activity in autistic children. Sensory seeking means that the child actively looks for sensory input to regulate their nervous system. Here’s why spinning can be beneficial:
Vestibular input: Spinning stimulates the vestibular system, which is located in the inner ear and is responsible for balance and spatial orientation. For children with sensory processing difficulties, spinning can provide essential sensory input.
Calming effect: For some children, spinning can be a self-regulating strategy. The rhythmic motion can help to calm the nervous system and reduce anxiety.
Sensory exploration: Spinning allows children to explore their sensory experiences. It can help them understand their bodies and how they move in space.
The allure of swinging
The rhythmic back-and-forth motion of a swing offers several benefits:
Vestibular input: Like spinning, swinging stimulates the vestibular system, helping to improve balance and coordination.
Proprioceptive input: Swinging provides proprioceptive input, which is the sense of where your body is in space. This information is crucial for motor planning and coordination.
Calming and organising: The rhythmic motion of swinging can have a calming effect on the nervous system, helping to regulate emotions and improve focus.
Social interaction: Swinging can be a shared experience, fostering social interaction and communication.
Facilitating communication: While swinging, children are so much more relaxed and open to communication. The rhythmic motion can also help facilitate singing, humming, listening to my singing, non-verbal communication for sure but also more verbal and mouth words can be heard from children on my swing. If nothing else, it is so fun and helps build trust and rapport between my child and me.
Therapeutic Activities Combining Spinning, Swinging, and Speech and Language Therapy
Here are some therapeutic techniques that I use at London Speech and Feeding to combine movement with speech and language development:
Swinging with verbal prompts: While the child is swinging, I provide simple verbal prompts such as ‘up’, ‘down’, ‘fast’, and ‘slow.’ This helps to develop receptive language skills and improve auditory processing.
Sensory-motor play: I like to combine swinging with tactile activities like playing with textured balls or bean bags. This can facilitate language development through descriptive language, words and scripts like: ‘that’s so soft’, ‘oooh tickle tickle tickle!’
Storytelling on the swing: Often I manage to create a story while the child is swinging. This can improve narrative skills, vocabulary, and imagination. Recently I did the ‘Tiger who came to tea’ story and each time the swing stopped the tiger came and ‘ate some more cakes’ and ‘tickled their tummy’ whilst eating. It may make not much sense but my child loved it and we had ‘more tiger eat more’.
Song and rhyme time: Often I sing the ‘rumble in the jungle’ song while swinging my child to enhance phonological awareness, rhythm, and timing.
Visual supports always help: I use LAMP Words for Life AAC support during swinging and show core words such as: ‘go’ / ‘stop’/ ‘more’ / ‘tickle tickle’ etc. #lampwordsforlife #aac
Movement-based activities: We can incorporate activities that require sequencing, such as imitating animal movements or following simple commands while swinging. This can improve motor planning and language comprehension.
Feeding and Dysphagia (Swallowing) Specialist The London Speech and Feeding Practice
The London Speech and Feeding Practice
Find a speech and language therapist for your child in London. Are you concerned about your child’s speech, feeding or communication skills and don’t know where to turn? Please contact me and we can discuss how I can help you or visit my services page.
Many parents notice speech errors when their children are toddlers. At that stage it often feels quite normal. Young children are still learning the sounds of their language, and those early mispronunciations can be very endearing.
But as children grow older, parents sometimes begin to wonder:
‘Should my child still be speaking like this?’
A common concern I hear from families is that their child is still difficult to understand even after starting school. Sometimes it is a parent who notices it first. Other times it is a teacher who gently mentions that classmates occasionally struggle to understand what a child is saying.
When this happens, parents naturally wonder whether it is something their child will grow out of, or whether some extra support might help.
When should children’s speech be clear?
Children learn speech sounds gradually over several years. Some sounds develop earlier, while others take longer to master.
By the time children reach five to six years of age, most of their speech should be clear enough for unfamiliar adults to understand. There may still be a few tricky sounds developing (such as /R/ or /TH/), but overall speech should be fairly easy to follow.
If a child is frequently difficult to understand at school age, it can sometimes indicate that a speech sound difficulty has persisted beyond the stage when it would normally resolve on its own.
Why some children remain hard to understand
There are several reasons why speech clarity may still be developing in older children.
Phonological patterns
Some children continue to use speech patterns that are typical of younger children. For example:
saying ‘tat’ instead of ‘cat’
saying ‘doe’ instead of ‘go’
leaving sounds out of words
These patterns are called phonological processes. They are a normal part of early speech development, but when they persist into the school years they can make speech difficult for others to understand.
Difficulty producing specific sounds
Other children may have difficulty producing certain individual sounds clearly. This might include sounds such as:
/S/
/SH/
/R/
/TH/
These difficulties are called articulation difficulties.
A child might understand exactly what they want to say but find it hard to produce the sound accurately with their tongue, lips or airflow.
Motor speech planning challenges
For some children, the difficulty lies in the planning and coordination of the movements needed for speech.
Speech requires very precise timing between the tongue, lips, jaw and breath. If the brain finds it difficult to organise these movements consistently, speech can sound unclear or inconsistent.
In some cases this may relate to Childhood Apraxia of Speech, although only a full assessment can determine this.
Why clarity matters for school-age children
Speech clarity becomes particularly important once children start school.
At this stage, children are:
Answering questions in class
Talking with friends
Reading aloud
Developing confidence in communication
When speech is difficult to understand, children sometimes become more hesitant to speak, particularly in group situations.
This can affect confidence and participation, even when the child has lots of ideas they would like to share.
The good news: speech can improve
The encouraging news is that speech sound difficulties can often improve significantly with the right support.
Speech therapy focuses on helping children:
Learn how sounds are produced
Practise accurate speech movements
Understand how sounds change meaning in words
Build consistency through structured practice
Different children benefit from different therapy approaches. Some need support with phonological patterns, while others benefit from more motor-based practice that strengthens speech coordination.
Often therapy combines several strategies to support the child’s individual speech profile.
When to seek advice
If your child is already at school and you find that people outside the family often struggle to understand them, it can be helpful to seek advice from a speech and language therapist.
A detailed assessment can help identify:
Which sounds are causing difficulty
Whether patterns such as fronting or sound substitutions are present
Whether motor planning challenges may be contributing
Which therapy approach is likely to be most effective
Early support can help children develop clearer speech and greater confidence in communication.
Every child’s speech journey is different
Speech development is not the same for every child. Some children master speech sounds quickly, while others need a little more guidance along the way.
The important thing is that support is available when children need it.
With the right strategies and practice, many children make excellent progress and develop speech that is clearer, more confident and easier for others to understand. If you are concerned about your child’s speech clarity or ongoing speech sound errors, a speech and language assessment can help identify the underlying difficulty and guide the most appropriate support.
Find a speech and language therapist for your child in London. Are you concerned about your child’s speech, feeding or communication skills and don’t know where to turn? Please contact me and we can discuss how I can help you or visit my services page.
Between 9 and 18 months, your little one undergoes a remarkable transformation, blossoming from a curious explorer into a budding communicator. This period is filled with exciting milestones in speech, language, and social development. Let’s delve into what you can expect.
9–12 months: The world opens up
Communication takes flight
Babbling becomes more complex with a wider range of sounds. By babbling we mean syllables like: pa ga ka ma da and then ‘baba’ gohgoh’. First we hear one and two syllables together and then longer and longer strings! This is so exciting!
First words! One day around the 12 months–14 months mark we hear a first word! My older son’s first word was ‘Licht’ which is the German word for ‘light’ as literally every time I carried him along the corridors in our home, I pointed out the light switches to him and turned them off and on a few times. And each time I said ‘Licht!’ and it stuck! PS: sadly I cannot remember what my younger son’s first word was… poor second and third babies they just have to muddle along and call loudly to get noticed!
Understanding grows! Baby now understands simple instructions like ‘where is your ball’ and responds by looking to the ball across the room!
Social butterflies
Your baby now starts to show interest in other children, and may try to copy their actions. Now we are getting proper traction with simple social games like peek-a-boo and patty-cake. Whilst your baby is generally interested in other people and children he or she may show separation anxiety when mum or dad or other familiar person suddenly leaves the room and they feel alone with strangers.
Fine motor skills
Pincer grasp develops. This is where your child puts an index finger to the thumb in order to pick up of small objects, hold them and transfer them to either a box, back on the floor or into the other hand.
Your baby may start to explore objects by banging, shaking, and mouthing.
12–15 months: Words are taking shape
Language explosion: From our early words we now suddenly see baby’s vocabulary expanding, with new words added each week. I would highly recommend parents keep a little journal of all the words they hear. If nothing else this is a wonderful aide-memoire for years down the road when you might like to reminisce about the first ten words. I promise you otherwise you won’t recall! (especially for second and third babies; I would do this now, had I the time again).
Understanding grows:
By about 15 months our baby can follow simple two-step instructions like ‘Go get your shoes and bring them here.’
Begins to understand the concept of ‘no.’ and that’s a very useful thing. Though before you breathe a sigh of relief… your toddler may well show you that he is understanding a ‘no’ though he may not stop doing what he is doing or come down off the table!
Playtime gets interactive:
Now we engage in more complex play, such as stacking blocks, pretending to eat with a spoon, and imitating actions.
Many toddlers now start showing an interest in picture books.
15–18 months: Communication blossoms
Words combine: Towards 18 months or around about then your toddler may start to put two words together, such as ‘more milk’ or ‘bye-bye dada.’
Gestures and sounds: Now we also use gestures to communicate, such as pointing, shaking head ‘no,’ and waving ‘bye-bye.’
Exploration and curiosity:
Your toddler is now EVERYWHERE! Turn your back and he or she is gone! Your toddler now shows a strong sense of curiosity and explores their environment with enthusiasm.
Copying
Look out for actions and gestures your toddler will copy such as clapping hands or patting a cushion or banging a spoon on the table .
Remember
Every child develops at his or her own pace.
These are just general guidelines, and some children may reach certain milestones earlier or later than others.
If you have any concerns about your child’s development, please consult with your speech and language therapist. We are always keen to hear from parents and happy to help promote all those lovely early skills.
General tips to encourage communication if you feel your child needs a little more help
Talk, talk, talk! Engage in frequent chatting with your child.
Listen to your child: Allow for periods of silence when playing with your child to allow them to say something or make sounds which you can then copy and respond to.
Read aloud regularly. Use books with simple words and pictures.
Play interactive games: Hickory Dickory Dock, Row Row the boat, Old McDonalds, 5 little monkeys jumping on the bed, chasing and catching, tickling games.
Respond to your child’s babbling and gestures. You can copy them or if your toddler says long strings of babbling you cannot understand you could just say: ‘Oh ok!? ‘yes that’s great!’ ‘who knew!’ ‘wow you’ve got much to say!’ as if you understood.
Limit screen time or if your child is very passionate about watching clips then sit and watch with your child so that you can see what is the best bit, which songs they like the best and what sort of phrases they love hearing.
This exciting period of rapid growth and development is a precious time for both you and your child.
By providing a loving, stimulating, and responsive environment, you will naturally nurture their communication skills! Any more questions, please get in touch!
Sonja McGeachie
Early Intervention Speech and Language Therapist
Feeding and Dysphagia (Swallowing) Specialist The London Speech and Feeding Practice
The London Speech and Feeding Practice
Find a speech and language therapist for your child in London. Are you concerned about your child’s speech, feeding or communication skills and don’t know where to turn? Please contact me and we can discuss how I can help you or visit my services page.
If your child says ‘dar’ instead of ‘star’, you might be wondering if they will simply outgrow it or if they require specialised support. While ‘cluster reduction’—dropping one of the sounds in a blend—is a normal part of learning to talk, we typically expect these sounds to lock into place by age four years. If these errors persist as a child approaches school age, it often signals a speech sound delay that may now no longer pass without help. As a Speech and Language Therapist, I specialise in helping children bridge this gap using evidence-based techniques like backward chaining.
This isn’t about constant correction; it’s about providing the right clinical scaffolding to move a child from ‘frustrated’ to ‘fluent’ before they hit those critical early school years.
Dropping sounds from words is a common feature of speech sound difficulties, and while it can look small on the surface, it can have a big impact on how clearly a child is understood. In this short video clip, I’m working with a child on an /ST/ sound cluster, demonstrating how I use an evidence-based speech therapy technique called backward chaining to help children build clearer speech with confidence.
What’s actually happening when a child drops the ‘S’?
Clusters like /ST/, /SP/, and /SK/ are tricky. They require:
precise timing
careful airflow
and the ability to blend sounds smoothly
For many children, especially those with speech sound difficulties, this is a big ask.
So instead of hearing:
‘star’
we might hear:
‘tar’ or ‘dar’
This isn’t laziness or refusal. It’s the child simplifying the word to make it manageable.
Why I don’t start by saying ‘say star’
Telling a child to ‘just add the S’ rarely works.
Instead, I meet them where they are already successful.
In this clip, the child can already say ‘dar’ clearly. That’s our starting point.
Backward chaining: building speech from success
Backward chaining means we:
Start with the part of the word the child can already say
Gradually add the missing sound
Keep the child feeling successful at every step
So rather than jumping straight to ‘star’, we:
secure the ending
gently introduce the /S/
and blend it in a way that feels achievable
This approach reduces frustration, builds confidence, and helps the sound stick not just in the therapy room, but out in the real world.
Why this matters beyond one word
This isn’t just about saying ‘star’.
It’s about:
teaching the mouth a new movement pattern
giving the brain time to organise the sound sequence
and helping the child feel capable, not corrected
When therapy feels safe and successful, children are far more likely to generalise their new sounds into everyday speech.
Speech therapy works best when children feel supported not tested.
If your child struggles with speech clarity
If your child:
drops sounds from words
avoids longer or trickier words
or becomes frustrated when they’re not understood
This is the kind of work I do every day building speech step by step, in a way that respects each child’s pace and strengths.
Support can be gentle, effective, and empowering.
If you’d like to learn more about how speech therapy can support your child, you’re always welcome to get in touch.
Sonja McGeachie
Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist
Owner of The London Speech and Feeding Practice.
Find a speech and language therapist for your child in London. Are you concerned about your child’s speech, feeding or communication skills and don’t know where to turn? Please contact me and we can discuss how I can help you or visit my services page.
When your baby reaches around 12 months, there is a lot going on developmentally. They are learning to walk, communicate, feed themselves and become increasingly independent. One small but important milestone that can sometimes get overlooked is learning to drink from an open cup.
Many toddlers continue to have milk from a bottle well beyond their first birthday, and parents are often understandably reluctant to take it away. The bottle may be familiar, comforting and convenient, particularly at bedtime.
But moving towards an open cup is not simply about changing the way your child drinks. It is part of their development of oral-motor skills, feeding independence and mealtime development.
And there is another piece of the puzzle that is often overlooked: how your toddler is sitting while they eat and drink.
The way the body is supported can make a real difference to what the mouth is able to do.
Babies can begin learning to drink from an open cup much earlier than many parents realise. By around 12 months, most children should be given regular opportunities to practise drinking from an open cup alongside other suitable drinking vessels.
An open cup encourages your toddler to learn a different pattern of drinking from the sucking pattern they have used with a bottle.
With an open cup, your child needs to:
lean towards the cup and control its position
grade how much liquid enters the mouth
use their lips to help control the liquid
coordinate breathing and swallowing
develop increasingly mature tongue and jaw movements
learn to take a drink without relying on a teat or nipple.
These are useful skills for developing efficient eating and drinking.
This doesn’t mean that a toddler who still has a bottle at 14 or 18 months has somehow ‘missed their chance’. Children develop at different rates, and there is always an opportunity to work towards new skills.
However, if a bottle remains the main or only way a child drinks for a long time, there can be fewer opportunities to practise these more mature drinking skills.
The occasional bottle is not the issue. The concern is when a toddler continues to rely heavily on a bottle and therefore has little reason or opportunity to develop other drinking skills.
A bottle encourages a sucking pattern which is appropriate for infancy. As children mature, we want to see increasing use of their lips, tongue, jaw and facial muscles in more sophisticated ways.
Long-term bottle use can also make the transition to an open cup more difficult simply because the child has become very accustomed to the bottle.
There can also be practical considerations around dental health, particularly when milk is offered frequently throughout the day or overnight.
For many toddlers, the bottle has also become associated with comfort, sleep or emotional regulation. This can make giving it up feel like a very big change for the whole family.
So rather than thinking, ‘The bottle has to disappear tomorrow’, think:
‘How can I gradually increase opportunities for open-cup drinking?’
Offer the open cup regularly at meals. Let your toddler experiment. Expect spills. Keep the amount of liquid small initially and provide plenty of encouragement.
Learning to drink is a skill. And skills need practice.
When we think about feeding, we naturally tend to focus on the mouth. We watch what the tongue is doing, whether a child chews, whether they cough or gag and what foods they accept.
But feeding is a whole-body activity.
Your child needs a stable body position before they can use their mouth efficiently.
Think about trying to drink from a cup while sitting on a wobbly stool with your feet dangling in the air. You would probably find it much easier if your body was well supported.
The same principle applies to toddlers.
A well-designed highchair such as a Tripp Trapp chair can provide a stable base when it is correctly adjusted for the individual child. Ideally, your toddler should have:
hips well supported
knees comfortably bent
feet resting firmly on a footplate
a stable pelvis and trunk
the table or tray at an appropriate height
This gives your child a solid foundation from which to move.
And that matters because stability in the body supports movement and control in the mouth.
I sometimes hear parents say, ‘He doesn’t need the footrest don’t worry about it (as I crouch down with my Allenn key to adjust the Tripp Trapp chair) but I always explain it is very important to have his feet supported. Dangling legs can make it much harder to maintain a stable sitting position.
When the feet are supported, your toddler can push gently through their feet and stabilise their pelvis and trunk. This can help them maintain a more organised position while eating and drinking.
They can then devote more attention to the job in front of them:
looking, reaching, grasping, chewing, swallowing and drinking.
This is particularly important for toddlers who are developing their chewing skills or who find mealtimes physically demanding.
Eating involves an extraordinary amount of coordination.
Your toddler is managing food in their hands, bringing it to their mouth, biting, chewing, moving food around with their tongue, forming a bolus and swallowing, often while simultaneously looking around, communicating and interacting with you.
Drinking from an open cup adds another layer of coordination.
Good postural support doesn’t teach a child to drink from a cup, but it can give them a much better physical foundation from which to practise the skill.
This is why, when I assess a toddler’s feeding, I don’t just look inside the mouth.
I also look at how the child is positioned.
Making open-cup drinking part of everyday life
You don’t need a complicated programme.
At meals, offer a small amount of water in an open cup. You can help your toddler hold the cup initially, tipping it gently towards their lips and allowing them to control the drinking as much as possible.
Some mess is completely normal!
You might also use a small, lightweight open cup that is easy for little hands to manage.
And remember that the goal is not to make every drink perfect. The goal is to give your child regular, positive opportunities to practise.
If your toddler is struggling with drinking, frequently coughing or choking, refusing cups, relying heavily on a bottle, or experiencing difficulties with chewing and eating, it is worth seeking professional advice from a Speech and Language Therapist with expertise in paediatric feeding.
The bigger picture
Open-cup drinking and good sitting are not two unrelated developmental skills.
They are part of the same picture.
A stable body provides a foundation for skilled movement. Skilled movement supports feeding. And feeding skills develop through practice and opportunity.
So as your toddler approaches and moves beyond their first birthday, think beyond simply asking, ‘How much milk are they drinking?’
Think about how they are drinking, how they are sitting, and what opportunities they have to develop the skills they will need as they grow.
And if you have a little one sitting beautifully at the table in a well-supported Tripp Trapp chair, remember: you’re not just creating a comfortable seat.
You’re creating a stable foundation for eating, drinking, learning and growing.
Do get in touch with me. I would love to hear from you and help your little one develop good sitting and drinking habits.
Sonja McGeachie
Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist
Owner of The London Speech and Feeding Practice.
Find a speech and language therapist for your child in London. Are you concerned about your child’s speech, feeding or communication skills and don’t know where to turn? Please contact me and we can discuss how I can help you or visit my services page.
