The hidden impact of mouth breathing and open mouth posture on speech and feeding

ByLondon Speech and Feeding
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When most people think about speech or feeding difficulties, they picture the tongue, lips, or chewing skills, but how a child breathes at rest plays a surprisingly big role too.

Mouth breathing and open mouth resting posture can quietly influence everything from how a child’s face grows to how clearly they speak, to how confidently they chew and swallow. It’s something many parents never think about, until they start noticing the subtle signs.

Let’s explore why this happens, what to look for, and how to gently support better breathing and oral posture.

Recent research supports this link between mouth breathing and speech difficulties. For example, a 2022 study by Alhazmi et al., published in the Journal of Pharmacy and Bioallied Sciences, found that 81.7% of children aged 9–17 who breathed primarily through their mouths presented with speech sound disorders. The study highlights how mouth breathing can significantly influence orofacial development and articulation patterns.

💨 Why we’re designed to breathe through our nose

Our bodies are made for nasal breathing. When we breathe through the nose, the air is filtered, warmed, and humidified before reaching the lungs. The tongue naturally rests against the roof of the mouth, the lips close gently, and the jaw stays relaxed, all of which encourage healthy oral development.

In contrast, mouth breathing often means the tongue rests low in the mouth and the lips stay apart. Over time, this posture can subtly reshape how the muscles and bones of the face grow.

Children who breathe through their mouths most of the time may develop:

  • A longer face and narrower palate
  • Forward head posture
  • Slightly open lips and low tongue position at rest
  • A tendency toward drooling or noisy breathing
  • A dry mouth and consequently bad breath
  • At times the tongue pushes constantly against the front teeth causing them to grow forward (buck teeth)

These changes are not anyone’s fault, as they often start because of blocked noses, allergies, enlarged adenoids, low facial muscle tone or habits formed when a child was younger. But understanding the pattern helps us know how to support change.

🗣 How mouth breathing affects speech

Speech depends on precise coordination between the lips, tongue, and jaw. The resting position of these structures affects how ready they are to move.

  1. Reduced tongue strength and placement, i.e. the tongue rests low in the mouth (as it does in mouth breathing), it’s harder for children to lift it efficiently for sounds like /T/, /D/, /N/, /L/, and /S/. This can lead to speech that sounds slightly slushy or unclear, or a frontal lisp.
  2. Open mouth posture and resonance: An open mouth at rest may affect how air vibrates in the oral and nasal cavities. Children might have speech that sounds a bit ‘muffled’ or lacks crispness because the lips and jaw aren’t fully supporting articulation.
  3. Fatigue and breath control: Mouth breathing can lead to drier mouths and less efficient breath support. That can make longer sentences or conversations feel tiring, especially in noisy environments.

🥄 How mouth breathing affects feeding and chewing

Feeding involves the same structures that control speech, so posture and breathing patterns matter here, too.

  1. Chewing efficiency: Children who habitually keep their mouths open often have low tongue tone and reduced jaw stability. They may prefer softer foods, chew slowly, or struggle with mixed textures.
  2. Swallowing pattern: A tongue that rests low may push forward when swallowing. This ‘tongue-thrust swallow’ can interfere with efficient chewing and even affect dental alignment over time.
  3. Breathing while eating: Since it’s hard to chew, swallow, and breathe through the mouth simultaneously, children who can’t comfortably nasal breathe may rush bites or pause to catch their breath. This can contribute to coughing, choking, or food refusal.

Common signs to watch for

Parents often notice subtle clues before realising mouth breathing is a pattern. Some red flags include:

  • Lips habitually open at rest
  • Drooling after the toddler years
  • Snoring or noisy breathing during sleep
  • Preference for soft foods or grazing eating habits
  • Dark circles under the eyes due to allergies
  • Frequent colds, congestion, or mouth odour
  • Speech that sounds slushy or unclear despite good effort

If several of these sound familiar, it’s worth mentioning them to your child’s GP, dentist, or speech and language therapist.

👩‍⚕️ What can help

  1. Address the underlying cause: If nasal blockage, allergies, or enlarged adenoids are making nasal breathing difficult, a medical assessment is the first step. ENT specialists can rule out or treat physical causes.
  2. Encourage closed mouth rest: Gentle reminders like ‘Lips together, tongue up, breathe through your nose’ can help older children become aware of their resting posture. For younger ones, visual cues (stickers or mirrors) can make it a game.
  3. Build oral-motor strength and awareness: Speech therapists can design activities to strengthen the tongue and lips, improve jaw stability, and encourage balanced breathing. This might include blowing games, tongue-tip lifts, use of dental-palatal devices or oral-motor exercises disguised as play.
  4. Support good posture: Sometimes mouth breathing goes hand-in-hand with forward-head posture. Encouraging upright sitting during meals and screen time helps keep the airway open and supports better breathing habits.
  5. Make nasal breathing part of daily routines: Gentle nose-breathing practice during calm times (reading, bedtime, car rides) helps normalise it. Avoid making it a battle: calm, consistent reminders work best.

🌱 A gentle note on change

Patterns of mouth breathing develop over time, and change doesn’t happen overnight. It’s important to approach this with curiosity, not criticism. The aim isn’t ‘perfect breathing,’ but to give your child the tools and awareness to breathe comfortably and efficiently.

Small improvements in nasal breathing and resting posture can lead to big gains in speech clarity, eating confidence, and even sleep quality.

💡 The takeaway

Breathing seems automatic, and it is! but how we breathe matters. Mouth breathing and open-mouth posture can quietly shape how a child speaks, eats, and grows.

By noticing early signs, addressing underlying causes, and building supportive habits, you can help your child move toward stronger, clearer speech and more comfortable mealtimes.

Just like every area of development, progress starts with connection, patience, and gentle consistency, one calm breath at a time.

Sonja McGeachie

Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist

Owner of The London Speech and Feeding Practice.

References

Alhazmi, A., Alshamrani, A., Alhussain, A., et al. (2022). Mouth Breathing and Speech Disorders: A Multidisciplinary Study. Journal of Pharmacy and Bioallied Sciences 14(5):911. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/361978128_Mouth_breathing_and_speech_disorders_A_multidisciplinary_evaluation_based_on_the_etiology

Health Professions Council registered
Royal College of Speech & Language Therapists Member
Member of ASLTIP

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.

2

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    Reference

    Bryan A (1997) Colourful semantics. In: Chiat S, Law J, and Marshall J (eds) Language disorders in children and adults: psycholinguistic approaches to therapy. London: Whurr, 143–61.

    Health Professions Council registered
    Royal College of Speech & Language Therapists Member
    Member of ASLTIP

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    By now the new pathways have been laid through repeated practice and now automaticity takes over and without too much effort my student can suddenly produce a motor pattern. It’s magical when it happens and gives me such a thrill.

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    3. It makes it easier to express our emotions:

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    Therapy shouldn’t exist in a bubble. Working on prosody during sessions is crucial, but it’s equally important to integrate these skills into everyday interactions. Parents and caregivers can model appropriate prosody during playtime, story time, or even simple conversations. This consistent reinforcement helps our children to generalise their newfound skills and use them naturally in their daily lives.

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  • What is Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) and what does a Speech Therapist do?

    ByLondon Speech and Feeding
    Kids Speech Therapist London
    What is Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) and what does a Speech Therapist do?

    Speech and language therapists provide treatment, support and care for children and adults who have difficulties with communication, eating, drinking and swallowing. We help children and adults who have problems speaking and communicating.

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    Generally it is my view that SLT’s with a narrow area of specialist interest are most likely to help you better if the problem you or your child/adult is having is significant and/or profound. For example, if your child has a very severe stutter/stammer but is otherwise developing fine and has good skills all round, then I would recommend to look for an SLT who only specialises in stammering/stuttering, or has only a small range of other specialist areas related to stammering , such as speech and language delay.

    The reason is that it is a tall order for any professional to stay up to date with latest research, latest clinical developments and training for more than, say, five distinct areas of interest.

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    Speech Sound Disorders, Verbal Dyspraxia, Phonology and Articulation

    Speech Sound Disorders, Verbal Dyspraxia, Phonology and Articulation

    I love working with children of all ages on developing their speech sounds. Whether your child has a lisp, or a couple of tricky sounds they simply cannot produce quite right, or perhaps your child is really unintelligible because he/she is having lots of different sound errors, making it really hard to understand them. I typically work on getting “most bang for your buck” , meaning I address the sounds that cause the most problems and, therefore, when they are fixed your child/person’s speech becomes that much clearer fairly quickly.

    Feeding and Swallowing Difficulties

    Feeding and Swallowing Difficulties

    Having worked for over 20 years in NHS Child Development Clinics and Special Needs Schools I trained and worked with feeding and swallowing difficulties early on in my SLT career. I later trained as a Lactation Consultant and so I am well placed helping and support all types of Infant feeding, both breast or bottle, as well as toddler weaning. I aim to ensure that your little one swallows the right kind of foods and drinks for their abilities. I am experienced in managing and supporting children with physical needs and mobility problems, Cerebral Palsy, Down Syndrome or any other type of syndrome or presentation.

    What does a speech therapy session look like?

    All sessions differ slightly depending on the age of the child and the nature of the difficulties.

    However, mostly our sessions look like FUN! After arrival and washing hands we tend to start off with the tricky work straight away whilst our child still has energy and the will to engage. So, for speech work we will focus on the target sounds first: this could be sitting at a table doing work sheets together, playing games using the target sound and really any type of activity that gives us around 70-100 repeats of the target pattern. For example, a child who is working towards saying a ‘K’ at the end of the word I will try and get around 100 productions of words like: pack/sack/lick/ pick/bike/lake and so on.

    Then we often play a fun game where I might try for a ‘rhyming’ activity or other sound awareness type activities, for perhaps 10 minutes and within that time I aim to trial the next sound pattern we need to improve on; I will test which sound your child can do with help from me. During he last 10 minutes we might look at a book, again listening to and producing whatever sound we are working on. If I did not get 100 sounds earlier on in the session I will try and practice them now as part of the story. In total I aim to have about 40-45 minutes of activities, all aimed at the target sound we are working on.

    What does a Coaching session look like?

    During a Parent Coaching Session we meet online for about an hour and we discuss how the week has been for you trying out the strategies. Typically parents start off recalling what went well, what progress was made and what had been more tricky. We work through it all, and then follow on to the next strategies: I will show you examples and demonstrations of each strategy and I will get you to think about how you can use this with your child and in what situation you might use it. I will explain what we are doing and what the purpose is. You might want to write down what you are going to work on for the week. Over the course of about sessions we can cover all the major strategies that are proven to help kickstart spoken language and/or help your child to connect more with you. Through that connection spoken words most often develop.

    Research Papers on the Efficacy of Parent Child Interaction Coaching

    Research Papers on the Efficacy of Parent Child Interaction Coaching

    • The It Takes Two to Talk Program has been shown to be effective in changing how parents interact with their children, and that children’s communication and language skills improve as a result.
    • Baumwell, L.B., Tamis-LeMonda, C.S. & Bornstein, M.H. (1997). Maternal verbal sensitivity and child language comprehension. Infant Behavior and Development, 20(2), 247-258.
    • Beckwith, L. & Cohen, S.E. (1989). Maternal responsiveness with preterm infants and later competency. In M.H. Bornstein (Ed.). Maternal responsiveness: Characteristics and consequences: New directions for child development (pp. 75-87). San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
    • Bronfenbrenner, U. (1974). Is early intervention effective? (Publication No. (CDH) 74-25). Washington, DC: Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office of Child Development.
    • Girolametto, L. (1988). Improving the social-conversational skills of developmentally delayed children: An intervention study. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 53, 156-167.

    Sonja has been a real help for my 5 year old daughter. Due to her support, my daughter is now able to clearly and correctly enunciate ‘th’ ‘f’ and ’s’. She was also helpful in making positional changes to her seating to help her concentrate better and kept her engaged throughout all the lessons which is a feat in itself on zoom!

    Helen, Mother of Catherine Age 5.

    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.