Speech and Feeding Difficulties
If your child has trouble controlling lips, tongue or jaw muscles — from talking to eating, or sipping from a straw — these are tough skills to master and I can help your child develop those skills. Your little one has a lisp or a ‘funny r-sound’? With a little time and practice, fun and games we can make it better!
Articulation Difficulties
If your little one has any of these difficulties below than they might have an articulation difficulty/disorder. You may already be aware of this but equally you may not know why your child is struggling with any of these:
- mouth frequently hangs open
- trouble sticking out tongue or moving it from side to side
- hard to understand
- says a ‘th’ instead of an ‘s’
- drools past the age of 18 months
- takes extra time to form words while speaking
- is struggling with speech sounds generally
- uses mostly vowel sounds after 18 months (‘aah-aah’ instead of ‘mama’)
- leaves out some consonants in words ( ‘at’ instead of ‘cat’)
- adds extra sounds to words (‘animinal’ instead of ‘animal’)
- has trouble stringing together syllables in the right order (‘minacin’ instead of ‘cinnamon’)
- is stammering, repeating syllables or getting stuck on words
If your child is having any of the above difficulties please get in touch, I can evaluate all areas and provide solutions to help.
Feeding, eating, drinking & swallowing
As a Dysphagia Speech Therapist and Lactation Consultant I am best placed to help you establish optimal infant feeding techniques. Feeding a baby with developmental delay or any type of syndrome can be tricky due to low or high muscle tone, palatal deformity, weak suck, or low endurance. I would love to help you overcome these issues and succeed on your feeding journey. I fully support you whatever way you choose to feed your baby (breast, bottle or both)
If your baby or toddler has any of these difficulties below then I would love to help unravel the cause of it for you. You may already be aware of this difficulty if your child has a diagnosis of low muscle tone or other neurological difficulties, but equally you may not know why your child is struggling with any of these:
- splattering, pulling away, grimacing whilst feeding at the breast or bottle
- breastfeeding is painful
- bottle feeding is very slow
- weaning is difficult; your child refuses to take purees and cries or vomits
- gagging on, or shortly after, feeds
- your child’s mouth is always open and there is drooling
- tongue movements are limited, chewing foods is difficult
Feel free to contact me so that I can help you resolve these issues.
