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!
Orofacial Myofunctional Therapy (OMT) / Myofunctional Assessments are provided by a Licensed Speech Therapist.
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 Breastfeeding 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.
