ST & tongue weakness

[LaughingCat]

DD9 is currently in ST for her R's. She can do most of the R's sounds but it is clearly work for her. And our practice has not really shown up in her regular speech. She also struggles with other apparently random words too - the ST has been writing them down trying to find some speech similarity, and also had other ST's come in for a listen now and then. The result of the last time another ST came in is that last session she gave us a list of "tongue" exercises to do - and, although at the beginning of the session she clearly felt this was a "try it, it can't hurt" idea, by the end of the demonstration she said that DD clearly was very weak on the left side of her tongue and also could barely push. So now I have started to wonder what exactly does/could tongue weakness signify.... :confused:

[Dobela]

My daughter had tongue weakness and it was a symptom of overall low muscle tone. Has your child been evaluated by an OT or PT as well? Sometimes low tone is pervasive and the child may qualify for other therapies as well.

[PeterPan]

Ditto Dobela's comments, and I'll just add there's such a thing as *oral apraxia*. I would find someone with more experience, not someone who's learning on your kid. But I'm pretty jaded by STs who will take your $100 an hour and not have a clue and keep you from going to someone who actually would.

Edited July 19, 2012 by OhElizabeth

[Verity]

:bigear:

 

My six year old has some weird going on with his tongue as well, he can't do some of the movements needed to enunciate the difference between 'n' and 'm' among other things...this is making his phonics learning challenging!

Dh's new job starts Monday, next week I'm going to be calling around looking for new dr's for all three boys!

I know youngest would benefit from some kind of ST.

[LaughingCat]

When I google low tone and verbal apraxia (obviously at a very beginner understanding :D ), so far it is only the "lack of endurance" aspect of low tone that stands out as fitting DD very well in many respects.

[Lecka]

This is in response to the pp mentioning phonics.

 

My son had trouble with his tongue with his articulation, also.

 

What I think it was with him, was not so much his tongue, as he was not hearing some things clearly to then be able to imitate them consistently.

 

He was "fronting" saying a lot of sounds in the front of his mouth that should be said in the back, and then just not distinguishing some other sounds also (consonant blends with l and r, sh/s/ch, etc).

 

What I heard at the time, and seemed right with my son, is if a child is just substituting one sound for another, but hearing them clearly, they will make the same substitution in phonics and it is often not too bad.

 

But if the sounds are confused, phonics is a big mess.

 

For my son, this meant "th" was not problem, even though he said it as "f." But the sounds he confused were major, major issues until he covered them in speech therapy. He also was having trouble moving his tongue some but mainly with making noises in his throat for g and k. But they worked with him on telling the sounds apart when he was learning them.

[Mom-ninja.]

My ds has this due to overall low muscle tone. Boy, did it make nursing difficult. Chronic mastitis anyone? :glare:

 

Things we've been told to do:

 

Lick things like popsicles/lollipops

 

Lick things off a plate like applesauce