Speech Concerns / Motor Speech Difficulties

struggle with speech-nasally voice-lack of clarity.jpg

Speech Concerns

Myofunctional Therapy and Speech therapy are NOT the same thing.

As myofunctional therapists, we work side by side with other professionals to ensure our clients receive optimal results.  This includes working with Speech Language Pathologists. When approaching speech concerns, myofunctional therapy can be considered as a foundational treatment, as OMT focuses on the orofacial muscles, coordination of muscle movements and tongue placement needed for speech sounds.

It is imperative to rule out any muscular involvement prior to beginning a speech therapy program. If the muscles and tongue are not functioning properly, adults and children may continue to experience ongoing difficulty with pronunciation of certain letters, limited repertoire of sounds and voicing errors.

Addressing proper oral function with Myofunctional therapy can have a profound effect and improvement on tongue elevation, tongue and lip mobility, lateral margin stabilization and internal mid tongue contraction to help generate front tongue vertical movements for speech production. 

You may have been told that your child is showing signs of “motor speech difficulties” or “motor speech disorder.”

Warning signs that may present in a child:

  • Reduced vocabulary

  • Limited repertoire of sounds and voicing errors

  • Groping oral movements when trying to speak

  • Difficulty with word order, imitating speech and sounds

  • Articulation intelligibility / difficulty being understood while speaking

  • Hyper or hyposensitivity in the mouth (textures, objects, foods, tooth brushing)

  • Longer speech utterances are more difficult to produce

  • Vowel and consonant distortions


Lisp caught your tongue?

A lisp is the most common speech concern associated with myofunctional symptoms.  Lisping is a symptom that hand in hand is associated with a tongue thrust (reverse swallow pattern) and a mouth breathing habit. Patients with a lisp often struggle to make the correct /S/ sound, /Ch/ and /J/ are commonly muddled and can lack clarity.

Other specific sounds that are connected with having a tongue thrust and mouth breathing are /T/, /D/, /N/ and /L/. These sounds require precise movement and placement of the tongue, which makes them challenging for those without fine control of their oral muscles. A nasally voice can often be associated with myofunctional dysfunction.

Myofunctional Therapy can help-Kelly Hall OMT serving toronto area.jpg

How can we help?

Myofunctional therapy teaches placement of the tongue, along with the muscle control that can help address functional problems related to speech concerns. We work closely with Speech Language Pathologists to ensure our clients achieve the optimal results.