Feeding therapy - Harrison Speech Pathology

What are the effects of a tongue-tie?

A lot of children with a tongue-tie have no speech issues. This is because a lot of the sounds in English are made with the tongue tip (s, d, n) and can be produced with a slight movement of the tongue. Sounds where the tongue needs to move more (l, r and th) can still be articulated clearly with reduced movement.

Speech issues and tongue-tie are most common in children and therefore, it is not surprising that the two may co-occur. However, this does not mean that a child’s speech delay is caused by their tongue-tie.

How can a speech pathologist help?

A speech pathologist can examine and evaluate the functional impact of a tongue-tie on individuals.

This includes:

assessment and intervention for successful infant feeding

assessment to determine the impact of a tongue-tie on swallowing, chewing and the tongues ability to adequately move food from lips, teeth and other parts of the mouth.

Assessment and intervention of speech issues to determine whether a tongue-tie is impacting the clarity and intelligibility of the person’s speech.

When should surgery for tongue-tie be considered?

At birth, babies should be assessed to determine their ability to feed and latch. A Speech Pathologist and/or Lactation Consultant needs to be considered first before surgery.

Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that tongue-tie surgery will make speech clearer or resolve feeding issues.

Before considering surgery, Speech Pathology Australia recommends considering the following questions:

What type of surgery are you doing?

What will be the benefits of surgery?

What will happen if you don’t do the surgery?

Are there any side effects to the surgery?

Will an anaesthetic be required?

Will pain relief be required after surgery?

What is the recovery period after surgery?

If you or your child are having difficulties with speech, or swallowing, speech pathology assessment and intervention is recommended before going ahead with surgery.

To discuss further or book an appointment, please call Harrison Speech Pathology and speak directly to one of our trained speech pathologists.

Feeding therapy is a specialised form of therapy that helps children with feeding difficulties to learn how to eat or can help them to eat better.

Children may have difficulties with chewing, drinking, expanding the range of foods they eat, or swallowing foods.

Mealtime Routines

Creating routines around mealtimes can help your child to learn about food and eating through the consistent use of familiar situations and objects.

Routines such as having mealtimes at the same table, using the same eating utensils and sitting in the same spot at the table can help prepare your child for mealtimes, and help them to be ready for eating.

Social Modelling at Mealtimes

Children learn new skills and behaviours by watching others and learning from them. This is the same with eating. Children learn to eat by watching others around them.

Sitting at the table and eating with your child helps to provide opportunities for them to learn about eating by watching what you do and how you do it. This means that it is important to be a good role model for your child and model positive interactions with food.

Using Positive Reinforcements

During mealtimes, praise and provide positive reinforcement when your child has any interaction with food. Verbal praise, along with smiling are some of the best and most natural positive reinforcements that can be used.

Often when children don’t eat, mealtimes can become a stressful struggle for everyone in the family, so remembering to provide praise and encouragement for even the smallest of interactions with food is very important.

Offering Manageable Foods

A frequent problem that arises with children who have difficulty eating is that they are sometimes being offered foods that they cannot manage to eat. Giving a child food that they perceive as unmanageable can lead to them feeling overwhelmed, frustrated, and defeated.

When providing food during mealtimes, aim to provide only a limited number of different foods on their plate at any one time, and ensure that they are provided in small, easy to chew, bite sized pieces, or in long, thin strips that the child can easily hold in their hand.

Talk About Food

At mealtimes, talk with your child about the food in front of them. Describe the colour, shape, texture, and whether it is hard or soft. This will help to teach your child the physical properties of the food that is on their plate and will help your child to understand how to make the foods work in their mouth when eating them.

For example, by talking about a carrot stick being hard helps teach that strong pressure through biting and chewing will be needed to break that food apart, compared to custard which is wet and smooth and can be eaten by simply swallowing down.

How does Harrison Speech Pathology help children with Feeding Therapy

At Harrison Speech Pathology, we have Speech Pathologists who specialise in the assessment and management of feeding difficulties.

Please contact Harrison Speech Pathology if you have any questions or queries related to feeding difficulties and your child.

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