By Pam Marshalla
Q: How do you teach young children to keep their mouths closed? I am working with a 28-month-old with an open mouth resting posture. He also sucks his thumb and uses a sippy cup. This question is a huge one that requires a lot of background. I will be writing a full chapter on this in my next book, called 21st Century Articulation Therapy to be published in 2012. Let me write a few main ideas here: Medical We always have…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: My preschool client uses a whisper instead of a “real voice” when he talks. We are using PECS with him, and he can build sentences up to 5 words. Do you have suggestions for developing his voice? First, he needs to be seen by a physician – an ENT – to determine if there is a medical reason for his lack of voice: nodules, polyps, paralysis, malformation, etc.. You need this so you know what you are working with….
By Pam Marshalla
Q: I have a relative who does not have any movement of her top lip. She cannot blow a horn and has difficult with straw sucking. Her 4-year-old son also was born with this lack of movement with his upper lip. What could this be? It sounds like it could be Mobious Syndrome (Alternative spellings: Mobius, Moebius). Mobious Syndrome has many characteristics, including partial facial and lip paralysis. Speech can be bad if the paralysis is wide spread in the…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: I use your “butterfly position” on many school age kids and most of them are able to understand it and follow directions. However, many of the preschoolers have a hard time understanding “biting the sides of their tongues.” Do you have a different way of approaching preschoolers when you want to stabilize the back of their tongues? I also have found that many preschoolers have a hard time understanding how to make the butterfly position. And children with lower…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: I have a preschool student who produces vocalic /r/ with more of a [ng] phoneme. If I address it, what can I do? There are always several ways to attack a question about articulation therapy. Let me offer two basic ideas to try: Normal Path of Development You could teach the client to substitute w/r instead if she can do a /w/ correctly without nasality. Teach her to say “Rabbit” as “Wabbit” and so forth. That puts her development…
