Foods for Oral Development

At our office, we love to promote feeding with a variety of hard, crunchy foods. This is because it is important for the development of the jaw and muscle function. What comes to mind when you think of typical toddler foods? Maybe, applesauce pouches, mac and cheese, goldfish crackers. These foods are yummy and convenient. They may still be good to have in moderation. However, a lot of the “typical” toddler foods are soft and processed foods that don’t put the oral muscles to work. It is important to allow your toddler to get a lot of chewing practice as they grow. This chewing practice can assist with proper oral development which may in turn assist with preventing the need for later intervention (i.e. orthodontic work, sleep apnea, speech therapy). 

We want to provide you with some top foods for your toddler so they can thrive!

Veggies: carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, cucumbers, and peppers are just a few

Meat: strips of chicken, bacon, jerky 

Fruits: apples, strawberries, mangos, pears

Other: chips, crackers - should be consumed in moderation due to often getting stuck in the teeth leading to build up

At Building Blocks Therapy Services, our therapists are equipped with the skills and knowledge to help your child with their feeding skills. Please, visit www.buildingblocksgr.com or call (616) 570-925 to learn more about supporting your child’s feeding development. We look forward to building a relationship with you and your child!

Sources: Begin Balanced-Priya Bhasin

Let's Talk About Sippy Cups!

Sippy cups have become a common item in households with children. We get it, kids are MESSY!  We recognize that convenience is crucial and cleaning up spills is not enjoyable. Before you buy another sippy cup, let’s explore some other options instead that can help your child’s oral development.

Potential Impacts of Sippy cup drinking: 

As your child grows and develops, their swallowing pattern changes. As an infant, the tongue moves from front to back. However, as a baby grows, they develop a more mature swallow pattern where the tongue anchors behind the top teeth. Use of a sippy cup pushes the tongue down and a more advanced swallow pattern will be difficult to learn. This can impact growth of the teeth and can also affect the shape of the palate as well. This can also impact your child’s ability to produce speech sounds. 

Tips for how to transition to a cup: 

• Make sure your child is supported, have them sit in a chair with their feet touching the ground or high chair

• Let your child explore: be patient with them spilling, it’s going to happen. Let them play with empty cups 

• Model for your child how you drink from the cup, children learn best through models from parents, siblings, daycare providers, etc. 

Let’s explore some options that can help advance your child’s development of oral-facial muscles. 

Honey Bear Cup: Straw drinking can strengthen the lips, tongue and cheek muscles! 

Amazon.com: Honey Bear Straw Cups for Babies 1 pack, 8oz straw bear cup with improved safety lid design, honeybear baby cup straw, Leak-Proof & Food-Grade & BPA Free (AQUA) : Baby

Ezpz Mini Cup: Cup drinking is another option for allowing your child to learn a mature swallow pattern. 

Amazon.com: ezpz Mini Cup + Straw Training System - 9 Months+ (Gray) - 100% Silicone Training Cup for Infants + Toddlers - Designed by a Pediatric Feeding Specialist : Baby

At Building Blocks Therapy Services, our therapists are trained to support your child’s feeding and oral facial development. Our therapists can give you and your child the tools to encourage age-appropriate feeding skills. If you are interested in learning more please visit www.buildingblocksgr.com or call (616) 570-925.

Supporting Language Development for Infants

Between the 16 to 22 weeks of pregnancy, your baby can start to hear the sounds inside of your body. By 23 weeks your baby can begin to hear your voice. Isn’t this amazing? When your baby arrives there are so many things you can do to continue to support their speech and language development. These skills are best learned through everyday activities and models. Here are just a few to help you get started.  

Copy: When your baby makes a “ma” sound, say it back. Hearing this repetition is a playful way for your baby to develop back and forth communication. Encourage them to imitate you. 

Read: Let your baby explore a variety of books. Hearing new words often will allow your baby’s future language and vocabulary to flourish. 

Expand: If your baby is beginning to use one-word utterances, expand upon it. If your child says “eat” you can say “yes, let’s eat apples.” This strategy may help your child to lengthen their own communication utterances.

Explore: Allow your baby to explore various sensory experiences. Use bubbles, let them play with food, encourage them to crawl through tunnels. Explain these experiences with the use of natural language models. When you encourage the body and mind to work together you can enhance your child’s overall cognitive development. 

Sing: Hearing your voice may help to calm your baby and can be another way to explore the use of language. You can even make up your own songs, we do it all the time! 

Narrate: Think about what your child would say if they were able to speak and model if for them. When playing outside they may say “wow, look at the flowers!” Give your child the language they need. 

At Building Blocks Therapy Services, our therapists are trained to support your child’s speech and language development. Our therapists are ready to give you and your child the tools to encourage successful communication. If you are interested in learning more please visit www.buildingblocksgr.com or call (616) 570-925. Your child deserves the best, and at Building Blocks Therapy Services, we're here to make it happen.

Sources:

Healthychildren.org

Stuttering Throughout the Lifespan

 What is stuttering? It can be characterized as a break in the forward flow of connected speech often resulting in repetitions of words, parts of words or whole words. Blockages of airflow can occur in which no sound is being produced or sustained sounds (i.e. mmmmmmm-monkey). It is not abnormal for children of a young age to have disfluencies in their speech as a result of the rapid language development occurring. Research has shown that about 5% of children are likely to be disfluent at some point in their development, typically around age 2.5 to 5 years old. It is not uncommon for children to transition between fluent and disfluent speech, with disfluencies that can often be triggered by a rush to complete a thought, excitement or exhaustion. 

What should I look for?

In most situations stuttering will resolve itself after a short period of time. In other instances stuttering will continue as children develop. During language development, children are rapidly increasing their vocabulary. The sequence and complexity with which they use words can result in a disruption in the coordination of a smooth sentence. 

Typical 

• Repeating phrases and whole words (I want to- I want to play;please-please-go get it)

• Use of filler words (uh or umm)

• No tension of physical struggle when speaking 

• No negative reaction or frustration 

• No family history of stuttering 

• Disfluencies last less than 6 months 

Not Typical

• Repeating sounds or syllables (s-s-s-snake)

• Sound prolongations (mmmmee)

• Blocks: Child appears to be attempting to make a sound but cannot. 

• Secondary physical behaviors that may accompany a stutter including 

• Hand tapping

• Eye blinking 

• Throat clearing 

• Facial grimacing 

• Family history of stuttering 

• Disfluencies last longer than 6 months 

What does treatment look like?

At Building-Blocks Therapy services our trained speech-language pathologists are instrumental at supporting both children, adolescents and adults who stutter by providing strategies to modify speech and reduce tension during stuttering events. Our therapists use strategies to bring awareness to the rate of speech and to normalizing stuttering. Stuttering modification techniques can include stretching initial sounds or sliding into words to decrease tension and consequently disfluencies. Our therapists work hard to treat the whole person including any negative thoughts, feelings and beliefs revolving around their stutter. 

Treatment for adults who stutter often will address the underlying feelings such as guilt and shame that can be associated with stuttering. It is helpful to consider the analogy of an iceberg coined by Dr. Sheehan. The stutter, dysfluent speech and secondary behaviors are most noticeable and prevalent, just like the tip of an iceberg. However, it is the negative thoughts, feelings and beliefs that lie below the surface that make up a majority of the iceberg. As this analogy illustrates, strategies for impacting fluency on the surface are beneficial in the short term however, it is the focus on the feelings below the surface that can bring about long term change. 

https://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/toddler/Pages/Stuttering-in-Toddlers-Preschoolers.aspx

https://www.stutteringhelp.org/blog/sheehan-stuttering-analogy 

A Guide to Myofunctional Disorders

What are Myofunctional Disorders?

Myofunctional disorders are conditions that affect the muscles and functions of the face impacting how an individual breathes, swallows and speaks. They can be caused by thumb sucking, tethered oral tissue, or just the way the shape of the face developed.

What are myofunctional red flags?

• Open mouth posture

• Slow/picky eating

• Teeth grinding

• Thumb sucking

• Snoring

• Sleep difficulties

• Bags under eye

• Speech difficulties

• Misalignment of teeth

• Jaw pain

• Coughing/choking

• Noisy/messy eating

Other red flags exist, please speak to your provider about other signs/symptoms you or your child may be experiencing.

Who is a candidate for myofunctional therapy?

Myofunctional therapy is suitable for a wide range of individuals starting from around age 4 and extending to adults. A therapist is still able to work with children under the age of 4, though it may look a little different. The therapist uses feeding techniques that are rooted in myofunctional techniques.

What can I expect during therapy?

The goals of myofunctional therapy are to improve oral muscle function and habits across the lifespan. It aims to correct muscle imbalances, compensatory movements, promote proper swallowing and nasal breathing. Therapy consists of teaching the smaller steps to break down the process of oral range of motion until it becomes a rote generalized movement.

What can impact treatment?

The progress of myofunctional therapy can be impacted in a variety of ways. Your clinician is committed to communicating any observed barriers and possible solutions including:

• Upper airway resistance

• Enlarged tonsils/adenoids

• Nasal congestion

• Difficulty following home program

• Current orthodontic treatment

What are oral tethered issues?

Sometimes a myofunctional evaluation reveals tethered oral tissues (TOTs). TOTs are connective tissues in the lips, tongue and/or cheeks restricting the full oral range of motion for feeding and/or speech. After an evaluation, TOTs should be released if they are having a functional impact. 

At Building Blocks we strongly recommend pre and post-op therapy when treating TOTs. This aids in:

• Decreasing the risk of scarring following release.

• Decreasing the risk of re-attachment.

• Overall improvement in functional skills for feeding and speech.

At Building Blocks Therapy Services, our therapists are trained in myofunctional therapy approaches to support your child’s feeding and swallowing. If you have questions about myofunctional therapy please visit www.buildingblocksgr.com or call (616) 570-925.

Shared Reading at Any Age

Boost your child’s language skills with shared reading! Take a look at the strategies below to assist your child with reading at any age!

Infants

• Position yourself in front of your baby with your face clearly visible

• Pick books with simple pictures 

• Model saying 1 to 2 words to describe each page

• For example, “dog” “hi, dog” “dog run” etc.

• Use facial expressions as you read 

• Great books for infants…

• Where’s Spot?

• The Very Hungry Caterpillar

• Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See?

• Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you Hear? 

• Little Blue Truck

Toddlers

• Position yourself near you child

• Be flexible! 

• Follow your child’s lead

• Toddlers often like to ask questions about the book and pictures

• Shared book reading with your toddler might NOT be reading the words on the page

• Instead, you might spend the time answering your child’s questions

• For example, your toddler might point to pictures in the book and ask, “what’s that?”

• You should name the picture or action, i.e. “dog” then add another word(s) to describe the picture or action, i.e. “dog run” “big dog” “hi, dog” etc. 

• You might also ask your child to identify and find things on each page

• For example, you might say, “where is the cat?” “what does the cat say?”

• Let your toddler practice turning pages

• You might say, “next page” then wait for your child to turn the page

• Great books for toddlers…

• Llama Llama Red Pajama

• The Little Engine that Could

• Corduroy

• If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

• Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site

Preschoolers

• Position yourself near the child

• Like toddlers, preschool readers may also want to ask many questions about the book and pictures

• Follow your child’s lead

• If your preschooler points to a picture and asks, “what’s that?” then you should name the picture or action and add 2+ descriptor words

• For example, your child points to a dog in the picture book and asks, “what’s that?” 

• Then, you might say, “Dog. Dog is big and black. Dog runs fast!” 

• The number of descriptor words you model will depend on your child’s language level

• For example, if your child typically uses 3 words to communicate wants and needs, then you should model 4-5 words in a sentence to describe a picture scene

• Alternately, some preschoolers may be ready to answer open-ended questions about pictures 

• For example, you might ask, “who is in the picture?” “where are they?” “what is the man doing?” “what color is the house?” 

• At this age, children may also be able to answer questions to make predictions

• For example, you might ask, “what do you think will happen next?”

• Great books for preschoolers…

• I Can Read Biscuit

• Pete the Cat books

• We’re Going on a Bear Hunt

• Madeline

• Are You My Mother?

School-aged children

• Position yourself near the child

• At this age, your child will likely be able to enjoy longer stories with more words per page and/or pictures with more details 

• Similarly to preschoolers, school-aged children will benefit from answering questions about the book or pictures

• For example, “what are they doing?” “who is in the tree?” “where are the kids?”

• In addition to these simple questions, you might start to ask questions about motivation or emotion

• For example, “why are the kids running?” “why is the boy crying?” “why does she feel happy?”

• This is also a great age to start asking questions about the main idea

• For example, at the end of the story, you might ask, “what was the story about?” 

• If this is still too difficult for your child, then ask questions about the events of the story in order, i.e. “what happened first?” “what happened next?” “how did the story end?”

• You might also ask your child to retell the story from their own memory

• For example, at the end of the book, you might say, “now you tell me the story back with as many details as you can remember. What happened in the book?”

• Great books for school-age children…

• Good Dog book series

• The Rainbow Fish

• Curious George books

• There was an Old Lady Who book series

What’s the role of the Speech Therapist in reading?

At Building Blocks Therapy Services, each of our Speech Therapists is equipped with the skills and knowledge to help you and your child learn language through shared reading! We care about your child’s ability to communicate at home, school and in the community. Please, visit www.buildingblocksgr.com or call (616) 570-925 to learn more about supporting your child’s language development through shared reading. We look forward to building a relationship with you and your child!

Source:

Reading Milestones (2022), Cynthia M. Zettler-Greeley, PhD

https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/milestones.html