Anne M Ferraro, MS CCC SLP (C)

you may want to contact and schedule an assessment of your oral motor patterns to discern the reason your tongue is moving more forward during speech production.

there is technically no difference between the terms, "Speech Therapist" and "Speech Language Pathologist" . In order to be certified by ASHA, all practitioners must have completed a Masters Program in Speech -Language Pathology, complete a final board examination and a Fellowship Program. It's just a choice I believe in the title people use or how one is referred to. thank you for your question... it's a common question

A very good question. Without a good assessment of the lingual / tongue movements and your child's speech articulation skills, a :tongue tie" may or may not result in challenges "speaking clearly". I would ask your pediatrician for a referral to have your child evaluated by a Speech -Language Pathologist.

Thank you for your question. As you know all children develop skills at different rates. Having said that, we do know that there are certain milestones children reach in their development of verbal language or general communication. Typically we expect children to go through periods of discovering sounds and their voice early on which is essentially babbling along with reaching, pointing , waving etc. Single words are felt to emerge shortly after at 12 + months. It's difficult to determine what skills your child has so it may be best to have a comprehensive Speech -Language Evaluation completed through a private practitioner, outpatient center or through a local Early Intervention Program. All will assess your child'r understanding of language, expressive abilities, play skills and overall social communication (the "why" your child communicates). you may want to speak with your pediatrician and seek assistance to clarify your concerns and perhaps put your mind at ease. Best wishes, Anne

Thank you for your question. There are many factors which play into whether or not a child will outgrow a lisp, age being one of the factors as well as other factors such as past and present oral habits. If he is of school age, you may be able to contact his teacher to have the Speech -Language Pathologist meet with him and assess his overall speech articulation and oral motor skills. Or you can have an outside Speech -Language Pathologist complete the assessment. Best wishes and hope all goes smoothly

Thank you for your question. Yes those "R's" can be troublesome. I typically assess oral motor and speech articulation skills as well as stimulability (ability to change), to determine if a child will "outgrow" the speech pattern. I have worked with children of all ages with the youngest of 5-6 years of age.

You may want to seek a formal speech / oral motor assessment with a Speech Pathologist either through the local school department or an outside Speech -Language Pathologist. Best wishes

Thank you for your question.... a very common question which many parents and grandparents ask.. The word "Praxis" means movement. Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is a speech disorder which is typically related to a child's ability to move the speech muscles in a coordinated smooth fashion from one place to another as needed for making sounds in a sequence to produce a word. If you think of a word as a sequence of movements say, "Mama" the child easily knows to close his/ her lips to produce /m/ then open the jaw to produce /a/ which is a fairly easy sequence. Some children are able to say the early developing reduplicated words as in, 'mama, dada, baba" yet are challenged when the sequence of movements are more complicated as in "mommy" or "bye" ( with tendency to say, "bah") A seasoned Speech -Language Pathologist should be able to assist your granddaughter in learning the words she needs to get her daily needs. Speech therapy is frequently provided on an individual basis providing tactile input ( that is, feeling the movement and placement) for "feeling" the sound placement/ production. Further, oftentimes, we use "sign language" or "picture supports " to assist in getting the child's needs met which may alleviate some frustration for both the child and the caregivers. I would ask to observe her therapy sessions as well to gain insight regarding the methods which help her progress in her speech production. for further information there are websites such as, *Apraxia-Kids.org* which may further assist in learning more about CAS. with kind regards, Anne M Ferraro, MS CCC SLP Speech -Language Pathologist