Let’s use a real life example. I have been working with a client who is 16 years old. Her mother called me because she continues to demonstrate residual TH and R errors, despite having years upon years of traditional speech therapy in the clinic. When I met her, I realized that she is very capable of making both the R and the TH sounds and can even do so quite proficiently while speaking during the therapy session, but yet she does not use these skills during her everyday speech.
Now, I have so many parents who will tell me that their child is just being lazy. My perspective is that our brains are wired to be fast and efficient and kids are NO exception to the rule. Laziness implies that a child knows what is good for them or what they should do, and are instead of making a conscious decision not to do it. I don’t think that this is what our kids are doing with their speech sounds. I think that their brains are looking for the most efficient path forward in order to allocate resources to learning new things. Do any of you remember what it was like navigating all of the social dynamics in high school? We need all the resources we can get at this point.
So, I dug a little bit deeper and took a look at what this young lady’s tongue was doing not only while she’s speaking, but also while she is breathing and while she is swallowing. I come to find out that she has what is known as a tongue thrust swallow, meaning that her tongue is pushing up against her teeth each time that she swallows. I also noticed that she is breathing with her mouth instead of her nose, and when I ask her more questions about this, she replies that she has always had difficulty breathing through her nose and it feels as though she is trying to take in air through a coffee stir stick. YIKES!
Mother also reported in her intake paperwork that she has had difficulty breathing through her nose since infancy, but every professional they have met up until this point has dismissed it saying that her airway is not an issue. I suspect that this intelligent and sweet young lady is not purposely neglecting her speech sounds during everyday conversation, but rather the prolonged patterns of her tongue for breathing and speaking and swallowing, make using her good R and her good TH sounds next to impossible to maintain on an everyday basis.
Instead of taking the approach where she needs to have hundreds of R words said every single day to make a new habit, I believe a different approach should be taken to address how her tongue moves during breathing and swallowing, which will then build the necessary muscles and function to be able to maintain the good R and TH that she already can make and facilitate using these sounds during her everyday conversation. Her family was relieved to hear that there maybe a different approach that could help their daughter compared to the endless repetitions and drill work that they had tried in previous therapy.
And this is not my only example… this is one in a large number of kids, specifically in junior high and high school who need one last little boost to get them over the hump. Did you know that the definition of insanity is? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
-Kasey