The Speech-Language MOMologist: August 2014

If you’ve ever spoken with a speech therapist concerning a young child, the topic of sippy cups and pacifiers has probably come up. All of my friends and colleagues have heard me lecture about sippy cups at some point. So what do I have against the sippy cup anyway?

To expel milk/formula from the bottle/breast, infants use a suckling pattern. The tongue moves forwards and backwards in the mouth as it presses against the nipple of the bottle/breast and never touches the alveolar ridge, which is located just above the front teeth. When drinking from a sippy cup, the spout allows your little one to continue this forward/backward motion and restricts his/her tongue from raising and reaching above the front teeth. This inhibits your little one’s ability to develop an adult-like swallowing pattern, and encourages him/her to continue to swallow like an infant. Pacifiers have the same effects.

So why is it so important that your little one develop a more mature swallowing pattern? Dentists and speech therapists both have something to add here! The immature swallow (which can develop into a “tongue thrust,” where the tongue pushes straight forward) can affect teeth alignment and can result in protruded front teeth. The limited movement of the tongue from front to back that this immature swallow encourages can result in your little having difficulty producing some speech sounds, the “s” sounds being the most common.

So what’s a mom to do? Begin transitioning your little one from a bottle to a cup as soon as possible. No spill cups that have straws are a good alternative to the sippy cup. Sipping from a straw can help your little one strengthen his/her tongue, cheeks and lips and can mimic many oral movements that children practice when developing speech.

Giving your little one a sippy cup for a short time can be totally fine, in fact each of my boys drank from a sippy cup for a little while. It’s often very difficult to teach a 6 month old to drink from a straw, so a soft spout sippy cup would be appropriate. Once your little one reaches 10 months old start going for the straw cups, preferably one that has a short straw that his/her lips surround. Practice drinking from an adult cup as well by holding it for your little one.

Prolonged drinking from a sippy cup doesn’t guarantee that your little one will have speech difficulties but why take the chance?!

Love & Language,

Marisa

This summer really has been a blast so far. We’ve been down to the Jersey Shore, to our local beach and spray park, pool hopping and even the zoo again. And still, there’s been the days we’ve spent at home enjoying each other and our backyard! We tried out this super simple Sensory Foam back in July, but with everything going on I’m only getting to share it now! It’s one of those activities that you can pull out at any time (you will likely have the materials right at home!) to add a twist to your regular activities.

Sensory Foam is actually a fancy term for regular soapy suds! Most little ones love a bubble bath and by making some foam, you can bring that joy to the backyard or your kitchen table (if you’re feeling really brave). You’ll need:

Large tub/container

Bubble bath (dishwashing liquid would work too!)

JELL-O mix (optional to add color and fragrance)

You can have your little ones help out with making this and I’m sure it would get you some giggles! Since it was the first time I was trying out the recipe, I did it myself and then placed the foam on our picnic table outside for the boys to discover on their own when we went outside. Letting your little ones discover an activity you’ve left for them is a great way to elicit some language. They’re curiousity will most likely lead them to ASK some QUESTIONS and DESCRIBE to you what they SEE, SMELL, and FEEL (sensory activities usually encourage this type of language). If your little one is only using single words or even short phrases, you can MODEL the question and observations for him/her (“I bet you’re wondering what you can do with all those bubbles!” or “Yum! I smell cherries!). Your little one is LISTENING long before they’re having in depth conversations with you, so the language you model and expose them to is very importanteven at a very young age.

Okay, fill the bottom of your tub with water (less is more) and squirt in some bubble bath (you can never use too much). If you’re using the JELL-O mix then add that as well. Grab your hand mixer and mix away! You can add more water and bubble bath as needed. I found holding the mixer still in one place made the most suds.

To make things a little more fun, I threw in our magnetic letters and numbers, but you can use any toys or figures! For really little ones, you could add toy animals to talk about their NAMES and what SOUNDS they make. Fake foods or different vehicles are two other ideas of things to add to work on expanding your little one’s VOCABULARY.

Next to the tubs, I put measuring cups and spoons so that they could scoop up the suds and pour it back and forth. I also gave the boys a cookie sheet so that they could stick the magnetic letters and numbers to it once they’d found them.