Building communication and growing confidence
It all starts with listening
Signs & Symptoms
Turning challenges into triumphs
- Mouth breathing
- Low facial tone
- Drooling
- Tongue thrusting
- Choking or gagging
- Slow weight gain
- Inability to breast or bottle feed
- Feeding aversion
- Reduced ability to tolerate a variety of foods
- Developmental delays
- Language delays
- Reduced ability to play or interact with others
- Decreased attention
- Sensory breakdowns
- Speech sound distortions
- Stuttering
- Difficulty with reading & comprehension
Possible diagnoses
Getting to the root of the symptoms
- Receptive and/or Expressive Language Disorder
- Articulation disorder
- Phonological disorders
- Apraxia
- Social and pragmatic language disorder
- Fluency disorder
- Aphasia
- Autism
- Cognitive-communication disorders
- Sensory disorders
- Fluency disorders
- Dysarthria
- Reading comprehension
- Dysphagia and swallowing disorders
- Failure to thrive
- Orofacial myofunctional disorders
The supportive path forward
Frequently asked questions related to speech therapy
Schools’ primary focus in speech therapy is related to educational needs. We differ, as our therapy is more clinical in nature. If your child has challenges with chewing or swallowing foods, breathing, sleeping, or speaking, we can offer a different perspective and therapeutic training that can improve their overall functioning and quality of life. After our services, parents frequently report their kids feel better; are more rested; are less sick; perform better in school, as they are more alert and attentive; increase oral intake; eat more foods; are better understood by their peers and teachers, as their speech is clearer; and have fewer behavioral concerns.
There are many adults who haven’t found solutions to correcting a lisp or speech distortion. Trestle’s expertise can identify muscle and motor dysfunction, which may be the cause of the speech disorder. Then we can use our integrative techniques to retrain the tongue muscles and normalize the motor patterns of the tongue to improve speech clarity and eliminate distortion. It’s beautiful when we see our clients go into a job interview or business meeting, or present in public speaking events, with the confidence they deserve.
Airway disorders can affect overall development and exacerbate cognitive-linguistic challenges, including difficulty attending and participating in school and home routines, difficulty with emotional regulation, challenges with memory, and behavioral breakdowns.
Tethered oral tissues of the tongue and lips can negatively affect speech and swallowing. If there are speech or swallowing concerns, tongue- and lip-ties should be identified early on and ruled out as they can contribute to the causes of the speech and swallow disorders.
Ear infections can be one of the main causes of a speech or language delay. We highly recommend completing hearing screenings with most of our patients early in the evaluation process to rule out hearing loss. If a child cannot hear sounds and words, or speech sounds distorted, they will likely have challenges learning language and have more communication breakdowns. Hearing screenings are non-invasive and very easy to complete. If a hearing loss is identified, intervention is necessary, and it should be treated as soon as possible.
Speech therapy can also help through improving attention, memory, sequencing, and turn-taking, so your child can attend better in school and do better with transitions at home, effectively reducing breakdowns throughout the day.
Speech therapy can also increase their ability to put words together and produce clear sounds, so your child can communicate more efficiently with others, improving their self-esteem and confidence. Our goal at Trestle is to empower each child to independently express their thoughts and feelings.
