Tongue tie and speech

[Sux2buthen]

Does anyone have any knowledge or experience with young children that had a suspected (slight) tongue tie that wasn't altered? Regarding speech issues as they got older?
There's conflicting answers online; some information says there's no link but some say there can be.
I'm asking in regards to my child

I didn't post this at the best of times of day so a hopeful bump

We've just had our son's tongue tie divided on Friday. He also had a slight tongue tie and when they examined him they said that if we left his tongue tie it wouldn't affect his speech in the future. It might be worth having the consultation and then deciding about the procedure.

My DH got his tongue tie corrected quite recently, in his 30's. His speech was fine but apparently it can cause migraines. Since he's had it fixed, he's not had one.

She's just turned 5 and she has some speech difficulties; waiting for SALT, it's been a long time.
It was decided not to get it changed when she was a baby because her latch improved. However I'm now wondering if this is the cause of her current difficulties 😕and if there's evidence anywhere of any help.
Thankyou for replying

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Both mine have tongue tie.
BF fine so never had them snipped.
now much older with no speech issues whatsoever.
HTH

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Hi

I’m a speech therapist. Most of the time, a tongue tie doesn’t affect speech, but I have seen a handful of children who had really bad tongue ties and cutting them had a huge positive impact on speech. In general, if it didn’t significantly affect feeding, it also won’t affect speech, but it’s not as straightforward as that in every case.

Knowing which sounds your child struggles with would help to identify whether it is part of the problem. L tends to be the hardest one to say with a tongue tie, but if she does struggle with l that still doesn’t necessarily mean the tongue tie is causing it.

At least in this area, the NHS are not keen on cutting them, and the kids I know who have had them done have generally paid for it to be done privately. That may not be true in all areas though.

Hope this helps a bit - sorry I can’t give you a simple answer.

As a Speech Therapist, tongue ties don't really cause issues for speech. The sounds that need the most movement are th, r, t, d and if you try making them, your tongue doesn't need to move that much. A tongue tie restricting movement that much would definitely be impacting feeding.

If your child has any language issues I.e. with vocabulary, making sentences, following instructions, telling stories, then this is due to brain development and not the tongue.

There is more evidence emerging of the impact of some tongue ties on dentition (can you clear food off your teeth), kissing and overall tension (PP referenced migrane). I used to say don't bother snipping if they have managed feeding. Now I mention wider issues but it doesn't really impact speech.

Cross post with Curlyfrizzball - I forgot about l. Worth also saying some of these sounds are not in place for other reasons at 5, so even if he doesn't have those sounds, it is not necessarily the tongue tie causing it.

Yes, I came back to mention language issues, but I see you’ve already done that!

DS has TT that was discovered late and not divided. He ended up having two courses of SLT. Didn't really take to solids until 12 months. Had awful reflux symptoms and didn't sleep through until he was nearly 5.

It's L, th, s, z, t g, r
I'm just curious if this could be a possible cause.
She's had one appt with speech therapy and waiting for the next

Oh and Thankyou for the replies 😀

Mine had severe tongue tie that should have been snipped as a baby but the consultant denied it and no one knows why. It's now having to be done 12 years later. Professionals all agree it should never have been left. Son had to have speech therapy as a 5yo and has large braces in now to help realign his malformed jaw. He has an underbite and I joke that his teeth look like they were thrown in.

If I had known then what I know now I would have paid privately and had that two second snip as a newborn.