Could having a dummy at night be affecting ds's speech?

[colditz]

Just read something about strange facial muscles... and have noticed in the last week that ds aged 2.9 doesn't really move his mouth a lot when he speaks. I am taking him back to see the speech therapist, and I started him at playschool 1 day a week in December, and now I am wondering if I should take the dummy away too?

But he really does only have it at night. it stays in his cot, I hate to see a child try to speak through a dummy.

So purely from a speech point of view, never mind the aesthetics, could a night time dummy be affecting my ds's speech?

I doubt it. at least, dd sucks her thumb and might be a little late with her talking (like 3 - 6 months behind) but is otherwise normal.

lots of children mumble - is your ds particularly hrd to understand or are you just worried about what the movements look like?

He is quite hard to understand, everything seems to come out as if he has been on the beer! I catch about 70% of what he says, his dad about 50%, but everyone else only catches it when it is particularly clear.

he is quite a stoic child anyway, and has never made a lot of noises compared to his peers, but I have been assured by the SALT that this is his personality rather than an inability.

Both DD and DS had a dummy until 2 years old. DD had delayed speech and was seen by a SALT for 1.5 years. She has now been completely discharged even thought her words are not always clear.

DS has been speaking clearly for as long as I can remember. He never even had a babble stage, he went from 1 word to full sentences!

So I doubt a dummy is causing it.

DS gave up his soother at 3 and his speech is fine, so try not to worry too much.

When he was 2.5 he developed the most dreadful stammer, we know a SALT socially who said leave him alone it is all in there and will come out clearly when he is ready. We met her 6 months later and she walked to me at a drinks party and said with an enormous smirk, I hear you can't shut your DS up.

So try not to worry too much.

I cannot image how it could affect speech Colditz.

HOwever, thinking about it more, I think there could be a connection, but not in the way you are thinking. I think some children don't have as much sensation/sensory feedback from their mouths, so for them a dummy is really important and they hang on to it longer, but they may also have trouble articulating because of the lack of oral feedback. I suspect that this affects ds to some extent as he has other sensory problems and mouthed everything for years.

Aloha, would that link in with Ds not moving his mouth very much??

Possibly. Maybe poor muscle tone in the mouth area? They usually recommend things like blowing bubbles and other exercises to help with that. How is teh rest of his muscle tone? Ds's isn't brilliant.

Sorry Aloha, got called away.

The rest of his muscle tone is fine I think, he is physically strong, can nearly hold a pen properly, climbs like a chimp, manages up and down stairs, slides, ladders, stairgates, and can run, jump and dance a bit.

I don't know how much mouth movement is normal tbh, I have probably been weirding my friends out by staring at their children's mouths.....