Oral motor problems anyone?

[Chundle]

hi all, we saw salt this week for 1st time and she was fab! She said she thinks dd2 has some oral motor difficulties. She asked if dd can stick her Tongue out she does to lick her chin frequently (habit) but not to copy me when I make a face at her. Dd also dribbles a lot but I thought this was her age(22 months - I forget when they stop dribbling!) but she says it's all connected.
Anyway she said it's why dd uses same word for different things that sound similar or start with the same letter ie no, noddy, nappy or all 'no'. Bubble and bib are both 'bubble'. Ball, spoon, bye are all 'ba'. Does anyone else's child talk similar? She's going to do a picture book for her to help her communicate and suggested we practise making faces in the mirror with her. She also said it sort of goes together with dds general clumsiness. Is this something they grow out of with age?? Or get better with therapy. I'm sor of relieved we finally have something to work on with her just wanted to underhand bit more bout it before our next appointment.
Ta in advance ladies

it could be oral dyspraxia. if shes clumsy aswell, she could have dyspraxia but dont quote me on it. DD (7) has oral and verbal dyspraxia and also dyspraxia

Thanks Janet I will ask more questions at our next appointment as this was my thought as well

Sorry Janet forgot to ask how was your daughters speech when she was younger?

DD2 went to nursery say 'ma, da, ba'
she has had a lot of speech therapy and currently attends a mainstream school with a language resource base attached. she gets therapy 2 or 3 times a week now, and accesses other groups. when a toddler she would use her own sign language. when she wanted to go to the shop, she would point to her hand and say 'eee eee beebee'. she would also point at things to help you out. one example was she got a green sweet at school. i couldnt work it out so she pointed to the grass then did her 'sign language' for sweet.

DD1 also had speech problems and went to nursery pointing and saying ba. everything was ba
her speech therapist was rubbish IMO. she had a list and got DD to repeat the words (examples below)

bath - ba
bag - ba
biscuit - ba

so she marked off that DD1 could say them. erm not in my view she culdnt. also DD1 if she wanted a drink she would make a slurping noise. she pointed to everything. she wasnt diagnosed with dyspraxia till she was 10 and i so wish i had pushed more when she was younger

oh with DD1 we were told to encourage the word 'more'
so give a little bit of juice, then when she wants more, she has to say 'more' (or attempt to)

with DD2 we had a lot of input from surestart too. we attended a group called 'toddler talk' which was speech orientated, tuneful tots (singing, social) and we also had a family link worker who came out weekly to work on speech. if you attend surestart have a word about any speech programs. i cant tell you what the link workers do now as im not 'in the know' now and the job titles all changed. but they can work with you on lots of subjects - toileting, speech, weaning, behaviour etc

Thanx Janet that's fab my dd makes a slurping noise if she wants a drink as well :)

Hi, you lo sounds a bit like my son (he's just turned 4). Early advice we were given was to get him to do things like blowing bubbles, sucking, putting sweet things on his lips to lick them off etc, I would expect you were told this, but google oral motor exercises for more ideas. I think how much they grow out of it depends on exactly what the problem is but keep nagging for appiontments, If it's anything like around here its a bit of a fight to get slt.

my ds 3.6 has just been assessed with verbal dyspraxia - he speaks mainly using vowels. He has speech therapy but not really enough of it - as others have said alot of it is down to you doing a lot of work at home. He is making progress but it is slow and hard work. We focus on basics - like watching us making a l sound - where the tongue goes and repeating.

Great thanks for the info guys - we have a voucher from Cerebra of £500 to spend on salt while we are on waiting list for NHS salt so this should get us several appointments. I will do a google for some exercises and will put some jam on her lips tonite tie her hands behind her back and see what happens :)

Thanks justa should she be trying to work on the deliberate one more then? Is that why they suggested the copying faces so she can do it deliberately? Thanks for the help much appreciated

Fab thanks justa