Tongue Thrust / Myofunctional Therapy

POLICY STATEMENT

TONGUE THRUST / MYOFUNCTIONAL THERAPY

IN THE WAYLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS

The goal of a speech-language pathologist in a school setting is to ensure, as reasonably as can be expected, that a child's communicative skills are sufficient to meet the demands of his/her school environment. A child's communicative skills need to be developmentally appropriate for him or her to manage the curriculum and interact effectively with his/her age peers and teachers. Any child who is failing within a regular classroom under Massachusetts law may be entitled to services in the area(s) of special needs which requires assistance for that child to meet success.

Tongue thrust or myofunctional therapy corrects an infantile swallowing pattern which adversely affects the formation of the dental arch. Since the structures involved in a tongue thrust include the tongue and teeth, it has been hypothesized that articulation of speech sounds is also affected.

Misarticulations are not always associated with a tongue thrust and the influence of tongue thrusting on speech production is unclear. Researchers who have examined tongue thrusting have studied children who tongue thrust and lisped, the misarticulation pattern associated with a tongue thrust, as well as children who tongue thrust and do not lisp (Dworkin and Culatta, 1980; Christensen and Hanson, 1981). The findings are inconclusive. No clear causal relationship or correlation was found between tongue thrusting and lisping.

Since the Wayland School's speech-language program is to address communicative disorders which interfere with children's success in the school environment (the school environment here refers to curriculum and children's interactions with peers and teachers), treatment of a tongue thrust to address dental malocclusion is unwarranted. However, should a child who has a tongue thrust present with a frontal lisp or other misarticulations, he/she will receive services to remediate the misarticulations if the pattern is developmentally inappropriate. (Lisping is commonly seen in children up to the age of seven.)

Treatment for an articulation disorder will be based on standard procedures for correcting misarticulations or phonological errors. Because the relationship between tongue thrust therapy and misarticulations, primarily a frontal lisp, has not been established, tongue thrust therapy is not a viable treatment offered by the Wayland Public Schools.

Christensen, M. and Hanson, M. (1981). An Investigation of the efficacy of oral myofunctional therapy as a precursor to articulation therapy for pre-first grade children. The Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 46, 160-165.