Tuesday, July 05, 2005

tongue-tied......

ok, so......I spent extra time today with a client.....because I was fascinated with her speech impediment ....not in a pitiable, or patronizing way.....more in a clinical way that one can and should approach symptoms that are not readily understood.......I watched her tongue carefully....and concluded that she may be tongue-tied......which means that there is a small band of tissue holding her tongue too close to the bottom of her mouth....restricting movement ....and thus blurring pronounciation of certain words.....she was older, and at ease with her vocalizations....talking a mile-a-minute in almost unintelligible strands of sound......which I struggled to understand ......w-sounds, t-sounds, j-sounds..and d-sounds were the hardest to make out...I have associated tongue-tie with speech difficulty after a breastfeeding workshop highlighted the condition as a cause for poor feeding........and the speaker mentioned that a baby with tongue-tie is usually born to a parent with the same problem.....resolved or unresolved .........and that it is ethical to ask the tongue -tied parent if they also desire treatment........a small snip is all that it takes.......to make a world of difference........but I didn't ask my 65+ client about her speech therapy history..././.because the opportunity never came up.......fascinating........so fascinating

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