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Hard spout sippy cup8/4/2023 If your doctor or therapist has specifically recommended this, you should follow their advice, as it’s intended specifically for your child. NOTE: Some children with special needs my require a sippy cup with a valve in order to swallow safely. Many dentists report cavities and other dental issues associated with sippy cup use too. This can alter appropriate facial development, and your child’s speech-and-language skills typically won’t advance until the appropriate swallowing pattern does. Your speech pathologist can explain this further, but if your child’s tongue is resting forward, that means the mouth is staying open. Thus, it rests forward in the mouth (sometimes called “paci-mouth”). While occasional use of a sippy cup might not have any lasting effects, when one is in use all the time, it could impair speech and language development because the tongue is unable to elevate for long periods. Use of a sippy cup could delay this maturation. The infant suckle-swallow pattern (using the anterior-posterior tongue movement to push liquids and soft solids to the rear of the mouth to swallow) evolves into a tongue-tip pattern, wherein the tongue rises to the alveolar ridge (that bumpy gum line we use to make the “D” sound) and makes sort of a wave motion to swallow textures that are more advanced. If they are using a hard-spout sippy cup on the regular, it could impede this development. Children with poor oral movements – across the board – had language deficits, while those who had mastered oral movements fell on a continuum of language abilities.Īs a child is maturing, so too is their swallowing pattern. As noted by research published in the journal Down’s Syndrome Research and Practice, oral motor control is directly related to language. By four-years-of-age, your child should be able to eat solids and liquids without choking. Lagging oral motor skills can also impair language – and as our speech pathologists and feeding therapists know, the first three years of life are critical for oral motor development. The proper movement and coordination of these structures is essential to:Īnything that impedes oral motor development (looking at you, sippy cups) can potentially affect these functions too. Oral motor development is the use and function of one’s lips, tongue, jaw, teeth and the hard and soft palates. Your child’s oral motor development is critical to so many functions, and sippy cups may directly impact that. As Fort Myers speech pathologists, we generally advise stepping away from the sippy cup (or never offering one in the first place). And it is, but that’s the thing: It was invented more for parents than kids. They can wreak havoc on your child’s teeth and lead to oral motor delays that can snowball into speech and language impairments.Īs parents and caregivers, our FOCUS therapists totally get the convenience factor of sippy cups. Sippy cups are small, portable and help keep messes to a minimum – BUT, there’s a catch.
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