Why ISN'T My Child's Problem Treated at School?
Parents often assume that the Speech Therapist at their child's school has been trained to do therapy for Orofacial Muscle Disorder (OMD) e.g. tongue thrust. Unfortunately, this is not true. At the present time, very few graduate programs of Speech Pathology even include these particular problems in their courses.
By federal law, a child in the public schools can only receive speech services for an educationally handicapping condition that falls into one of five groups: articulation, dysfluency, language, voice and hearing disorders. An articulation disorder is often-but not always-associated with an orofacial muscle disorder; however, the therapist often does not have the specialized training to address this aspect.
Most school districts wisely do not allow their therapists to treat orofacial myology disorders within their schools because they understand that it is primarily a medical not an educational disorder. While poor orofacial muscle ability is frequently associated with an articulation problem, your dental, medical or educational professional has referred you to a trained Orofacial Myologist because your child has a medical problem that can adversely affect his/her dental, and possibly craniofacial development. They have referred you to an active member of the International Association of Orofacial Myology (IAOM), who is also a Speech-Language Pathologist with a Certificate of Clinical Competence (CCC-SLP) from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). They want your child to receive the highest quality care from the most qualified expert!
Fact: Approximately 80% of all OMD patients have an airway and/or respiratory problem and the other 20% usually have a detrimental habit, such as digit sucking. Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is becoming a common chronic disease: 7 - 13% of all preschool children snore, 2 - 3% of them have OSA. OSA can result in a 10 point drop in IQ and poor academic performance. However, these are clearly medical issues best addressed by an experienced professional in a one-on-one therapy setting.
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Christine 719-434-0888