How to Improve Speech and Developmental Delays

Does your child struggle forming their words correctly, speaking their thoughts, or have difficulty with fine motor skills like buttoning their shirt, eating with a fork, or cutting with scissors 🫤? This can cause a lot of frustration for a child and parent because these skills are essential for effective communication, self-care, play, and daily living.

If left uncorrected, delayed speech or motor skills can have significant and long-lasting impacts on a child's overall development and quality of life😥. Some potential consequences of leaving these challenges unaddressed include:

• The development of abnormal compensatory behaviors or other delays in acquiring new skills

• Altered processing and integration of key brain functions such as focus, attention, memory, and emotional regulation

• Academic difficulties such as reading, writing, and learning difficulties

• Social and emotional challenges to accurately express themselves and connect relationally with others

• Feelings of embarrassment, frustration, low self-esteem, and even anxiety or depression

While children with these challenges may benefit from various professional intervention, one crucial aspect to consider is the role the nervous system plays in orchestrating their movements and facilitating speech. In the following sections, we will explore the intricate relationship between the nervous system, speech disorders, and motor skills development, while providing practical strategies from a TRT chiropractic perspective to support children with these conditions, empowering them to reach their full potential. 👊

What is Happening in the Nervous System of a Child with Apraxia of Speech?

Apraxia of Speech is a neurological condition 🧠 that affects the ability to plan and execute the movements necessary for speech production. In these children, the nervous system works tirelessly behind the scenes, adapting and striving to bridge the communication gap between the brain and muscles of the mouth and tongue. 👅

➡️This “communication gap”, referred to as subluxation in the chiropractic world, prevents the messages responsible for coordinating speech movements 👄to get through correctly, resulting in distorted sounds, inconsistent errors of speech, or mistakes in tone, inflection, or rhythm of words. (The problem is NOT weak or genetically altered muscles).

🌟 With the help of a trained pediatric chiropractor, these children's nervous systems can make extraordinary progress through gentle adjustments that REMOVE nerve interference and RESTORE communication pathways 💫 that are currently blocked.

The result: A happy, confident child who can now say what his or her brain is telling him! 🙌

Assessments to Determine Cause of Speech or Motor Delays

Do you wonder if your child’s speech or motor delays are related to a problem in their nervous system? 🧠

The best way to find out it is through our neurological scanning technology! Depending on the age of your child, we perform 3 different neurological assessments to identify where and how severe subluxation (nerve interference) is present and how stressed and unbalanced the autonomic nervous system may be. These assessments provide specific insight into why your child may not be developing skills at the appropriate rate as well as objective data to track your child’s nervous system health as they receive regular chiropractic adjustments.

We also take a thorough health history of your child as birth trauma (c-section, forceps, vacuum extraction, etc.) and other potentially stressful events can impair the nervous system’s ability to properly perceive and coordinate messages between nerves, muscles, and organ systems in the body.

Helping Kids with Delayed Speech or Motor Skills

How does chiropractic care help kids with speech disorders that are DIFFERENT than speech therapy practitioners (SLPs)?

Speech therapists 👄use a variety of techniques and interventions to address speech disorders in children. These may include articulation exercises, language stimulation activities, oral motor exercises, voice therapy, augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices.

While speech therapy can help children and parents learn methods for working around the challenges that speech disorders bring, chiropractic care seeks to improve the overall health and function of the nervous system which directly impacts a child’s speech and motor development. Specifically, the brain and motor nerves which control those skills may be experiencing nerve interference 💥which weakens coordination between the eyes, hands, feet, and mouth.

Chiropractic care addresses the ROOT CAUSE of speech and motor delays through specific neurological testing and locating where there is increased stress and tension stuck in the nervous system. By locating the primary points of subluxation within your child’s nervous system and removing it through specific, gentle adjustments, we can allow this amazing system to communicate at its optimal level and resolve the central cause of the delay.

The goal of a trained pediatric chiropractor is not to treat or cure the speech or motor impairment but to address the subluxation (nerve interference) that may be contributing to your child’s health challenges. Listen HERE as Dr. Kyle explains more.

Empower your child’s journey towards confident speech and movement by booking an appointment to have their nervous system scanned and get adjusted!

Story of Healing: Levy Jones

Levy was born at 24 weeks weighing just 1 lb 10 oz. Due to a premature birth, he experienced several developmental delays and health conditions including swallowing issues, acid reflux, motor skill delays, high energy, trouble focusing, and chronic lung disease. Levy had been to occupational and physical therapy, and was also on medication for acid reflux.

Some of the amazing healing Levy has experienced since beginning regular chiropractic care when he was 5 years old includes:

✅Acid reflux and gag reflux is much better (almost non-existent)

✅He gets sick less often, and when he does, the symptoms are mild and he rebounds faster

✅His lung specialist discharged Levy because he's been so healthy that Levy no longer needs to be monitored by him

✅Great improvements in the length of time he can focus and stay on a task

✅His high energy is more controlled

"Levy is making great strides in school as a first grader. His ability to focus and sit still for longer periods of time is a big win! Where taking him out to restaurants or shopping used to be unpredictable and quite stressful, we are actually finding these activities enjoyable now." - Rachael (Levy's mom)

💕 Unlock your child’s speech and developmental potential through neurologically focused chiropractic care. Together, we can make their voices heard! 🗣️ Book an appointment with us today or call us with any questions.