[Evaluation of speech therapy and rehabilitation exercises in mouth-breathers]

Mouth breathing induces a low rest posturing of the tongue and tongue thrusting in many cases. This disturbs the development of the oral functions. The first stage of the reeducation is nose breathing's rehabilitation in order to "liberate" the tongue. Nasal breathing cannot be taught exteriorly . It's a result of the physical well-being. It's important to observe the mouth breathers and understand their needs. The second stage of the reeducation concerns the tongue moving tonicity and suppleness. Every exercise relies on the proprioceptive control that makes the child aware of each motion of the tongue. The next stages will be the recovering of the different functions as the rest tongue posture, swallowing, chewing. The use of phonation (lingual alveolar speech sounds) will facilitate the automatism of the new functions, because the children feel the elevation of the tongue.