Oral breathing and speech disorders in children

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Speech Pathology
• Otolaryngology
• Developmental Pediatrics

Background:

• Mouth breathing is prevalent in children and can impact oral motor function.
• Speech alterations are a potential consequence of chronic mouth breathing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate speech alterations in children who breathe through their mouths.
• To correlate these speech issues with respiratory type, cause, gender, and age.

Main Methods:

• 439 children aged 4-12 years who were mouth-breathers were assessed.
• Speech alterations included tongue interposition, frontal lisp, articulatory disorders, sound omissions, and lateral lisp.
• Correlations were drawn between mouth breathing characteristics and speech disorders.

Main Results:

• Speech alterations were found in 31.2% of patients, irrespective of oral or mixed respiratory type.
• Articulatory disorders and multiple speech disorders were more frequent in males.
• Tongue interposition (53.3%) was the most common alteration, followed by articulatory disorders (26.3%) and frontal lisp (21.9%).

Conclusions:

• Mouth breathing significantly impacts speech development, potentially affecting socialization and academic performance.
• Early identification and intervention for mouth breathing are vital to mitigate adverse effects on child development.