Speech Therapy and Oral Braces

I suppose each case is different. I am absolutely no expert. All I know is that my child was put in speech last year. He got an expander earlier this year (big bar going across his mouth to widen his pallet). I thought for sure we'd have to take a break from speech. The therapist told me that it would affect some sounds, but she could still work with him and keep him improving. Right now he has braces AND an expander. She told me the braces make some shapes a bit more challenging to practice, especially at first, but she has several students with braces and she wants to keep working with him. I asked about when they came off, and she said she didn't think he would have to relearn anything, but with a properly aligned mouth, speech will just be easier for him. BUt like I said, I am not an expert. Every kid and every case is different. Have you considered a consultation with another therapist? Just to see if your school therapist is correct in her conclusions?

The therapist is right. My 5th grader has the very same problem. He has an overbite and a slight lateral lisp that can only be corrected with orthodontics. Be patient and wait for the orthodontia to be completed, and then get her back into speech therapy. Doing anything else is basically wasting her time. You may find that her speech will correct itself due to the changes in her bite and oral structure.

My 8 year old has an underbite that will start to be corrected with braces this year. At his most recent speech eval (we still haven't done therapy after many attempts at getting the school district to recognize a speech issue and provide services in school), the therapist noted that the misalignment of his jaw is creating gaps in his bite on both sides that contribute to his "slushy" speech and that it would make sense to wait until after the ortho is done (at least to a degree that those gaps are closed) to pursue therapy.

My siblings and I all had braces, as has one of my kids, and none of us needed speech therapy during or after braces just to accommodate the braces, but your daughter's speech issues may indeed require that depending on what they are. It's certainly not a routine expectation for ortho patients to do speech therapy. Most of us learn to work around the braces and still speak clearly - I had a palate expander, braces, my jaw wired shut and a retainer and managed to adapt each time.

I would think that it makes sense to wait until the braces are done to pursue speech therapy so that she just has to learn one set of techniques once and for all with out any further re-training.

I had a lisp as a young child, which was eliminated as a result of speech therapy in elementary school. After braces in high school, the lisp returned and I had to have speech therapy again. Unless your daughter's needs are so significant that they need to be addressed immediately, it likely would be a waste of time to have speech therapy before her braces comes off.

As the braces move her teeth she'll need to learn simple things differently. I'd sit down with the orthodontist and visit with them about the changes and how that will effect her speech. Chances are she may not even need speech once the reason for her problems are corrected. She may need a bit but if the speech therapist said to get them fixed then call her again that's pretty much saying her overbite is the entire cause of the issue and until it's fixed you are wasting your money and she is wasting her time.

Yes, it depends on what sounds she's working on but it really is a waste of time to work on while a kid has braces, better to wait and hopefully be able to fix her speech more quickly after the overbite is corrected.