Seeking a Professional: Our Speech Therapy Journey
by Sarah Small
We really thought he would outgrow it. Eventually he’d start saying “right” instead of “wight” and “guitar” instead of “guitah.” He’d eventually master his sister’s name — Laurel—which is a nightmare for kids who struggle with the L and R sounds.
Both of our boys were born with ankyloglossia, a condition in which the frenulum (that little band of tissue that connects the bottom of the tongue to the floor of the mouth) is too short and tight, thus restricting the movement of the tongue. In other words, they were tongue-tied.
A generation or more ago, it was a common procedure for a doctor to clip a newborn’s anchored tongue. But for various reasons, frenectomies fell out of favor in recent decades, including the years during which my boys were born. My sons were born seven years apart in two different states, and both pediatricians maintained that tongue-clipping wasn’t done anymore and that “they’ll grow out of it.”
