Sampley

This 9 year old had been dropped from his school speech program due to lack of progress in correcting his anterior lisp over four years. Unsurprisingly, his self-esteem was very low. He sucked two fingers 24/7, had a lips-apart posture, habitually breathed through his mouth and suffered constant nasal congestion. Headaches, stomachaches, gas, burping and hiccups were daily occurrences. His head/neck/body posture was poor, and he had jaw sounds and pain, restless sleep, sleep apnea and ringing in the ears. His dental arches were narrow, and he had both an over-jet and an open bite, low forward rest tongue posture and a tongue thrust swallow. Poor habits included leaning, lip-biting, facial mannerisms and stomach sleeping with his hands under his face.

We began with a motivational program to help him stop the finger-sucking habit, then moved on to therapy exercises. In just 6 months, the improvements in his appearance made him look much more mature. His parents reported a complete change and an end to all symptoms. Even the speech problems self-corrected. There was a dramatic change in his self-esteem.