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Moving our tongue and lips when we talk is affected by the state of our teeth. For children this can change on a weekly basis. The first set of teeth come through during the period when your child is learning to talk. In the early years of school, they start falling out and a new set of teeth come through intermittently over the next few years. Add to this dental work such as braces and you can see how physical changes in the mouth force your child to learn and relearn how to say the speech sounds year after year. If your child has a persistent speech problem, make an appointment so we can assess the situation and organise an appropriate program.
On another issue regarding teeth, ear infections are very common when new teeth come through. These infections can cause substantial hearing loss for a week or two and so make learning in the noisy environment of school very difficult. Failure to learn key basic skills at this time can lead to long term learning or language problems so if you know your child has had a series of ear infections it is a good idea to have their learning and language skills assessed.
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