In order for the child with Down Syndrome to start speaking faster, the stimulus must start in the newborn right through breastfeeding because this helps a lot in strengthening the muscles of the face and breathing.
The strengthening of structures used in speech, such as lips, cheeks and tongue, is essential because they are weakened, being one of the main characteristics of Down Syndrome, but in addition to breastfeeding there are other strategies that can help in the development of this child's speech .
Find out everything about Down Syndrome here.
6 Exercises to help you speak
It is normal for the child with Down Syndrome to have difficulty sucking, swallowing, chewing and controlling the movements of the lips and tongue, but these simple exercises can be done at home by the parents, being of great help to improve food and nutrition. the child's speech:
- Stimulate the sucking reflex, using a pacifier so that the baby can learn to suck. The baby should breastfeed, preferably, and the parents should insist that they see this as a great difficulty, because it is a very big muscular effort for the baby. See the complete guide to breastfeeding for beginners.
- Pass a soft toothbrush inside the baby's mouth, gums, cheeks and tongue every day so that he moves his mouth, opening and closing his lips;
- Wrap the finger with gauze and gently wipe the inside of the baby's mouth. You can moisten the gauze with water and gradually vary the flavors, moistening with liquid gelatin of various flavors;
- Playing with the baby making sounds so that he can imitate;
- Talk a lot with the baby so that he can participate in all activities that involve music, sounds and conversations;
- In children older than 6 months, cups with different spouts, anatomical spoons and straws of different calibers can be used to feed themselves.
These exercises stimulate the muscles and also the Central Nervous System which is still in formation, being a great stimulus that helps to develop the baby's abilities.
See exercises that can help your baby sit, crawl and walk faster.
The speech therapist can indicate the performance of other exercises, according to the needs of each child and the stimulation does not have a deadline to end, and one of the main objectives is to make the child able to speak the words correctly, forming phrases and being easily understood by other children.
But in addition to the speech therapy sessions, it is also necessary to monitor motor and school development throughout the childhood of the child with Down Syndrome. See how physiotherapy can help your baby sit, crawl and walk in this video:
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