In my last post, I explored the biochemical factors that impact speech—things like nutrition, toxicity, gut health, and inflammation—and how they create neurological ripple effects that influence speech development. But biochemistry is only one piece of the puzzle.
Speech isn’t just about neurotransmitters and nutrients—it’s about how different regions of the brain communicate with each other. When key brain connections are weak or underdeveloped, it can cause significant challenges with speech and language.
In this post, we’ll explore how retained reflexes, poor vestibular development, brain hemisphere imbalance, and other neurological factors can impact speech—and more importantly, what you can do to support your child’s development.
When kids struggle with speech, our instinct is to focus on improving communication by seeing a Speech Language Pathologist and we absolutely need these professionals. However, speech therapy is not where we should start. The first thing we need to address is nutrition and gut health and then we need to address the weak connections in the lower brain levels and that begins with integrating primitive reflexes.
The Role of Retained Primitive Reflexes in Speech Issues
The research shows 100% of kids with learning issues, including speech challenges, have retained primitive reflexes that contribute to speech impairments whether that be apraxia or more subtle issues with expressive language.
The Moro Reflex is foundational and can affect the auditory system which in turn can impact how a child hears and processes sounds. A retained Moro reflex can also cause issues with breathing and mouth breathing which can result in poor lip and tongue resting position in addition to poor muscle tone in the mouth all of which can contribute to challenges with both comprehension and articulation.
The Spinal Galant is commonly retained among children with multiple ear infections as well as those with auditory processing issues. This is because in utero the Spinal Galant reflex conducts sound in the womb from the skin to the ear via a mix of skin and bone conduction.
The ATNR is highly associated with language and communication and is retained in 90% of children with dyslexia and is also often retained in those with speech issues. The ATNR can impact hearing, motor skills and balance all which have an impact on language and communication.
The TLR is another reflex that can cause challenges with speech since it can cause issues with sequencing which is necessary for everything from speech to spelling. This reflex also greatly affects the motor system involved in speech and articulation.
The Rooting Reflex is another reflex that is very commonly retained in children with speech issues. Located around the mouth and cheeks, this reflex will cause issues with motor coordination of the mouth and facial muscles.
Visual Processing Issues
You wouldn’t think that speech can be impacted by visual processing issues but in a developing brain it can create added stress on an already disorganized brain. Visual processing utilizes a lot of energy in the brain – which is why even if you can’t fall asleep, you will feel more rested if you lay down and keep your eyes closed compared to if you were to watch TV or read.
Visual issues can cause further stress on other areas of the brain whether that be the speech and language centre or somewhere else. This is why optimizing visual processing can assist with improvement in language skills.
The Cerebellum and Speech
Children with speech challenges often have obvious or possibly more subtle issues with the vestibular system and even sensory integration. The vestibular system plays a vital role in the acquisition of language which is why children with vestibular issues often also have auditory processing issues. Usually, the greater the vestibular issues, the greater the speech or language issues. This is because the vestibular and auditory systems function together.
Both the sensation of movement required for good vestibular function as well as sound is processed in the ear’s receptors. Hearing is the easy part – most of us can do that, but comprehension requires that your child is able to process vestibular sensation. These children may be able to hear a sound but have a harder time distinguishing sounds or communicating their words or ideas. This is why development of the sensory-motor system is a critical first step.
Left Brain Weakness
Children with apraxia have been found to have a lack of neural connections or an under-developed left brain. The left side of the brain is where the language centre is located which is why both children with dyslexia or speech issues have trouble with language and why there is so much overlap with children with dyslexia also having speech issues.
While most children who have ASD have a left brain over-development, when there are speech issues involved with ASD there are a few reasons why there may be speech issues. Sometimes there are weaknesses on both sides of the brain and one side is simply more developed than the other but still has deficits.
The other reason is that the speech issues are not related to a weak left brain but rather other factors like heavy metal or mold toxicity. Other times the child has been misdiagnosed with ASD and there is a global development issue or some other issue that went undetected.
When you understand that speech issues are not so much a single ‘disorder’ but rather a communication challenge with various symptoms resulting from numerous imbalances in the body like toxicity, gut health, deficiencies and weak connections, there is so much hope for overcoming speech issues when we address these underlying weaknesses.
Identifying the underlying weak brain connections is key which is exactly what we do with the Advanced Brain Screening. We go beyond the diagnosis and get underneath the label by determining what biochemical factors might be at play as well as what weak connections are preventing your child from speaking and communicating to their full potential.
