Speech therapy and respiratory function: we talk about it with doctor Eleonora Crocetta (Centro Olos Velletri)

There speech therapy is the medical science that deals with the study, prevention, evaluation and treatment of pathologies and disorders of the voice, language, communication, swallowing and related cognitive disorders (relating, for example, to memory and learning).

We talk about it with Eleonora Crocetta, speech therapist at the Olos Center, who after graduating earned a Master in Oro-facial Motricity: “my modus operandi as a speech therapist, which has always dealt mainly with language delays, has led me over time to undertake specific training on orofacial motor skills. This path led me to specialize in the importance of respiratory function. What does breathing have to do with language? Why is it important to breathe through your nose? Why doesn’t the baby breathe through his nose? Why does your little one snore and why is respiratory function important for the quality of sleep? A series of questions to which the doctor responds as follows: “already at birth, the first important things will be breathing and crying… Breathing through the nose will allow you to filter and humidify the inhaled air and more… Through breathing through the nose , the infant will be able to feed at the mother’s breast in the physiological way that will allow the anatomical development of the mouth. Again thanks to nasal breathing, it is possible to correctly position the tongue on the palate and this will allow the development of the mouth, the occlusion, i.e. the bite, and the production of language. Having a clear upper airway determines nasal breathing. In children, in fact, one of the first causes of oral breathing is the hypertrophy of the adenoids and/or tonsils, these lymphocyte stations which can undergo inflammatory processes and alter correct nasal breathing. This could lead to the establishment of a bad habit of oral breathing and cascade other factors such as alteration of the development of the mouth, malocclusion, noisy nocturnal breathing with the possibility of snoring, alterations of speech”.

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“It’s understandable,” continues the doctor Eleonora Crocetta, “how important it is to breathe through your nose and this also by virtue of a good restful sleep. Sleeping well means resting for the recommended hours of sleep while breathing through your nose. Sleeping while breathing through your mouth means incurring respiratory problems, snoring, poor quality sleep, with daytime symptoms determined by tiredness and fatigue (especially in adults), rather than agitation, restlessness and hyperactivity (in children)”.

Why does the speech therapist play a key role in all this? “When I get a small child who doesn’t yet speak well, one of the first things I ask the parent who is anxious about this is: “How is your child breathing? Sleeps well? Russian? Was he breastfed? The speech therapist, together with the pediatrician, will probably be the first specialist figure who will investigate the child’s breathing, who will re-educate this functionality through targeted techniques and strategies, making the child aware. The use of nose and of nasal breathingas well as thenasal hygiene, will be addressed in a therapeutic session by providing valid tools such as cleaning practices, respiratory well-being that are useful and reproducible by parents in their daily routine. All this with the aim of improving the anatomical development of the child’s mouth, his language, his bite and the quality of sleep”, concluded the doctor.

Dr. Eleonora Crocetta

Speech therapist Olos Center

Master in Orofacial Motricity