I have a referral for a preschool student with a underbite (looks like Class 3 to me) and lateral distortion of /s/, /z/, /sh/, /ch/, ‘tr’ and ‘dr’.
Her parent reports the medical advice they were given is to wait until her baby teeth fall out but that seems wrong to me. I encouraged her to get a second opinion on the structural aspect.
As far as eligibility for Speech services would it be appropriate to recommend therapy for speech sound production? It seems to me like this would not be recommended until there are some orthodontics in the works but I just want to make sure I’m not being neglectful.
She also has a mild language delay and her older sister has autism (she seems like she could also be on the spectrum but don’t want to jump to that conclusion yet) so my thinking is to start with language and recommend speech sound assessment later when there is a plan for the bite.
She is going to qualify as DD and will be in a Pre-K program.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this because it’s definitely not my area of strength.
Thanks in advance!