Hypernasal Kids & Speech Sound Disorders: What SLPs Must Do Differently (VPD Assessment + Therapy)I238

Have you ever had a preschooler who’s producing /k/, /g/, and glottal stops… but can’t give you a /p/ or a /t/?

Who has an /l/ and an /r/ but no early stops? Who sounds like they have a never-ending cold?

Friends, that child is not following the typical developmental sequence. They’re holding the phone to the other ear, and that tells us something physiological is going on. In this episode, we’re diving into hypernasality and how velopharyngeal dysfunction (VPD), both insufficiency and incompetence, impacts articulation. Odds are you didn’t learn this in grad school, and it’s rare to find a CEU on speech sound disorders with VPD.

So I’m giving you my 4-step must-do process so you can roll up your sleeves and feel confident you’re moving in the right direction. I’ll be honest with you: the research base here is small. We’re talking about studies with around 20 preschoolers, not 1,000. So we’re taking what we have and putting it into Monday morning practice. And yes, this is one time I’m going to tell you to DSD, do something differently than the complexity approach. In this episode, you’ll learn:

1-The atypical sound patterns that are red flags for VPD on your artic assessment (backing, missing oral stops, later sounds before earlier ones)

2-Why voiceless stops are harder than voiced stops for these kiddos

3-What to listen and look for in the connected speech sample: nasalized vowels and liquids, “Cookie Monster mouth” jaw movement, shorter and breathier utterances, neck strain, and the nose-pinch test

4-What to ask in the case history (adenoidectomy, ear infections, ear tubes) and what to share with the ENT

5-My two intervention goals: increase oral manner and move placement forward How to choose the next step sound target (hint: the “fire hose” /ʃ/ sound) and why going zero to 100 frustrates these children

6-How to adapt Dynamic Temporal and Tactile Cueing (DTTC) for VPD, staying at that 80% challenge point

7-Responsive strategies like recasting, expansion, and linguistic mapping, all with an emphasis on oral airflow and front-of-mouth placement

8-A simple keyword home program parents can embed in daily routines

Intro 00:44 Hypernasality Overview 03:09 Assessment Must Dos 03:24 Atypical Sound Patterns 07:21 Connected Speech Clues 10:35 Referral and Case History 13:24 Intervention Goals 14:31 Next Step Sound Targets 19:52 DTTC for VPD 25:42 Home Practice and Wrap Up Ready to go deeper?

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#SpeechTherapy #SLP #Hypernasality #VPD #SpeechSoundDisorders #DTTC #CleftPalate #SLPeeps #PediatricSLP