Why is my 3 and a half year oldstill dribbling?

Question

my son dribbles constantly and he got all his teeth about a year ago.he soaks his clothes with his dribble.and he is behind with his speech are the two connected?

Answer 1

I have a friend at playgroup whose 4 yr old does this, her Dr has advised her to take him to a speech therapy clinic for assessment.

Answer 2

He might just have overactive salaver glands but i would take him to a speech therapist just to make sure.

My sister use to slaver all the time due to her salaver glands but there was no problem with her speech...

p.s i cannot spell to save my life x*x

Answer 3

my little brother does the same thing hes nearly 4 dribbles constantly his nose is always running my mum took him to a specialist when he was younger and they said he was lactose intollerant so she changed his milk etc and it didnt make any difference now they are saying its allergys my mum gets really frustrated as everyone thinks hes stupid due to his speach being really bad but the docs are saying the two things are related i  hope u find out wat the problem is as i can suggest it to my mum

Answer 4

It could very well be from his speech. It could also be a habit that he has never been taught to stop. Has he ever been diagnosed with being tongue tied (this is when the flap of skin under your tongue is attached too much to the bottom of your tongue, which does not allow the tongue to work correctly when speaking and would cause drooling)? I have worked with infant-preschool for over 18 years and our policy is this. A child by the age of 2.5 should be saying 10-20 words and be using 2-4 words in a sentence. If they are unable to not just use this many words, but say them clearly then we refer them to speech therapy. If they get help under 3 their therapy lasts no more than a year, because they are still learning words. However; if they start after 3 they usually continue with therapy until kindergarten or later. Now this is pending that there is no medical condition. I would get him to the doctor about his speech so you can get help before he starts school. With the drooling you may have to teach him how to swallow his spit. He is old enough to understand you telling him something like this "You need to keep your spit in your mouth and swallow it, I don't want to see any more spit out of your mouth." If you start bringing attention to it, he may just stop, if he doesn't then there could be another problem. I have only seen two children over the age of 1 who stilled drooled. Both children had speech delays also. Once the speech was taken care of the drooling stopped. Some children start drooling and after a year are not told to keep their tongue in their mouth, or not told to swallow their spit, may acutally just begin a bad habit. The one child had some other delays, but he was talking by 4 and went to kindergarten as his right age. Get him diagnosed now, before he needs speech therapy for years and years.

Answer 5

how long did he suck on a dummy for?

my friends daughter sucked a dummy till she was around 3-4 and now has crooked teeth and a lisp and dribbles constantly

Answer 6

the two could be linked but take him toa doctor or speech therepist to be sure =]

Answer 7

Although a speech delay does not necessary cause drooling, drooling can in fact, affect a child's speech.

Some children drool beyond the age at which is is expected for 4 main reasons:

1) Saliva awareness-  the child is not aware or doesn't care about saliva escaping the mouth

2) Swallow frequency- the child does not swallow often enough

3) Swallow efficiency- the child does not swallow well

4) poor lip closure- the child keeps lips parted most of the time

If your child is receiving speech therapy, his speech pathologist can address the oral-motor issues.  There are many activities that you can do to: heighten oral awareness, increase swallowing frequency and skills, stimulate and strengthen the child's lips, and increase the child's overall awareness of drooling.

If you want specifics, feel free to contact me. :)