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Why Waiting to Address Speech Sounds and Tongue Thrust Is WRONG

6 Oct 2026 · 1 min

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In this brief monologue, the speaker recounts watching a Robin Merkel‑Walsh video that shows a 3‑year‑old child producing every speech sound in fluent sentences. After the clip, Merkel‑Walsh asks why clinicians wait to treat specific phonemes—such as /s/, /r/, /l/, and /t/—when a tongue thrust is already present. The speaker experiences a moment of realization, recognizing that delaying intervention is a mistake. They describe a personal turning point over the past December‑January, expressing enthusiasm for this new perspective and urging speech‑language pathologists and related professionals to stop postponing treatment and address speech sounds early, even in the presence of tongue thrust.

Chapters

Robin Merkel-Walsh showed us a video of a 2-year-old speaking— a 3-year-old, I'm sorry, a 3-year-old speaking in sentences with every speech sound. Every speech sound. And then after the video, she's like, so I ask you this, why are you waiting to address things like S and R and L and T when we have a tongue thrust? Why are we waiting? And I just sat there like, I'm doing everything wrong. It was such a I feel like December, January of this past year has really been like a huge shift, a big turning point for me, for sure. I love that. I just wish more kids, I wish more speech therapists and more professionals knew that we didn't have to wait.