Carolina Therapy Associates

08/05/2026

Tongue Ties are NOT a fad. 😉

07/02/2026

07/01/2026

What’s all the buzz about Airway 🫁😮Focus these days?

I want to share a story about the profound changes I have witnessed in one of my patients. (Some details have been changed to protect anonymity with parents’ permission granted.)

This patient has been minimally verbal for the last year. Her Autism Spectrum diagnosis has always been a challenge, but she regressed so much this year that her IEP team decided to switch her academic goals and setting.

We have been waiting on a sleep study because this child has a consistent open mouth posture with anterior tongue placement and snores every night. She had several tethered oral tissues. She could not breathe through her nose. Her tonsils were inflamed and blocking much of her airway. Her parents have championed her interventions for years and worked diligently to help her communicate.
Unfortunately, despite having several other Speech-Language Pathologists, these issues went undetected.

Our area has about a 9 to 12 month waitlist for pediatric sleep studies, so we have been waiting for sleep data.
Several medications were prescribed by an ENT with no improvement in symptoms.
Finally, the time came and her sleep study results showed severe sleep apnea. Her tonsils and adenoids were promptly taken out.

2 weeks post-op, this patient began repeating a few 3 word phrases. 🙌

6 weeks post-op, this patient is now using the occasional 5 word simple phrase! 🗣️🗣️🗣️
She is using novel vocabulary that we didn’t even know she understood. She is mastering targets that we have been working on for years. Suddenly everything is beginning to click.

She literally went from being minimally verbal to 5 word phrases in 6 weeks time!🤩

**THIS IS WHY we need to be thinking about airway health in our assessments.**

Isn’t it amazing what the brain can do when it’s getting oxygen and sleep!?!
I am thrilled to be a part of her journey and cannot wait to see what she accomplishes. 🩵🧩

Speech Therapy - Feeding Therapy- Myofunctional Therapy - Multidisciplinary approach to Tongue Ties - CranialSacral Therapy

06/29/2026

Cues I look for in an infant 👶 swallowing 🍼😋assessment: 

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1TJMqpcyvV/?mibextid=wwXIfr

06/07/2026

I am ever so grateful be tagged and consulted on local Facebook groups. Your questions and sweet shout outs mean the world to me.

Please make sure you are getting multidisciplinary care before you release tongue, lip, and/or buccal ties. 🙏💕
Here is what I posted today on a local favorite FB page:
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OK, mamas, again I would be remiss without saying that therapy needs to happen before and after. Some dentists is our area do not implement this, and I am not seeing the desired clinical outcomes. (Trust me when I say, I have tried to educate them, but they don’t return calls.)
In the saddest scenario, parents trust these providers to do the release, and then they end up with difficulties down the line. They end up on my caseload, and all too often I hear they used one of those providers. That’s when I have to take a deep breath and say that I wish they had seen me or another doctor sooner. Those dentists have not done their due diligence, and they do not understand that this is a multidisciplinary event.

If you want the best release and clinical outcomes, you absolutely MUST do the work pre-and post release.
This isn’t just to pad the pockets of other providers.
This is for you to have the best outcome whether it’s your infant, child, adolescent or yourself.
The release is only a tiny part of the entire picture.

Again, the release is only a small part. 🙏💕

I say this lovingly until I am blue in the face from explaining to everyone how important it is to do myo functional or oral motor therapy pre and post release as well as bodywork like Cranialsacral Therapy and/or chiropractic.

Please remember that the stretches and sweeps that are prescribed are not the same as exercises.
We hear people use the term “exercises” a lot. However, these are separate from the sweeps and stretches that are only used for active wound care management.

The exercises are for Neuro education. The tongue does not know how to work properly. The exercises train the connection between the brain and the body.
The release only frees up the facia and mobility. Once the tongue, lips, and cheeks are “free” or untethered, they need strength and resistance training to know how to work properly.

You wouldn’t have surgery on your knee without physical therapy, right?

We know in this amazing mama group that the body is a beautiful network of intricacies that we still only partially understand.
The tongue and the the body must learn to work together.

Love to all. Xoxo

06/05/2026

Thank you Dr. Audrey Yoon Smile Design & Beyond: Dr. Audrey Yoon Orthodontics for an informative class on Adolescent MARPE!
PALATAL EXPANSION is a key component in treatment and outcomes. 💋👅😋

05/11/2026

I love it when they help with their own temporal bone releases. 💙🙌🏻🫶🏻🤲🏻💙

04/23/2026

Having fun with this theme in therapy this week!
Happy 🌎 Earth Day!

04/09/2026

Myo Moves - Myofunctional Therapy posted this, and I just LOVE it.

03/26/2026

I hear it a lot. “What’s the BEST Bottle🍼!?”

Infant Bottle Feeding: Bottle & Flow Rate Guide | TalkTools® TalkTools › Blog › The Talk with April Anderson › Infant Bottle Feeding The Talk with April Anderson Infant Bottle Feeding: It's Not About the Brand, It's About the Match Families ask which...