Active Nasal Fricatives
Specialist experience in supporting children who are using an Active Nasal Fricative pattern
Some children develop a pattern in their speech sound system where they replace sounds such as "s" and "z" with a noise through their nose instead. This pattern is called an Active Nasal Fricative pattern and it may sound like they are trying to push air through their nose to make those sound targets. This can make the child's speech sound "nasal" and occasionally, this nasal quality may cause health professionals to query whether their anatomy for speech is working effectively or not.
I have extensive specialist experience in both the diagnosis and treatment of this type of speech sound pattern. I will be able to diagnose whether your child's nasal quality is related to this learnt pattern of pushing air down their nose for certain sounds or whether it is related to an anatomical difficulty.
I can also provide the speech therapy intervention required to effectively reduce the use of active nasal fricatives in your child's speech sound system so that your child is able to produce the affected sounds accurately, improving their speech clarity.
