Phoenix Speech Therapist: Myofunctional therapy addresses root causes behind childhood speech challenges

Phoenix speech-language pathologist Julie Mercadante said myofunctional therapy can help identify and treat underlying issues affecting children’s speech by focusing on how they breathe, eat, sleep, and use their tongue.

“There’s this whole area, this whole different type of therapy that they’ve never done before,” Mercadante said, describing myofunctional therapy as an approach that goes beyond traditional speech work to examine oral function and development.

Listen to this episode:

• Apple

• Spotify

Mercadante, who has worked as a speech-language pathologist for about 25 years and now runs Juniper Speech Therapy in Phoenix, said her approach looks beyond pronunciation issues like difficulty with “R” or “S” sounds. Instead, she focuses on identifying root causes, such as mouth breathing, improper tongue posture, or swallowing patterns that can affect speech clarity.

“So finding the overlap between how a child breathes, eats, sleeps… can really affect how they ultimately speak,” she said.

Myofunctional therapy focuses on improving oral posture, nasal breathing, and tongue positioning, which can influence speech, sleep quality, and overall oral development.

She said many families come to her after years of traditional speech therapy with limited progress, often because those underlying functional issues were not previously addressed.

Mercadante said signs of potential myofunctional issues can include mouth breathing, snoring, restless sleep, picky eating, or messy chewing. While these behaviors may seem minor, she said they can point to broader developmental patterns.

“Snoring is never normal for a child to snore,” she said, noting that poor sleep and breathing habits can also contribute to attention and behavioral challenges.

She encourages parents to seek evaluation early rather than waiting for children to “grow out of it.”

“I don’t love the wait and see,” Mercadante said, explaining that early intervention can help prevent more complex issues later in life.

Research and clinical practice increasingly link nasal breathing and proper tongue posture to healthy jaw development, sleep quality, and speech outcomes in children.

In therapy sessions, Mercadante and her team work on posture, nasal breathing, tongue elevation, and chewing patterns before focusing directly on speech sounds, aiming to build a strong foundation for long-term improvement.

“We’re not going to start working on the sound right away,” she said. “This is a process… to make the child as successful as possible.”

Mercadante is the owner of Juniper Speech Therapy in Phoenix, where she and her team provide in-home, in-clinic, and virtual services across Arizona, specializing in speech, feeding, and myofunctional therapy.