The Palate in Down Syndrome

The palate and how it affects dental characteristics in Down Syndrome

The palate of a child with Down syndrome, although normal sized, may appear highly vaulted and narrow. This deceiving appearance is due to the unusual thickness of the sides of the hard palate. This thickness restricts the amount of space the tongue can occupy in the mouth and affects the ability to speak and chew. In turn, it also makes the tongue more likely to protrude from the mouth due to the smaller amount of space available inside the mouth.

So, contrary to popular belief, the tongue is not overly large, the mouth is just small. Either way, most children with Down syndrome will face extra challenges in learning to speak properly and speech therapy should be implemented from the very start. If your baby is getting services through your state's Early Childhood Intervention program don't let them put you off. With Sam I was told there was no reason to start speech therapy before he was around 18 months old. I have since found that it's not true at all. There are many things you and the therapist can do to get started on the road to intelligible speech!

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