Question for SLPs -- talking out of side of mouth?

[Guest guest]

I've got a question for any SLPs here.

A little background: is 3 yrs 1 month old with a diagnosis of

dyspraxia, including oral/verbal. His PLS-4 just came back at 93

expressive, 106 receptive, and he was given an articulation test that

also came back average. However, the SLP doing the eval put him at

functionally 45% intelligible with uncommon and inconsistent

pronounciation errors, particularly as words and phrases get longer.

He also has obvious tongue and lip control issues. He also has a

history of left side muscle weakness (tort as a baby, continued

weakness in his left shoulder, hands and fingers now).

Anyway, in the past 2 weeks or so, he's started talking out of the

left side of his mouth. He basically moves the opening to his mouth

over to the left side of his face to talk. He does this about 1/2

the time he talks now.

Any thoughts or ideas on what's going on? Is he maybe starting to

gain more control over his lips and that's why he's doing it?? Or

could it be a sign of something else?

Thanks for any thoughts,

, mommy to Robbie (2/02) and twins (dyspraxia) and

(6/04)