Why Choose Link to Communication?

Our highly trained team is committed to identifying and addressing the root causes of communication and orofacial challenges—not just the symptoms.

Have you or your child…

• Spent years in speech therapy with limited progress?

• Experienced orthodontic relapse or shifting teeth?

• Struggled with clenching, grinding, or nail-biting?

These issues—and many more—are often connected to underlying myofunctional disorders, which can be corrected with the right therapy approach.

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What Are Myofunctional Disorders?

Myofunctional disorders affect the way the muscles of the face, mouth, and throat function. These muscles are responsible for vital daily activities—breathing, eating, speaking, smiling, and more.

Research shows that:

• 38% of the general population has a myofunctional disorder.

• According to the International Association of Orofacial Myology (IAOM), 81% of children with speech or articulation problems also present with myofunctional disorders.

That’s why we go deeper than traditional therapy—helping clients retrain muscle patterns to create lasting change.

 

What Sets Us Apart?

All of our speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are certified by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). In addition, each myofunctional therapist has completed advanced training through the IAOM and is either certified or actively working toward certification in Orofacial Myology.

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This specialized training enables us to accurately diagnose and treat not just speech and feeding disorders, but the underlying causes—leading to faster, more effective therapy outcomes.

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Why the Muscles Matter

The muscles of the face and mouth are critical to our well-being. They:

• Control eating, drinking, breathing, and speaking

• Affect facial development, dental alignment, and airway health

• Support emotional expression and social connection

When these muscles develop abnormal patterns—due to habits, breathing issues, or developmental concerns—it can lead to a wide range of problems. That’s where Myofunctional Therapy comes in.​

 

What is Myofunctional Therapy?
Orofacial Myofunctional Disorders (OMD), sometimes called an "oral myofunctional disorder" and "tongue thrust", are atypical adaptive patterns that emerge in the absence of normalized patterns within the orofacial complex. The regular presence of these adaptive movements can often result in a variety of problems.

Therapy is individualized to help the client retrain the adaptive patterns of muscle function and to create and maintain a healthy orofacial environment.   Treatment goals may include the following:

 

• Normalize tongue and lip resting postures

• Establish nasal breathing patterns

• Eliminate improper chewing and swallowing patterns

• Stabilize the dentition from extraneous orofacial muscle movement

• Address harmful oral habits including: 

  • Prolonged pacifier use

  • Thumb and/or finger sucking

  • Fingernail, cheek or lip biting

  • Tongue sucking

  • Clenching or grinding of the teeth

 

“After years of practicing and attending countless continuing education courses in speech-language pathology, I made the decision to expand my knowledge and obtained additional training and certification in orofacial myofunctional disorders. The initial training changed the way I look at speech disorders and feeding disorders.  Collaboration is key to the success in therapy. I love working with the dental and medical community for the betterment of the clients and families who come to us for speech therapy, tongue thrust therapy, habit elimination (thumb/finger sucking) and feeding therapy.” Kelly Villafane, CCC-SLP-COM®.  

 

At Link to Communication, we treat clients of all ages who are working on a range of problems, such as correcting a simple R sound to sleep breathing disorders.  Feeding and communication are key to everyday function.  The importance they play on our lives is vital.