This new study supports what I realized years ago when my daughter couldn’t blow out a candle on her

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]This new study supports that I was right the whole time. When my daughter couldn't blow out a candle on her fourth birthday, I realized that not being able to speak is a physical limitation, just like not being able to see or hear. So, I created a plan to create change in her motor and language pathways to help her talk. By creating neural toggle, a way to create experience-driven neuroplastic changes. These researchers targeted the same mechanism. They targeted neuroplastic changes in linguistic and motor pathways to increase speech capacity. And it worked, but it's not very accessible, which is what I keep coming back to in my framework. And the reason why people keep making these caveats is because language deprivation syndrome is a very real risk.

[00:00:39]So, while neuroplasticity can be leveraged to help, it is not the ideal outcome that we want for these kids. We need to start figuring out individually for each child which mechanism in these speech pathways aren't working. Was it an injury from forceps delivery, a tear, an acute injury from something else? Did the pathways not develop properly? Is it situational because those processes are hooked up to our vagus nerve in conditions like selective mutism?

[00:01:04]Identify for each each person which part is malfunctioning and whether or not that can be treated or whether or not that requires accommodation throughout life. Neuroplasticity-informed pedagogy has the potential to create real change for neurodivergent learners, but using it specifically to target speech is an exceptionally use of this system and not the ideal way we should be helping non-verbal children.