Look Who's Talking Now: Fish oil capsules help children with speech disorders
find their voices
EngleMed
A simple fish oil supplement may
be the key to dramatically unlock the voices of children with speech and
language disorders.
That's the conclusion of a group
of scientists who reviewed a study of nineteen youngsters suffering
from various speech problems. The children, ranging in age from two years
to eight years, were given a fish oil supplement containing a mixture
of omega-3 and omega-6 essential fatty acids ( EFAs
). Speech-language pathologists who monitored the children reported
significant improvements within just a few weeks. The improvements were
noted not only in the children's ability to talk, but also in their behavior,
ability to focus, and in maintaining eye contact.
Now the scientists, brought together
by the Cherab Foundation, a major nonprofit group for children with speech
disorders, are calling for a large-scale clinical trial to validate these
initial findings.
"The results were dramatic," says
developmental pediatrician Marilyn C. Agin, M.D., medical director of
the New Jersey-based foundation, who also reported similar results in
ten anecdotal cases. "They strongly suggest that EFA supplementation combined
with speech and occupational therapy could become the treatment of choice
in multifaceted communication disorders."
Until now children with severe
speech disorders such as apraxia, a neurologically-based condition, have required years of intensive one-on-one
therapy-often with painfully slow progress. "But now, with EFA supplementation,
the future for these children may be much brighter-and sooner rather than
later," says Lori L. Roth, M.S., CCC/SLP, a speech pathologist with the
Cherab foundation.
The amazing potential of EFA supplementation
came to light when the nonprofit group's president, Lisa Geng, used it
with her three-year-old son, Tanner.
After just three weeks his vocabulary exploded. "It was the breakthrough
we had been praying for. It was incredible," says Lisa.
Why does this supplementation work?
The experts believe that the speech disorders are the result of a breakdown
in communication between the brain and the muscles in the mouth, tongue
and jaw that have to work together to produce speech. Essential fatty
acids, especially the omega-3 DHA and the omega-6 fatty ARA, are highly
necessary for brain development. Most children obtain them-during the
most critical times of brain development-directly from their mothers while
they are still in the womb and subsequently while being breast-fed. Any
deficiency can result in permanent neurodevelopmental deficits in the
growing infant.
"Therefore, essential fatty acid
supplementation in neurodevelopmental speech disorders could correct a
specific deficit in the speech center of the central nervous system,"
says Robert Katz, Ph.D., Cherab's director of EFA research.
The panel of experts who reviewed the study included scientists from the
NIH, Johns Hopkins University, Kennedy Krieger Institute, University of
Kansas, and Oxford University, England. They join a growing group of researchers
who are heralding the benefits of essential fatty acid supplementation for
a wide range of brain-related problems including depression, bipolar disorder,
schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia, and even
Alzheimer's disease and autism.
