Assessment of mouth breathing by Speech-Language Pathologists: An international Delphi consensus

Purpose: mouth breathing (MB) has detrimental effects on children’s growth. Diagnosis of MB is possible through a multidisciplinary approach including Speech-Language Pathologist’s (SLP) assessment; however, SLPs currently have little to no defined selection criteria to determine the awake and habitual breathing pattern. This study aims at identifying relevant criteria for the assessment of the habitual and awake breathing pattern of preschool children, and developing a grid that would help SLPs diagnose MB in their clinical practice.
Method: A three-rounded online international Delphi process was conducted to achieve a consensus on the relevant items and their interpretation. Agreement was established through a Content Validity Ratio calculation. Based on the agreed items, we developed a grid through a scoring function.
Results: Observing the child at rest (i.e. time spent with an open/closed mouth and position of tongue/lips) was considered the most important criterion. The experts also considered that observing the breathing pattern while chewing (open/closed mouth) and after swallowing (i.e. air intake and open/ closed mouth just after swallowing) should provide relevant but secondary information in decision-making. We were able to establish a clinical grid based on those criteria.
Conclusions and implications: The Delphi procedure provided content-valid criteria and conditions of observation for the myofunctional SLP assessment of the awake and habitual breathing pattern in preschoolers. A clinical validation of the developed prototype grid should be conducted in preschool children to explore its effectiveness in the diagnosis of MB.