Incorrect patterns of swallowing and tongue resting position and the articulatory structure of phonemes realisations in adults

The incorrect patterns of swallowing as well as improper resting postures of the tongue in adults seem to be insufficiently described in the literature. In theory, the problem is defined mainly as tongue-thrusting (interdental swallowing), in practice, however, several other abnormal patterns of the tongue’s primary motility can be also observed. The author presents not only the descriptions of incorrect patterns of swallowing and tongue at rest postures, obtained on the basis of logopaedic study conducted among 254 adults, but also the analysis of the relationship between these primary disorders and the prevalence of non-normative realisations of phonemes. The results of the profiled study which come from a profiled research group (42 patients with an incorrect swallowing pattern and tongue at rest posture but having no coexisting anatomical disorders) reveal a resemblance between the tongue’s primary motor patterns and the articulation – both in the norm as well as in a pathology. Some undesirable non-normative phonetic features of dentals and palatals such as interdentality, addentality and dorsality appear to be strictly connected with the type of an incorrect primary motoric pattern.