LAUSR

Practising as a Pediatric neurologist in Gurgaon, I have the privilege of connecting with patients from four neighbouring states of Northern India. There is marked diversity in their culture, beliefs, language, custom, attire, cuisine, ideology, standard of living and educational background. But inspite of so much diversity, there is an interesting thing that unites them with their differences...they share an unanimous impeccable knowledge about tongue tie or ‘taantua.’ Any child, who has not achieved age-appropriate language and speech milestones or even motor milestones, irrespective of the diagnosis (autism, intellectual disability, cerebral palsy, hearing impairment etc.) is considered a case of ‘taantua’ or short frenulum that is supposed to need a surgical intervention following which the child is expected to speak fluently and run flawlessly.