Oral Motor Exercises to Help Speech in Toddlers and Preschoolers - Why Science Says T

[principe]

Just an article I found that seems to be interesting looking into.

http://www.zimbio.com/member/laurath...h%20Toddler s

[kadiera]

Our SLP said that oral motor exercises are mostly good for feeding related issues, not for actually speaking....though she does wish Alexander would learn to blow bubbles, because that's a developmentally appropriate thing that was short-circuited by having a trach.

[tbhartman]

i wonder... hmm. hmm... hmm.. how the trach affects this. Non-speech oral motor practice has probably been helpful to us in some way, because the coordination of the movement with the mouth and the passing air through the vocal cords is much more complicated. M does a lot of mouth movements that often don't have sound involved, but sometimes if he can get the air up at the right time he gets it.... (my theory being if they are more easily able to form the sound w/ their mouth, they might be more able to coordinate the two parts)

Hmm..
-Brittany

[drct1245]

Holy cow... That's quite a finding. We were told that Aydens low muscle tone were a contributor of inefficient eating and some speech issues... Going from making a sound in the front of your mouth(L) to one in the back (g) or vice versa.... We've always played games, used the z-vibe, ect. I am not a ST, so... Just a mom's opinion.

[IzzyB]

I never knew oral motor exercises could help your children with speaking, so I guess I didn't know, what I should have known, that now I am supposed to forget

Did any of your ST say this? We do oral motor skills for eating, because my son didn't have the tongue movement or jaw strength to fully swallow properly. I have seen leaps and bounds when it comes to tongue range of motion and swallowing since the ST started this. But she uses completely different things for speech. We just started working on speech about a month ago and she uses toys and games for speech. She still does the oral motor skills since we are working our way up to being able to have him pass his swallow study that we should get in two months.

[suzanne2545]

Interesting. This is just back on the plate for Parker. With the school we are going back and forth about whether speech or OT or both or nothing is the way to go for him and we've been talking about oral motor strength, etc. as it relates to speech. For us it is not coming into play with swimming as he clearly lacks the strength or ability to sustain an outward breath or take a super deep breath. Good problem to have, I suppose as it is very rewarding to see him in the water.

[suzanne2545]

I should add that our SLP here in Jakarta agrees with this article. He has been telling me in the last week that the liturature supports this - OT early on for feeding and strength but then focus on speech for actual speech. If that makes sense. For a child who is verbal already at least.

[principe]

Before this speech therapist Aldo had another speech therapist who admitted didn't know how to teach an eleven month child speech therapy because she only had thought older kids. I told her supervisor I wanted the therapy to involve some oral motor exercises for speech and her answer was that studies had proven oral motor exercises didn't work for actual speech but didn't give me any details about the studies. I'm a person that needs to know the why of things to make my own decisions. I just can't have a vague answer. Now that I read the article I now understand what she meant.

What I do with Aldo is just talk to him and sometimes he wants to repeat what I say but nothing really comes out because of the trach. He just stares at my mouth or he'll just cover his trach tube and starts saying "ah" or "blah" or "agua" or "mama". He does make many of his own sounds with his lips or tongue. Not really words just sounds. Plus, he understands many things like "let's go", "come here", "let's go upstairs" and probably more that I'm not aware of. He learns a lot of words from my mom also because she talks to him a lot too. I feel us talking to him has helped Aldo more than the ST. By the middle of the session Aldo gets tired and refuses to do anything. The therapist sometimes keeps trying to work on the activity being done when Aldo is already tired, which irritates Aldo even more because he just doesn't want to participate anymore. For the first 30 minutes Aldo is very obedient. But then tiredness takes over. I don't know if any speech therapist can do interesting enough activities so that a child stays focus on the activities being done or little kids just get tired after a while.

[emily]

To begin this is kind of a soap box about the program we are in. I believe not all oral motor exercises are effective. I also believe that if you are doing them or any therapy you need to know the goals and have a clear understanding of how that therapy gets you to your goal.

I must say to this I have done some training and am pretty involved with my son with the Talk Tools program doing oral motor therapy and I have seen the results of this program on speech and feeding. However, they do oral motor exercises that have direct ties to speech. You do an exercise and practice speech. In order to speak or improve speech you need to have appropriate jaw strength and support as well as be able to isolate your jaw from your lips and tongue. If you are not isolating these parts it is hard to be able to make sounds correctly. Also you need to have enough air to get the words out. The oral motor exercises that are used in the Talk Tools program help with these things so that your mouth is ready and they practice speech sounds that correspond to the exercises right after doing them. They also help you to breathe in a manner for you to be able to deliver your words.

From my son's experece, not having babbled or talked barely at all and being trached and vented (used to be 24/7 now just at night) he has not had the practice doing speech sounds. Also because of his Moebius Syndrome and facial paresis (not being able to move his face muscles but he can feel things on his face) he has a hard time moving his tongue and jaw and with not using them for anything they are weak and doing move well. I have seen vast improvements in under a year with oral motor exercises with him. Without oral motor exercise he would be able to move his jaw up and down as well, open his mouth very far or move his tongue around. All precursors to speaking and making sounds correctly. Luke doesn't talk but since we started this program we have seen him try to imitate sounds when we are working on showing him speech sounds and doing more "traditional" speech therapy. We had been doing this in the year or so previously without him trying to copy the sound movements.

We also do work almost every day. We are practicing doing things over and over.

So I guess I would say if there is a direct link from the exercise to a speech sound/skill in my experience they have a good chance of working well. I have heard the research out there for direct links for oral motor exercises and feeding and speaking is slim, but I am not really sure. I know there are research projects going looking at the productivity of the Talk Tools program right now. We are in one, we are seeing improvement and I am not sure about the others. I don't get anything from Talk Tools for supporting them, I am just a mother who has seen results and knows mothers of other Moebius kids who have seen awesome results with this program in just a few months.

Okay, so I am stepping down from my Talk Tools soap box.

[IzzyB]

I think we also have to look at what this article may be talking about. I don't think they are talking about a child who has issues feeding. Because children that can eat would have the mouth strength to talk without doing oral motor skills. When you talk about your son, he has more issues than the normal child and therefore I don't think this article is really directed at some of the children we have.