Oral Motor Exercises

It's important to have strong and coordinated articulators. Articulators are our lips, cheeks, jaw and tongue. Children who are born prematurely, are diagnosed with various syndromes including Down syndrome or Autism, or are "late talkers" most often have weak muscles of the face. Development of oral motor skills includes teaching these muscles to move in the right way in order for the child to learn to swallow, chew and speak.
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Children with poor oral motor skills are easily identified. These children are often difficult to understand and are messy eaters. Some children drool excessively and grind their teeth. Many children demonstrate delayed speech skills with sloppy articulation of speech sounds.

How does it work?

Oral motor therapy can vary based on the severity and areas of weakness in the child's articulators. Through observations and an Oral Mechanism Examination, a Speech Therapist can determine where to begin. The Speech Therapist can target the difficulties through facial stimulation, speech tools (i.e. chew tubes, z vibes), and oral motor exercises. 

Oral motor exercises are the easiest to carryover into home practice.

Turning exercises into play:

The three main areas your Speech Therapist will suggest targeting are the lips, tongue, and jaw:

Working on lip rounding/pursing:
  •    “kisses” in the mirror or kisses for mommy/daddy/favorite doll or animal
  •    using a straw to blow paint on paper or a ball across a table
  •    blowing bubbles, whistles/horns, pinwheel, balloons, feathers
  •    blowing on a window/mirror to make fog, then letting child draw with his finger in the fog
  •    playing hockey/soccer with a cotton ball on the table (blowing the cotton ball into the goal)
  •    pretending to be a monkey and making the monkey sound
  •    pretending to cool something off by blowing on it
  •    making the choo-choo sound when playing with trains
  •    blowing dandelions when playing outside
  •    blowing a handful of soap bubbles during bath time
  •    with little girls, pretending to put on lipstick while pursing lips

 Working on lip closure/seal:
  •   saying “mmm” when eating or when pretending to eat with play food/play kitchen
  •   vibrating lips when making vehicle noises (brrrmm) when driving cars/trucks/tractors
  •   pretending to blow kisses to someone
  •   making the elephant sound when pretending to be an elephant
  •   putting on chapstick and puckering to taste the flavored chapstick
  •   using a straw for drinking fun drinks of various consistencies and temperatures

Working on tongue movement –Protrusion (sticking tongue out) and Lateralization (moving tongue side to side):
  •    licking a lollipop, Popsicle or high interest food on a spoon or a stick
  •    making silly faces in the mirror or in a window reflection
  •    pretending to be a snake or a dog (panting)
  •    licking lips (pretend play in the play kitchen/play food)
  •    making “raspberries”
  •    imitating each other sticking tongue out during diaper change
 
Working on jaw movement:
  • singing “Old McDonald” with exaggerated movement for vowels during the chorus, “e, i, e, i, o”
  • chewing movement when pretending to eat
  • practicing biting with chew tubes or biting on straws that are frozen with yogurt/juice in one end
  • producing incidentals (“uh oh”, “oh no”, “oh man”, “oh boy”) and/or repeated
  • syllables in play (“hop hop hop”, “go go go”, “pop pop pop”, etc.}

For more ideas check out these pages:

Your child can do the following oral-motor exercises to improve strength, range of motion, and coordination of the lips, tongue, and jaw. 
Fun, edible, oral motor exercises for kids. Incorporating yummy treats into your oral motor exercises is a great way to spark interest and increase attention.