Month: July 2008

Stimulating Lip Movement

By Pam Marshalla

Q: What can I do from a muscle-based perspective to engage the upper lip? There have been many methods of stimulating lip movement in the articulation, motor speech, oral motor, feeding, dysphagia, and orofacial myofunctional literature. The following sources are my favorite ones for activities to facilitate lip mobility. [Presented alphabetically] Dworkin, J. P. (1991). Motor speech disorders: A treatment guide. St. Louis: Mosby. Garliner, D. (1981) Myofunctional therapy. Coral Gables: Institute for Myofunctional Therapy. Marshalla, P. J. (1992). Oral…

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Evidence Based Practice – Chopping Down Trees To Save The Forest

By Pam Marshalla

Q: I have heard you say that you have a real problem with Evidence-Based Practice (EBP). Why would you be opposed to something that so clearly will help and protect our clients? I am not against using EBP. I am for EBP. However, I am concerned about several recent results of the EBP philosophy. I am especially opposed to three new ideas: I am against throwing out everything we have learned through a century of trial-and-error speech-language therapy just because we…

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Oral Motor Treatment and Non-Speech Oral Motor Exercises (NSOME)

By Pam Marshalla

Once again I shall take a run at the question of what oral motor treatment is, and what are the differences between oral motor treatment and non-speech oral-motor exercises. This answer ensued from an email dialogue I was having with someone very concerned that SLP’s have begun to use non-speech oral-motor exercises INSTEAD of methods to facilitate sound and word productions. I tried to explain how this is wrong. ALL methods to improve speech are “oral” techniques, and they are…

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