Q: I’m an undergrad student in my senior year, so my question is for a group project for which I have the history/origins of oral motor exercises. I read your article for the Oral Motor Institute where you reviewed a number of texts. My question is “Is there any name — or names — that are associated with the beginnings of using OMEs? And, are there names associated with bringing it into more mainstream practice? This is all brand new to me and the information I’ve found doesn’t give a definitive answer to the latter question. Thanks so much for your time.

Thank you for the questions. I believe that I was the first to teach nation-wide classes on oral motor and artic/phonology. There were teachers before me who taught oral-motor and feeding (especially Suzanne Evans Morris) and they were my mentors. I took their information and applied it to speech, and then began to do my own clinical research, and I saw how it all fir together by doing literacy research.

My writings reveal this revolution– from finding out basic ideas, to trial-and-error clinical work for decades, to supportive literature review. The last book on this list, The Marshalla Guide (scheduled for publication in 2016), is that final product.

I just finished putting this history together on my resume so it is no trouble at all sending it to you. I am happy to help get this history straight.

I have written you an introductory sentence or two to explain what these things are…

Oral-Motor Techniques In Articulation and Phonological Therapy: A Summery of Early Presentations and Writings

— Pam Marshalla, MA, CCC-SLP

In 1978 I presented a paper to the Illinois Speech and Hearing Association—

• Marshalla (Rosenwinkel), P., & Kleinert, J. E. O., & Robbins, R. L. (1978). Tactile-proprioceptive stimulation techniques and the frontal lisp. Paper. Illinois Speech and Hearing Association Convention. Chicago, IL

In 1982 I taught the first two-day oral-motor workshop for artic/phonology which was ASHA CEU certified. This was for my first company, “Innovative Concepts,” which was an ASHA-approved CEU provider.

• Marshalla, (Rosenwinkel), P. (1982). Tactile-proprioceptive stimulation techniques in articulation therapy. Seminar handbook. Champaign: Innovative Concepts in Speech and Language.

In 1985 I published a paper on the relationship between the overlapping oral movements in speech and feeding. I proposed the idea for this volume and its editor (Jerilynn Logemann).

• Marshalla (Rosenwinkel), P. (1985). The role of reflexes in oral-motor learning: Techniques for improved articulation. Seminars in Speech and Language 6, 317-336. NY: Thieme.

In 1992 I began teaching my 2-day tactile-proprioceptive seminar (1982) with the term “oral-motor” in the title. I taught this course for more than ten years nation-wide.

• Marshalla, P. (1992). Oral-motor techniques in articulation and phonological therapy. Seminar handbook. Seattle, WA: Innovative Concepts

In 1992 I also recorded and released a two-day oral motor technquies in artic/phonology seminar on VHS recording. It was a big production that sold thousands.

• Marshalla, P. (1992). Oral-Motor Techniques in Articulation and Phonological Therapy. 2-day Educational Videotape Workshop recorded in Huntington Beach, CA. Seattle, WA: Innovative Concepts.

In 1992 I finally put all this material into a book which we still sell today—

• Marshalla, P. (2000, 1995, 1992). Oral-Motor Techniques in Articulation and Phonological Therapy. Mill Creek: MSL.

All this material now has been re-written into a new much more expansive book to be released soon. It was scheduled for release this winter, but I contracted leukemia in August and had a heart attack in December, and my illustrator got pregnant with her first baby so, to say the least, things have slowed down.  The text is written and edited, and we are working on the drawings and layout. It is hoped that we will be able to release this book in 2016.

• Marshalla, P. (Scheduled release date: 2016). The Marshalla Guide: A Topical Anthology of Speech Movement Techniques for Articulation Deficits and Motor Speech Disorders. Mill Creek, WA : Marshalla Speech and Language.

Other Early Oral-Motor Seminars

Sara Rosenfeld Johnson (Now of TalkTools) began teaching a continuing education course for me and my company in 1992 —

• Rosenfeld-Johnson, S. (1992). A Three-Part Treatment Plan for Oral-Motor Therapy. Seminar handbook. Seattle: Innovative Concepts.

Since then she has developed her own seminars and OM products– See the TalkTools website for info.

Here is a link to my most recent resume for more information 🙂