By Pam Marshalla
Q: My colleagues and I are wondering how you go about stimulating elevation of the back of the tongue for [+Back] phonemes? The very best way to facilitate upward elevation of any part of the tongue, including the back, is to apply a bit of pressure downward at the spot you want to elevate, and to ask the client to push up against your pressure. Use a finger, tongue depressor, Nuk massager, or any other appropriate tool. This is the…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: I wanted to order some resources for the B-3 population and was wondering which of your products you recommend. The following materials of mine are useful for B-3 population. Please read about them in our online catalog. Becoming Verbal with Childhood Apraxia The Seven Stages of Phoneme Development Improving Intelligibility with Childhood Apraxia How to Stop Drooling How to Stop Thumbsucking Vowel Tracks Do You Like Pie?
By Pam Marshalla
Q: Is it normal for child 4;6 to mouth everything, including toys, walls, and doorknobs? If this isn’t normal, do you have any ideas how to eliminate this problem? I need ideas for mom to try at home. This always is a difficult topic. This is how I think about it… Mouthing this much in a four-year-old definitely is not normal. The client is over-doing it for some reason. Oral craving due to significant limitations in the ability to process…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: I have a 5-year-old boy suffering with a bad case of verbal apraxia coupled with an SI disorder. I am desperate for intensive PROMPT and oral motor treatment for my boy. Its heart breaking to watch him try so hard and fail to speak. Please help us. You sound like you are panicking — DON’T. You sound like you think that PROMPT and ORAL MOTOR are the only solutions — THEY AREN’T. There are as many ways of helping…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: What do you think of Speech Buddies? I have a set of Speech Buddies here that the creators sent to me for comment. They are a beautiful set of articulation tools. Speech Buddies are part of our return to the “phonetic placement technique” as described by Van Riper. He wrote the following: “For centuries, speech correctionists have used diagrams, applicators, and instruments to ensure appropriate tongue, jaw, and lip placement. [These] phonetic placement methods are indispensable tools in the speech…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: I have an R-student who is just about ready for dismissal. He can do almost all postvocalic R sounds, but not ER all by itself. Thus, he can say, “deer,” “door,” “dare,” and “dart.” But he cannot say “dirt.” Help! Your client is almost there! He only needs to learn how separate the ER-part from the preceding vowels he has it attached to. In other words, he needs to learn to isolate ER from the VOWEL+ER’s he is doing….
By Pam Marshalla
Q: I have a client with prevocalic voicing. He substitutes b/p, d/t, and g/k in initial position. Do you see this much? What suggestions do you have? Prevocalic voicing is probably one of the most common phonological error patterns in young children, especially those with motor speech disorders. There are many ways to address this: 1. We can use minimal pairs to help the client hear the differences between the phonemes and to emphasize the way the meaning changes with…
By Pam Marshalla
Children who cannot say many words need help learning how to imitate sounds and words. The best way to do this is to imitate the child.
By Pam Marshalla
Q: Is oral-motor therapy beneficial in treating a child with Goldenhar syndrome with one-sided facial weakness? If you are asking for “proof” of this, no. But your question reveals perhaps a limited understanding about what the term “oral-motor therapy” means. Let me explain… Speech is movement, and whenever part of the speech movement mechanism is impaired, then therapy needs to address that movement impairment. The term “oral-motor techniques” simply refers to any of the myriad ways in which we facilitate…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: I have a 3rd grader I have worked with since the age of 3. He has worked on a wide variety of phonemes through the years. I am ready to dismiss because I have been unable to make a difference recently. I have used all tricks in the book, yet his tongue still moves very poorly. Without full mobility of the tongue, I am beside myself. He speaks fast and is a smart boy however he is persistently unintelligible…
