Category: Oral Motor

Two Different Motor Pathways Argument

By Pam Marshalla

Q: What is your argument when others say that we should not be doing oral motor techniques because there are two different motor pathways, one for speech and one for simple movement? I agree that simple non-task-specific exercises (i.e., “non-speech oral-motor exercises” or NS-OME) do not help speech. This is what recent research demonstrates. For example, if one were to ask a child to move the jaw up-and-down as an “exercise,” this indeed would have nothing to do with speech….

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Oral Motor Techniques in History

By Pam Marshalla

Q: I have heard you say that oral motor treatment is not new. What do you mean? Dr. Charles Van Riper, the “father” of articulation therapy said that techniques to manipulate mouth movements and positions, for speech sound production, were centuries old in Europe. In the 1960’s, Mildren Berry and Jon Eisenson said that articulation therapy was “as old as the Hitites.” Last year I began an investigation into the use of methods to facilitate oral (jaw, lip, and tongue)…

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Oral Motor Therapy vs. Non-Speech Oral Motor Exercises

By Pam Marshalla

Q: What is the difference between “oral motor therapy” and “non-speech oral motor exercises”? Therapy is a process comprised of techniques. Exercise is one type of technique. This topic has been discussed extensively at the Oral Motor Institute in the article “Oral Motor Treatment vs. Non-speech Oral Motor Exercises: Historical Clinical Evidence of Twenty-two Fundamental Methods.” (Volume No. 2, Monograph No. 2, 9 April 2008.)

Jaw Pain

By Pam Marshalla

Q: Do you have a resource for understanding pain in the jaw? I get severe headaches and facial pain from it. Team Approach: Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) pain can be a serious issue and needs to be evaluated by a team of professionals who know the TMJ. The team should include at least a physician, a dentist/orthodontist, and a professional who understands TMJ movement. Sometimes that third person is a physical or occupational therapist, a myofunctional therapist, or a speech-language pathologist….

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Assimilation in a Two-Year-Old

By Pam Marshalla

Q: I am working with a 2 year old who is exhibiting labial, alveolar and velar assimilation. For example, gog for dog, pup for cup, pomb for comb, and bum for gum. He produces all of the phonemes correctly in isolation and in syllables. Receptive language skills are age appropriate. Where do I start to correct this? I’ve been with him for 6 weeks. I am discovering through my reading that assimilation usually resolves around 3 years of age. His…

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Frequency of OMT

By Pam Marshalla

Q: I have a five-year-old child with cerebral palsy, developmental delay, severe apraxic and dysarthria. Jaw control is limited, she drools, and the tongue retracts when feeding. I am told by her speech reports she needs oral motor work 3 times to 5 times a day. Might you have any suggestions on what I could do? She is in school speech three times per week for 30-minutes and she does see a PROMPT therapist. My experience has taught me that…

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Tongue Back Elevation

By Pam Marshalla

Q: What can we do to make the back of the tongue elevate for /k/ and /g/? We can use the Tongue Retraction Response (TRR) as follows: Tactile stimulation down the midline of the tongue from anterior to posterior causes the entire tongue to retract back and up toward the velum. The response occurs about half-way down the tongue, and is elicited after the Tongue Bowl Response (TBR) and before the Tongue Gag Response (TGR). I also have called the…

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Oral Motor Goals in IEPs

By Pam Marshalla

Q: How should we write IEP goals for oral-motor? The answer I always give is: DON’T. Our goals are not to improve jaw, lip or tongue function. Our goals are to improve speech. Write SPEECH goals. Oral-motor techniques are just that: TECHNIQUES. Oral-motor techniques are used to help us achieve the speech goals we have set. For example, let’s say that we are working with a child who has no back sounds – no [k] or [g]. Our therapy techniques…

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Again: What Does Oral Motor Therapy Have To Do With Speech?

By Pam Marshalla

Q: What does oral motor therapy have to do with speech? I want to take another run at this question because it arises so often. Consider: Phonemes emerge when a child’s oral-motor control is immature. Think about [b], [d] and [g]. These early voiced stops emerge when a child is about 6 months of age. That means that the oral movements used during their production are primitive. These primitive movements refine over time. From an oral-motor perspective, we can say…

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How to Define Oral-Motor Therapy (Especially for Naysayers)

By Pam Marshalla

Q: What is oral motor therapy? How do you define it and what is its purpose? This is the definition I use: Oral-motor therapy (OMT) is the process of facilitating improved jaw, lip and tongue function. Oral-motor techniques can be used in any of the following therapies: articulation, phonology, dysphagia, feeding, orofacial myology, and occupational or physical therapy. You can discover the importance of speech movements by engaging in a simple procedure. Count aloud from one to ten. Did anything move?…

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