By Pam Marshalla
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…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: I have seen the Long T Method for teaching S on this blog and in your book “Frontal Lisp, Lateral Lisp” (Marshalla, 2007) as well as in the “Straight Up Speech” program by Jane Folk (Folk, 1992). I was wondering if you had to get permission from Jane for this, or if this method is in public domain? I made up that method just as I suspect Jane did. But it turns out that it is a very old…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: I have been told not to attend your seminars because you teach methods that have not been tested. I am new to the profession and am confused. Why do you feel it is appropriate to use and to teach methods that have never been tested? The simplest way I can answer this question (answered before here) is to quote another writing duo: “Clinicians’ imaginations conjure up exercises, techniques, procedures, and approaches, which are first tried on a few patients,…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: What do you think of the consult model? I got into this profession to work directly with children, and now I am being told I have to engage in a pure consult model. I am mad and frustrated. I find several problems with the consult model. Young therapists coming out of school are being asked to consult with parents when they actually have not figured out how to do therapy themselves yet. Without working directly with clients, young therapists…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: I have discovered that a mirror helps my young clients understand the idea of breath support for speech. Kids notice that their breath makes a fog on a mirror. I teach them to make longer and longer exhalations to make more and more fog and then they draw smiley faces in the fog on the mirror. Fun! Can you comment? My reading of historic artic books has revealed to me that we all end up developing the same methods…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: I have a four-year-old male client whose only consonant is D. He says “telephone” as “Deh-duh-doh.” How do I teach him other phonemes? Therapists use a wide variety of methods to stimulate new phonemes. I have summarized them in an article published by the Oral Motor Institute (Marshalla, 2008). I also have put this information into my newest seminar, titled “21st Century Articulation Therapy.” It also will appear in my next book to be called “The Marshalla Guide to…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: I heard you say that Van Riper was your greatest hero of all time in the profession, but then you said you had others that you didn’t mention. Who else do you admire in the field? What an interesting question! Okay, here are the people that have been the most influential to me, presented in categories that are the most important to my work. Articulation The one-and-only Charles Van Riper wins this top place of honor because he is…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: I still don’t get how to explain the difference between “articulation” and “phonology” and “oral motor.” Can you take a run at that again? I think my last answer to this was way too involved. Here is the short and sweet of it using phoneme M as an example in a very simplified way: Articulation ARTICULATION concerns the mechanics of sound production: The position assumed by the jaw, lips, tongue, and velum during production of a phoneme. For example, the…
By Pam Marshalla
Q: Why do you keep harping on about the evidence-based practice (EBP)? I keep “harping on” about the EBP for four main reasons: Because therapists from all over the world continue to submit questions to me about the EBP. Because therapists in my seminars continue to tell me about the problems they are having with the EBP––problems they are having with certain colleagues, administrators, or parents because of it. Because therapists in my seminars continue to tell me that they…
By Pam Marshalla
This opinion paper was originally posted as a downloadable PDF on my website, authored in March, 2011, and revised in April, 2011. Download the original PDF here. *** The Roots of Oral-Motor Therapy: A Personal View By Pam Marshalla, MA, CCC-SLP Speech-Language Pathologist Time The 1970’s was a time when SLP’s begin to work in multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary teams with OT’s, PT’s and other professionals. For the first time, SLP’s and motor specialists were sharing their thoughts and ideas regarding therapy with…
