Oral Motor Archives - Page 15 of 16 - Marshalla Speech & Language

Tag: Oral Motor

Frontal Lisp, Tongue Thrust, Ankyloglossia, Low Tone, and Tactile Defensive Behavior

By Pam Marshalla

Q: I have a 5-year-old client who has a tongue thrust on all the sibilants. She also has ankyloglossia, and is low in tone around her mouth and lips. She has a tonic bite reflex and holds her cheeks very tightly when I brush her teeth. She has sensory issues and is very uncomfortable (although cooperative) during teeth brushing. She tends to have an open mouth position and her lips are oftentimes wet. None of this affects her speech intelligibility….

Oral Stability and the Frontal Lisp

By Pam Marshalla

I receive weekly questions about the severe frontal lisp. The questions always are about how to keep the tongue inside the mouth for speech. We are talking here about the client who has: Interdental tongue placement on all the sibilants: S, Z, Sh, Zh, Ch, J Interdental tongue placement on all the lingua-alveolar sounds: T, D, N, L Open mouth resting posture Reverse swallow (infantile suckle-swallow, tongue-thrust swallow) From a motor perspective, the severe frontal lisp with interdental tongue placement…

The Roles of Oral Rest Posture and Neutral Position in Articulation Therapy

By Pam Marshalla

Q: How do oral rest and the neutral position impact articulation? Should we be concerned about these subjects in clients with an articulation/phonological deficit? So very many of our clients have problems with oral rest posture and the neutral position that I get at least one email per week from all over the world from SLP’s trying to figure out what to do about it. I will have a chapter devoted to this topic in my next book to be…

Oral Motor Tool Kit

By Pam Marshalla

Q: Do you have any recommendations or suggestions for building a basic oral motor therapy kit? There are literally thousands of objects one could use as an aid to oral movement in articulation therapy. I call them “the toys and tools of articulation training.” Charles Van Riper called them “phonetic placement devices” and wrote: “Every available device should be used to make the student understand clearly what positions of tongue, jaw, and lips are to be assumed” (Van Riper, 1954)….

Exercise Routines

By Pam Marshalla

Q: Which of your books do you suggest for teaching me the number of repetitions or the amount of seconds for engaging in oral-motor exercises? I do not teach oral-motor as if it was an exercise routine; I teach oral-motor techniques to facilitate sound production. Therefore, none of my books will give you that type of information. I do no measures of number of trials, or number of seconds, etc.. Instead I teach how to facilitate a movement to achieve…

Big Tongue

By Pam Marshalla

Q: How can you tell if a client’s tongue is too big? Usually a tongue that looks too big actually is a tongue that is low in tone. These clients usually have an unstable jaw and an unstable tongue. I.e., the jaw is low and the tongue is low and forward. The client also may have upper respiratory problems that are forcing him to keep the mouth open and carry the tongue forward in order to create a bigger oro-pharyngeal…

“Believing” in “Oral Motor” – Lighten up!

By Pam Marshalla

Q: My supervisor will not let me use oral-motor techniques. She says there is no research to support them. What are your thoughts? First I say, “Ho-hum!” Aren’t we tired of this argument yet? Isn’t it time to get past this ridiculous war of words? Let’s lighten up! To by-pass “the oral-motor war,” I have been using the term “mouth movement” lately, as in: If you don’t believe in “oral-motor techniques,” fine. That’s okay. It’s not a religion any way….

Habitual Open Mouth Rest Posture

By Pam Marshalla

Q: How do you teach young children to keep their mouths closed? I am working with a 28-month-old with an open mouth resting posture. He also sucks his thumb and uses a sippy cup. This question is a huge one that requires a lot of background. I will be writing a full chapter on this in my next book, called 21st Century Articulation Therapy to be published in 2012. Let me write a few main ideas here: Medical We always have…

Mobious Syndrome

By Pam Marshalla

Q: I have a relative who does not have any movement of her top lip. She cannot blow a horn and has difficult with straw sucking. Her 4-year-old son also was born with this lack of movement with his upper lip. What could this be? It sounds like it could be Mobious Syndrome (Alternative spellings: Mobius, Moebius). Mobious Syndrome has many characteristics, including partial facial and lip paralysis. Speech can be bad if the paralysis is wide spread in the…

Stimulating the Butterfly Position

By Pam Marshalla

Q: I use your “butterfly position” on many school age kids and most of them are able to understand it and follow directions. However, many of the preschoolers have a hard time understanding “biting the sides of their tongues.” Do you have a different way of approaching preschoolers when you want to stabilize the back of their tongues? I also have found that many preschoolers have a hard time understanding how to make the butterfly position. And children with lower…