Does Your Child have Oral Motor Dysfunction?
Prior to coming to PI, I worked in a public school for ten years and saw hundreds of students who worked on speech sounds. So many of them (and I mean soooo many of them) got “stuck” and completely plateaued in therapy. Usually, this happened after they were able to say their target sound in sentences or in short conversations but could not seem to carry over their skills into their everyday speech. No matter how much practice they did, those last few developing sounds just would not come in.
The missing puzzle piece was oral motor function. The muscles of your mouth and face are just like any other muscle in your body- they get stronger and more efficient when you exercise them. My students were struggling to make progress and couldn’t do so because they lacked the strength or range of motion of their articulators to correctly produce their target sounds without conscious effort. Not only is proper oral function vital to accurate speech sound production, but it’s also necessary for optimal breathing; proper development of the jaw, teeth, and hard palate; and effective swallowing.
The Simon Says Myofucntional program provided me with the neurological background, diagnostic knowledge, and functional exercises to treat a variety of myofunctional disorders inducing speech sound errors, tongue thrust swallow pattern, improper tongue resting posture, tethered oral tissues, and more. The goal of myofunctional therapy is to correct dysfunctional oral habits (like extended pacifier use or thumbsucking), establishing nasal breathing and lip seal, developing proper tongue resting posture against the hard palate, and habituating a mature swallow pattern. Jennifer Simon’s “cookbook” of hierarchical oral motor exercises guides patients through the necessary steps to build oral motor strength and range of motion to achieve these goals.
Learning how to address oral motor function has been eye-opening. I’ve already seen several patients who practice their exercises consistently improve their oral motor function. By developing the strength and function of the muscles of their mouth, they've improved their speech, saliva control, and breathing. Skills gained from information in the Simon Says program have improved their communication and their quality of life. If you have concerns for your child’s oral motor function and development, please reach out to a speech pathologist at Pediatric Interactions for more information.
By Elizabeth Macy, M.S. CCC-SLP