ARK's Blog

Incorporating yummy treats into your oral motor therapy sessions is a great way to spark interest and increase attention.  As long as there are no food allergies, the following goodies will sweeten your efforts to improve tongue elevation, tongue lateralization, oral awareness, lip closure, tongue strength, and much more. . LOLLIPOPS Most brands will do, but Dum Dums are my favo …

Oral motor therapy works on the oral skills necessary for proper speech and feeding development.  These skills include: awareness, strength, coordination, movement, and endurance of the lips, cheeks, tongue, and jaw.  The activities below are an easy way to work on these skills.  Incorporate them into your daily routine whenever you have time.  Practice them on the way to schoo …

Jaw grading is the ability to visually judge how far you need to open your mouth to take a bite out of certain foods and to say certain speech sounds. For example, say "ooooo" versus "aaahh" - can you feel the height difference in your jaw? It needs to open just a little bit for "eeee," but wider for "oooh." Or, imagine taking a bite out of a thin cracker versus a burger - there's a big difference …