ARK's Blog

This informative guest blog post is courtesy of Lori Nachtigal-Rothschild, MS, CCC-SLP.   Question: What are the most important skills for chewing harder foods?  Answer: Tongue-jaw disassociation (separation) and jaw pressure (aka jaw strength) are the 2 most important skills for breaking down harder foods like carrots, celery, and harder meats. . Developmental Stage …

Question: Do you have any specific tips for doing oral motor exercises with a child who is blind or visually impaired? Almost all of the exercises we talk about (both in the  Z-Vibe book and on our blog) are tactile-based.  They focus on touch, not sight.  So you should be able to do almost all of the exercises.  Before each exercise, we always recommend d …

What do I look for when I’m doing an oral motor / feeding assessment?   It's never a cookie-cutter check list.  It always depends on the individual and their skills and goals and where the evaluation, medical history, family history, etc. lead me.  But, there are some general skills that I look for and “tests" that I do: Is there  tongue lateralization? Is …

A little ARK Trivia: How did we come up with the name for the  Z-Vibe?  Is it: A.  Because Debbie’s maiden name starts with Z B.  Because the Z-Vibe does everything from A to Z C.  Because it goes Zzzzzzzz D.  All of the above  . . The answer is C, that's how we came up with the name :) But, it also happens that B is true, too. You can use the Z-Vibe …