ARK's Blog

I recently completed a Clinical Swallow Evaluation and today a Videofluoroscopic Swallow Study of a 10 yr old boy's swallow (both revealed a safe swallow that is within normal limits) and observed that his is not an age-appropriate chew pattern.  He engages in a Nonstereotypic Vertical Movement during mastication.  As a result, oral prep phase is significantly extended and his mother …

. .  This young man has conquered /ch/ both alone and in sentences. Since he can say /ch/, /sh/ is a breeze from here. So I had him say /ch/ in isolation, and then just prolong it. I told him to "hang on to the ch." For a visual and tactile activity to go with this, I had him roll a toy car along the racetrack on our hallway wall to demonstrate that sh is prolonged. It's hard …

Speech therapists have a variety of classifications / categories for speech sounds.  One such category is voiced versus unvoiced phonemes.  Voiced phonemes are sounds made when the vocal folds vibrate.  Unvoiced phonemes are sounds that do not require the vocal folds to vibrate.   . As an example, say "sss" and then "zzz," listen and feel the difference.  'S' r …

Tongue lateralization is the ability to move the tongue from side to side inside the mouth.  It's an important skill for feeding therapy and development, as the tongue lateralizes in order to manipulate food to be chewed and formed into a ball (or bolus) before swallowing.  It's also how we go "fishing" for leftover food particles in the cheeks, around the gums and teeth, and on th …