Guest guest Posted March 1, 2002 Report Share Posted March 1, 2002 I run a playgroup for childrent Autism and related disabilities. We have a little girl that attends who is diagnosed with both Autism and oral motor apraxia. Over the years she has learned to speak VERY well. She is completely verbal and pronounces all words properly. Her main weaknesses now are in social/emotional areas. One of her goals is to work on the ability to recognize, label, and display a variety of emotions. She's got happy down, but she has BIG time difficulty displaying sad, angry, surprised, scared, etc. Her mother said she seems to have trouble actually making her face form the emtions. I brought it up to her that the Apraxia could be the reason why she is having this trouble. I think the apraxia is a likely reason for why she can't make her facial muscles form the " look " of the emotions. The child clearly shows that she knows what sad is supposed to look like, she will take her hands and make her mouth look sad, but can't do it without the help of her hands. Here are my questions 1. Has anyone dealt with this problem? 2. What are some things she can do to strengthen her facial muscles? We thought chewing gum may help. It's just odd that her speech is no longer affected, but that her facial muscles seem very much affected. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks! Shauna Hazlitt, M.Ed. Program Director, Center for Enabling Special Children Tallahassee, FL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 2, 2002 Report Share Posted March 2, 2002 Hello Shauna, I don't know the answer to your question, but I do have a thought or two. Facial paralysis can make it difficult to move the face to show certain characteristics. Bell's palsy is one way children can have facial paralysis. Cranial nerve disfunction can be another factor. Our daughter has some facial paralysis. It is complicated by some apraxia that affects her ability to make certain faces or smile on demand. Several years ago, we visited The HANDLE Institute http://www.handle.org in Seattle and they have a keen understanding of and some exercises related to improving the function of facial nerves. They are one of the only places I have ever heard of with significant information and strategies on this topic. After doing the exercises, our daughter became much more able to smile when asked and to make faces. The exercise was called " facial tapping " and may be described on the website. It seemed to wake up the facial nerves. We also did other interventions including cranio-sacral therapy and it is hard sometimes to differentiate what intervention may have led to which outcome. But, it certainly appeared that the facial tapping helped significantly. Oral-motor therapy helped as well. We did a lot of practice also with drawings and photos of certain facial expressions and played games of matching facial expressions in photos to a photo with a similar expression. Good luck finding strategies to help the little girl. At 08:05 PM 3/1/02 +0000, you wrote: >I run a playgroup for childrent Autism and related disabilities. We >have a little girl that attends who is diagnosed with both Autism and >oral motor apraxia. Over the years she has learned to speak VERY >well. She is completely verbal and pronounces all words properly. >Her main weaknesses now are in social/emotional areas. > >One of her goals is to work on the ability to recognize, label, and >display a variety of emotions. She's got happy down, but she has BIG >time difficulty displaying sad, angry, surprised, scared, etc. Her >mother said she seems to have trouble actually making her face form >the emtions. > >I brought it up to her that the Apraxia could be the reason why she >is having this trouble. I think the apraxia is a likely reason for >why she can't make her facial muscles form the " look " of the >emotions. The child clearly shows that she knows what sad is >supposed to look like, she will take her hands and make her mouth >look sad, but can't do it without the help of her hands. > >Here are my questions >1. Has anyone dealt with this problem? >2. What are some things she can do to strengthen her facial muscles? > > >We thought chewing gum may help. It's just odd that her speech is no >longer affected, but that her facial muscles seem very much >affected. > >Any advice would be greatly appreciated! >Thanks! > >Shauna Hazlitt, M.Ed. >Program Director, Center for Enabling Special Children >Tallahassee, FL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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