Guest guest Posted October 3, 2006 Report Share Posted October 3, 2006 Our OT had a lot of success with my son by doing the following things to increase his mouth awareness: *Stimulated the inside of his mouth with a z-vibe, and had us do the same with a vibrating toothbrush and nuk brush *Showed us how to massage his gums *Uses super sweet and super sour sprays inside his mouth; also used lemon juice/ lemon ice, carbonated liquids and sour gummies. (He liked the sprays, but hated the other stuff.) *She talked about having him explore his mouth with a small lolly pop (like a dumdum) but we never actually tried that. I also used to work the inside of his mouth when I brushed his teeth and had him follow the toothbrush around with his tongue. I also saved gazillion bubble wands, washed them well, and encouraged him to explore his mouth with them. His SLP had the idea to use the candy stick from Lick 'em sticks to move his tongue around. We got pretty inventive and have tried all sorts of things. Some worked better than others. He's gotten much much much better about control over his mouth now. He can blow bubbles, horns, move his tongue pretty well all around (still struggles a little) and is less picky about eating different textures. > > It has been a while since I last wrote, but I am hoping some of you > have gone through this and can offer some advice. > Landon is 3 years old. He is doing good with learning new words. > His problem is recognizing what his lips, mouth, tongue, teeth are > doing during therapy. He tries real hard during therapy, but he > gets frustrated when he can't get his mouth to do what he wants it > to do. I am quite impressed with him!! He doesn't give up easily > and he is able to do therapy for 30-45 minutes straight with his > private therapist. They have this amazing understanding of each > other! I bought him a little mirror to practice watching himself. > He isn't real crazy about it right now, but with practice maybe he > will use it more. He is really struggling to keep his lips together > to make the M,B,P sounds at the beginning of words (bow, bee, bay, > etc.). He has trouble keeping his tongue behind his teeth to make > the S sound, and trouble putting his tongue up to make the N sound. > He uses his fingers a lot to help him figure out where his lips or > tongue should be. Is there any helpful techniques I can do here at > the house to help him realize what his mouth is doing and what it is > suppose to be doing. > > Thanks for any help > Tina > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 4, 2006 Report Share Posted October 4, 2006 Our OT had a lot of success with my son by doing the following things to increase his mouth awareness: *Stimulated the inside of his mouth with a z-vibe, and had us do the same with a vibrating toothbrush and nuk brush *Showed us how to massage his gums *Uses super sweet and super sour sprays inside his mouth; also used lemon juice/ lemon ice, carbonated liquids and sour gummies. (He liked the sprays, but hated the other stuff.) *She talked about having him explore his mouth with a small lolly pop (like a dumdum) but we never actually tried that. I also used to work the inside of his mouth when I brushed his teeth and had him follow the toothbrush around with his tongue. I also saved gazillion bubble wands, washed them well, and encouraged him to explore his mouth with them. His SLP had the idea to use the candy stick from Lick 'em sticks to move his tongue around. We got pretty inventive and have tried all sorts of things. Some worked better than others. He's gotten much much much better about control over his mouth now. He can blow bubbles, horns, move his tongue pretty well all around (still struggles a little) and is less picky about eating different textures. > > It has been a while since I last wrote, but I am hoping some of you > have gone through this and can offer some advice. > Landon is 3 years old. He is doing good with learning new words. > His problem is recognizing what his lips, mouth, tongue, teeth are > doing during therapy. He tries real hard during therapy, but he > gets frustrated when he can't get his mouth to do what he wants it > to do. I am quite impressed with him!! He doesn't give up easily > and he is able to do therapy for 30-45 minutes straight with his > private therapist. They have this amazing understanding of each > other! I bought him a little mirror to practice watching himself. > He isn't real crazy about it right now, but with practice maybe he > will use it more. He is really struggling to keep his lips together > to make the M,B,P sounds at the beginning of words (bow, bee, bay, > etc.). He has trouble keeping his tongue behind his teeth to make > the S sound, and trouble putting his tongue up to make the N sound. > He uses his fingers a lot to help him figure out where his lips or > tongue should be. Is there any helpful techniques I can do here at > the house to help him realize what his mouth is doing and what it is > suppose to be doing. > > Thanks for any help > Tina > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 4, 2006 Report Share Posted October 4, 2006 Hi Tina, My son will be 5 in November and has all the difficulties your son has, plus he drools a lot (we are trying a tongue crib for the tongue positioning). Since we started with a new therapist, we have been following most of what the article says, and I am seing improvements, plus the Vitamin E seems to help him too. One extra thing that I do is to put poping candy on his yogurt and that seems to tingle his tongue and lips, the vibrating toothbrush seems to help a lot too. Deborah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 4, 2006 Report Share Posted October 4, 2006 Hi Tina, My son will be 5 in November and has all the difficulties your son has, plus he drools a lot (we are trying a tongue crib for the tongue positioning). Since we started with a new therapist, we have been following most of what the article says, and I am seing improvements, plus the Vitamin E seems to help him too. One extra thing that I do is to put poping candy on his yogurt and that seems to tingle his tongue and lips, the vibrating toothbrush seems to help a lot too. Deborah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 6, 2006 Report Share Posted October 6, 2006 I have an update from when I first posted for advice. On Thursday, Landon had therapy with the school SLP and she brought up some oral motor exercises that she wanted to try. It made me feel good that we were thinking about the same thing, and your replys helped me to know what she was talking about so thank you for your responses. We have homework to do now that hopefully will start to help him. Thanks again Tina > > It has been a while since I last wrote, but I am hoping some of you > have gone through this and can offer some advice. > Landon is 3 years old. He is doing good with learning new words. > His problem is recognizing what his lips, mouth, tongue, teeth are > doing during therapy. He tries real hard during therapy, but he > gets frustrated when he can't get his mouth to do what he wants it > to do. I am quite impressed with him!! He doesn't give up easily > and he is able to do therapy for 30-45 minutes straight with his > private therapist. They have this amazing understanding of each > other! I bought him a little mirror to practice watching himself. > He isn't real crazy about it right now, but with practice maybe he > will use it more. He is really struggling to keep his lips together > to make the M,B,P sounds at the beginning of words (bow, bee, bay, > etc.). He has trouble keeping his tongue behind his teeth to make > the S sound, and trouble putting his tongue up to make the N sound. > He uses his fingers a lot to help him figure out where his lips or > tongue should be. Is there any helpful techniques I can do here at > the house to help him realize what his mouth is doing and what it is > suppose to be doing. > > Thanks for any help > Tina > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 6, 2006 Report Share Posted October 6, 2006 I have an update from when I first posted for advice. On Thursday, Landon had therapy with the school SLP and she brought up some oral motor exercises that she wanted to try. It made me feel good that we were thinking about the same thing, and your replys helped me to know what she was talking about so thank you for your responses. We have homework to do now that hopefully will start to help him. Thanks again Tina > > It has been a while since I last wrote, but I am hoping some of you > have gone through this and can offer some advice. > Landon is 3 years old. He is doing good with learning new words. > His problem is recognizing what his lips, mouth, tongue, teeth are > doing during therapy. He tries real hard during therapy, but he > gets frustrated when he can't get his mouth to do what he wants it > to do. I am quite impressed with him!! He doesn't give up easily > and he is able to do therapy for 30-45 minutes straight with his > private therapist. They have this amazing understanding of each > other! I bought him a little mirror to practice watching himself. > He isn't real crazy about it right now, but with practice maybe he > will use it more. He is really struggling to keep his lips together > to make the M,B,P sounds at the beginning of words (bow, bee, bay, > etc.). He has trouble keeping his tongue behind his teeth to make > the S sound, and trouble putting his tongue up to make the N sound. > He uses his fingers a lot to help him figure out where his lips or > tongue should be. Is there any helpful techniques I can do here at > the house to help him realize what his mouth is doing and what it is > suppose to be doing. > > Thanks for any help > Tina > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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