I just attended a fabulous workshop entitled Integrated Treatment of Feeding, Speech, and Mouth Function in Pediatrics that I would like to tell you about. The instructor was Diane Bahr, MS, CCC-SLP, NCTMB, CIMI. Her research on oral sensory motor function was up to date and very comprehensive which can be applied to all disabilities and disorders. Participants have an opportunity to perform oral massage, oral motor, and sensory techniques. Actual cases are shown on DVD as a demonstration to teach diagnostics and therapeutic intervention, providing the next best thing to being there. Diane Bahr is the author of Oral Motor Assessment and Treatment: Ages and Stages. Her new book, Healthy Baby, Healthy Mouth: What Every parent and Professional should know about Feeding, Speech, and Mouth Development is soon to be released. This workshop was so beneficial that I would recommend as a required course for every graduate school curriculum. Visit www.agesandstages.net for more information. You will not be disappointed.
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Hi Everyone,
Welcome to ARK’s new forum providing me the opportunity to share my techniques with you. Just so that you get to know me a little more, I still maintain a caseload as a private practitioner. I provide speech and language services to several private schools, see children at the office, and also zip around (within speed limit) doing home health. There are a handful of children I have seen for many, many years. These are the children diagnosed with autism, down syndrome, or began therapy as non-verbal with no diagnosis other than developmentally delayed or speech delayed. Other cases are seen for a limited time due to a mild articulation disorder and practice their homework more often. For example, I recently dismissed a second grader for /r/ and vocalic /r/ disorder after only 11 sessions. That’s production through connected/conversational speech. My motto is practice, practice, practice and then practice some more. The following therapy ideas are ways that I have personally used ARK’s products in my therapy sessions over the years. Where most will be specific to product use, there may be times that I would like to share something anecdotal. Either way the goal is to contribute to your therapy bag of tricks and put a smile on your face! If you have any questions or comments I can be contacted through the website. Thanks for participating! Debra C. Lowsky MS, CCC-SLP
1. I have a child who fronts all of the tongue tip sounds and has a reverse swallowing pattern/tongue thrust. He has to swallow every 5-10 seconds. No kidding. Saliva pools easily also. One of the first things I did was to have the child put the tongue tip up on the alveolar ridge. After a few sessions I began to use the fine tip on the Z-Vibe. I put a cherrio over the top, inserted the tip with the cherrio to the alveolar ridge, and instructed him to keep the cherrio on ‘spot’ with this tongue tip. With lots of practice and patience, he can now do it with ease. What I want is for him to rest his tongue on the alveolar ridge and not protrude it between the teeth. This means not folding or bending the tongue tip. And, it’s not exactly the tip that I want to rest on the alveolar ridge, but slightly back known as the blade of the tongue. Sometimes instructing the individual to put the tongue tip up on ‘spot’ works and with others I need to draw a diagram or use a visual prompt like my fingers or a mouth model to explain. So how long does he keep the cherrio in place? Until it becomes soft. The reward is eating the cherrio. By the way, I didn’t have my cherrios with me that day. Luckily, his mom had fruit loops. I will add that it is best to stay away from sugar and cherrios don’t have much of that.
2. When ARK made the Beckman spoon, it was designed to also serve as a tongue depressor. The smaller end is for smaller mouths and the larger end for larger mouths. Sanitizing by washing with antibacterial soap and water means you can reuse them. There is no risk of splintering like the standard wooden ones many of us use. Pressing down with the spoon on the tongue while the individual presses up provides an isometric exercise used for increasing strength, tone, and awareness. Turn the spoon sideways. Then place the narrow end inside the oral cavity against the side of the tongue. The spoon part should be facing the cheek. Have the individual push the side of their tongue against the spoon, repeat on the opposite side. I have used this for working on the /r/ sound. In addition to the sides of the tongue needing to be placed up against the upper back teeth, there is tensing and pushing of the sides of the tongue against the molars. The swirls on both sides of the spoon also provide nice tactile input.