What exactly is “oral motor development” and why is it important? Usually the term refers to the use and function of the lips, jaw, teeth, tongue, soft palate and hard palate. Each part has to work together properly to perform tasks successfully (think eating, drinking). When those tasks are not performed properly, oral motor therapy may be necessary. If you have a concern about your child, please consult your child’s medical professional.

This kind therapy uses different types of exercises to develop awareness, strength, mobility and coordination of the oral muscles. While one might think that speech disorders are, in fact, an oral motor development issue, apparently using oral motor therapy for speech disorders is somewhat controversial.  There is no current research that supports oral motor therapy for speech disorders, however, many speech therapists still use this type of therapy with their clients.

With all of that fun stuff being said, we had a great time in art therapy last week using our oral motor skills to make some really beautiful “artwork with an edge”. We began our activity using some straws and cups with a little water in them. We needed to make sure students understood the difference between sucking and blowing. Since we were using dye for our project, even though it was non-toxic, I wanted to make sure no one ended up sucking up some dye.

After practicing (everyone did a great job!) we began our project. We used regular watercolor paper for our artwork and then I went around and poured some dye onto the watercolor paper. The students had a great time blowing the dye in different directions on their paper. We figured out it was easier to turn the paper instead of trying to change directions when trying to get the dye to go where we wanted it to.

For more information: http://www.asha.org/