By: Kim Lorenzet, M.S., CCC/SLP

Oral-motor skills (movement of the jaw, lips, and tongue) are important in the development of articulation and eating. As an SLP, I am often asked by parents, “What can I do at home?” There are activities that can be incorporated into snack time and play that can facilitate oral-motor development. The jaw is the foundation of the oral structure. For speech sound production, movement of the tongue and lips depends on the jaw’s strength and stability. It is also important that the tongue and lips have adequate control, range of motion, and movements which are independent of the jaw. The following suggestions can increase oral motor development for speech production and feeding:

Jaw: Snacks of varying consistencies can improve jaw strength: gum, chewy foods (e.g., dried fruit, fruit snacks, licorice), hard foods (e.g., apples, carrots), and crunchy foods (e.g., crackers, pretzels, dry cereal). Try “dog with a bone,” which involves the child holding either a popsicle stick or toothbrush horizontally between his/her teeth. The sides of the item stick out from either side of the child’s mouth. An adult can very gently hold the left and right sides of the stick, giving steady resistance on the “bone” for a count of 3 (building up in increments until reaching a count of 10). *It is important to remember that this is gentle resistance. We want to avoid forcefully pulling or tugging. Another game to try is the “copycat” game. Standing side by side with your child, look into a mirror and open your mouth widely, then a little bit, then midway and see if your child can imitate each incremental movement. As your child becomes more accurate, change up the degree of opening.

Lips: To increase lip strength, place lips around a dum-dum lollipop and squeeze for a count of 3-5 seconds. To increase lip protrusion, hold the lollipop in front of the lips and have the child stretch his/her lips to kiss the lollipop and repeat. Straw drinking addresses lip protrusion, lip strength, and tongue retractions. Level of difficulty is dependent upon the length and diameter of the straw as well as the thickness of the liquid (greater difficulty=longer and/or narrow straws and thick liquids). In addition to drinking juices, smoothies and milkshakes, thick foods can increase the level of difficulty when straw drinking such as apple sauce, pudding, and thin yogurt. During play, bubble blowing, blowing through a straw into a cup of water, blowing a handful of bubbles from hands during bath time and blowing through a straw to make a pom pom/cotton ball move across the table are fun options.

Tongue: Place a lollipop to the child’s upper lip and corner of the mouth, then have the child stretch the tongue to the lollipop. Place food such as peanut butter or pudding on the top lip or roof of the mouth and see if they can raise the tongue to lick it off.

In addition to these activities, incorporating sour and strong flavors increases sensory awareness in the mouth as do cold foods (e.g., popsicles, ice cream). There are many things that can be done during play and snack time to help oral motor development.