Oral Motor Skills

Oral motor skills refers to the movements of the muscles in the mouth, jaw, lips, tongue and cheeks. The strength, coordination and control of these muscles are essential for a child’s feeding, chewing, sucking, biting, and licking. They are also important for clear speech and facial expressions. Goals of oral-motor therapy include: increasing the awareness of the oral motor mechanism, normalize any type of sensitivity, improve the precision of voluntary movements of the oral structures for speech, increase different types of movements, improve feeding skills and improve speech sound production for clear speech. Children with Down Syndrome, feeding problems, cleft lip or palate, Cerebral Palsy, children with excessive drooling and generalized oral motor weakness may require oral motor therapy.

SYMPTOMS

  • Excessive drooling
  • Open-mouth posture
  • Inability to move the tongue in different directions
  • Difficulty drinking from a straw
  • Loss of liquid when drinking
  • Difficulties producing certain sounds due to oral motor weakness

HOW WE CAN HELP

  • At Q Enrichment Center, our Speech, Language and Swallowing Pathologist will conduct an extensive comprehensive assessment to determine the type of difficulty, the severity, as well as the diagnosis related to the oral motor weakness. A detailed report will be completed along with a treatment plan specific to each individual’s needs. Therapy will focus on improving strength, coordination and precision in order to help with speech and / or feeding difficulties.

Testimonials

“What a fantastic team at Q Enrichment Center. I 100% recommend them for any family. They conduct themselves in the most professional attitude all around, they are welcoming and my son enjoyed the service thoroughly. Thanks again.”
– Jean (Mother of child client)

“Q Enrichment Center has “A brilliant speech therapist she single handily helped me overcome the difficulties of dysphagia. Her work truly is a vocation, her desire for me to make a full recovery was just as strong if not stronger than my own. By far the best therapist I was fortunate enough to deal with.”
– Chris (Male adult client)

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