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Toddler crying at lunch time sitting in

ORAL MOTOR AND FEEDING THERAPY

Oral Motor Disorders, Feeding Aversions, and Swallowing Problems

Oral Motor Therapy: deals with the movement of the jaw, tongue, lips, teeth and cheeks.   It addresses the placement of the above structures within the mouth.  Oral motor exercises improve mobility, awareness of placement, coordination, strength of the oral muscles and structures. It is used to alter tone in oral region (cheeks, tongue lips), face and neck muscles. Oral motor therapy aids in developing appropriate pattern with children with structural issues such as short frenulum, cleft palate, and high arched palate.  It can help alter such physiological issues as high or low tone, respiratory capacity and suck swallow breath synchrony.

Feeding Therapy:  It begins with the assessment of children based on normal developmental feeding patterns.  It then addresses compensations developed due to behavior, sensory, and physiological factors. Feeding therapy is designed to increase food intake to meet caloric intake. It improves acceptance of variety of foods while decreasing refusal behaviors.  Behaviors feeding therapy seeks to eliminate are:

  • G-tube dependency

  • N-G tube dependency

  • Bottle dependency

  • Packing and pooling of foods

  • Pica

  • Vomiting/rumination

  • Limited consumption of foods and food textures

We utilize TalkTools, Beckman, and many popular approaches to alter and change your child’s feeding frustration into an easy mealtime of smiles.

If you are concerned you or your child may have difficulty with oral placement skills, feeding, or swallowing, please call us for an appointment, or book a free virtual consultation here. Book here.

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