What are the Symptoms related to
Oral Motor Disorders?

Common symptoms include:

• Poor strength and coordination of the lips, tongue, and jaw.

   

• Poor speech clarity ("muddled" speech)

   

• Drooling

   

• Poor muscle tone in the face (muscles appear to be "sagging")

   

• Difficulty with chewing and swallowing (feeding difficulties)

   

• Voice changes - speech sounding hoarse, nasal, or soft

   

• Unable to perform coordinated oral movements

These symptoms traditionally improve through oral motor therapy. Daily practice of efficient exercises is the key to success.

Related Speech Disorders

Common speech disorders that benefit from oral motor therapy are:

• Verbal apraxia
• Oral apraxia
• Dysarthria

These disorders typically occur with aphasia, although they may exist without any accompanying ailment.

Verbal Apraxia: Verbal apraxia (also known as, Apraxia of Speech or AOS) is a disorder that affects voluntary muscle movement for speech. Although the jaw, tongue, and lip muscles have no muscle weakness, a verbal apraxic will have tremendous difficulty speaking because they cannot move their speech muscles in proper sequence.

Oral Apraxia: Oral apraxia is the inability to carry out oral muscle movement on command. For example, if you asked an individual with oral apraxia to blow a kiss they would experience difficulty making the proper oral movements.

Oral apraxia differs from verbal apraxia in that it does not involve the act of speaking.

Oral apraxia and verbal apraxia often appear together, although they may both occur in isolation.

Dysarthria: Dysarthria is a neurological disorder that results in oral motor weakness. The lack of oral motor strength causes the patient's speech to sounds slurred or garbled.

Dysarthria will sometimes appear with oral apraxia and verbal apraxia, though each disorder may exist independently.

Tips for Communicating with an
Oral Motor Deficit

• If not aware, let people know that you are having difficulty with your speech.

   

• Speak slowly and intentionally. Try to limit your messages to shorter, more compact sentences.

   

• When speaking longer messages, take a rest between sentences.

   

• Use good posture while speaking. Your breath is the energy source behind your voice. Sit or stand up straight and use your breath to its full potential.

   

• Writing and drawing are forms of communicating too. If you are becoming frustrated with your speech, use some of your other skills to get the message across.

   

• Keep practicing and don't give up. Whether it's oral motor exercises or learning sign language, keep improving your ability to communicate.

Communication Tips for Caregivers

1. Always speak to your loved one with respect.

2. Give your speaking partner time to speak. Let them complete what they have to say. Only offer help if they become overly frustrated.

3. Try to eliminate all distractions while communicating.

4. Let the speaker know when you do not understand them. Try to ask yes/no questions to figure out the part of the message you didn't understand.

You can find additional caregiver tips as well as education and support at The National Family Caregivers Association (NFCA).

What is Oral Motor Therapy?

Oral motor therapy is carried out by performing a group of specialized exercises specifically used to treat oral muscle weakness (dysarthria), poor coordination of the oral muscles (verbal apraxia), feeding problems, and swallowing difficulties (dysphagia).

Oral motor therapy was designed to increase coordination, stamina and strength of the jaw, lips, and tongue (the oral muscles). It can also include exercises to improve feeding and swallowing difficulties.

Collectively, these specialized exercises are called oral motor exercises. When a trained speech pathologist presents the exercises to a client, it is known as oral motor therapy.

When an oral motor deficit is present, a speech-language pathologist can provide a professional evaluation and develop a comprehensive treatment plan.

Depending on specific needs a qualified therapist will provide patients with a variety of oral motor exercises designed to improve their oral motor skills.

How does Oral Motor Therapy Work?

Simply put, oral motor therapy is exercising the muscles of your mouth.

Most of us are very familiar with exercises that improve the strength of more popular muscles, such as: biceps, chest muscles, stomach muscles, thigh muscles, shoulders, hamstrings, calf muscles, and so forth.

We buy home exercise equipment or join a neighborhood gym so we can perform specialized exercises to improve the strength and stamina of these muscles. And if we put our time in, we get results.

Oral motor therapy works the same way.

Oral motor exercises are designed to improve the strength and stamina of your oral muscles. That's right - exercises for your tongue, lips and jaw!

Did you ever think you might have to improve the strength of your tongue? What for?

Improve the strength of your lip and jaw muscles? For what purpose?

Under normal circumstances our oral muscles need no extra exercise. The act of speaking and eating each day keeps them all in great shape.

But what happens when the part of our brain that controls these muscles becomes damaged? That is usually the first time most of us become aware of the muscles surrounding our mouth. And, usually the first time we realize that we might require help to regain control over them again.

Done properly, daily exercise for your oral muscles will increase their strength, stamina, and your ability to control them.

And, as your strength and coordination improves ...
SO DOES YOUR SPEECH!

What you need is the opportunity to practice professional oral motor exercises everyday!