Mouth Fun
Autism Community Magazine (Vol. 3, Summer 2013)
By Renai Jonas Ed.D.,CCC-SLP
Fun is the gateway to growth for all children. There are many fun kid-friendly activities that can help reduce oral hypersensitivity, encourage successful feeding, and promote a child’s mastery of his or her mouth in preparation for speech, language, and social development.
Top 12 Developmental Mouth Activities for Young Children:
1. By six months of age, most children can be spoon fed pureed food. This milestone provides the opportunity to introduce a variety of spoons of different colors, shapes, and textures. Character (e.g. Elmo) spoons are particularly effective for promoting engagement, expression, and interaction with a child.
2. Colorful and textured teethers and toothbrushes are also excellent for stimulating oral perception and activity. Character toothbrushes that light up and vibrate are very popular, and effective with children.
3. By the age of 15 months, most children can use straws and training cups that teach straw drinking by squeezing the cup so that the liquid is pushed up to the top of the straw. Using straws of different colors, widths, lengths, and shapes, or those that make sounds, help encourage straw drinking and strengthen a child’s oral motor skills as well as familiarize him/her with the facility and versatility of his/her mouth. (Caution: Never allow any child to use a straw in a moving vehicle or while walking, running, or climbing).
4. Children 18 months and older are fascinated by bubbles. They love to watch and blow them. Start with a bubble on the wand. Have your child make the bubble dance at first with a gentle blow, then graduate to a more forceful one. The child will eventually be able to use his breath to move the bubble off the wand and in due time, to even blow out the candles on a birthday cake!
Every May, pharmacies and store chains welcome summer by offering a variety of bubbles and bubble blowers (bubble pipes, bubble straws, etc.) featuring different shaped mouthpieces. Playing with a wide variety of these toys helps form different lip positions necessary for speech development (ex: round lips for “oo” as in shoe and flat closed lips for “m” as in more).
5. Blowers and horns are another fun mouth activity. Usually a plastic recorder is the easiest to use. The child may then progress to plastic (not paper) mouthpiece party blowers, harmonicas, whistles, and horns.
Blowers of different shapes and sounds will delight toddlers and help to develop their mouth functions and muscles. Try them out yourself, starting with the easier ones first.
6. Foods are another enjoyable way to entice a variety of lip and tongue movements. Use your imagination as you develop special food activities for your child. Licking around an ice cream sandwich, inserting a small round lollipop in your child’s mouth by telling him/her to make a fish face when removing the lollipop in order to make a kissing sound, licking sprinkles or icing off a lollipop or his/her own lips…all engaging and fun activities that help children master the usage of their mouths.
Once your child safely eats solid foods by around 30 months of age (developmentally) you can have your child work half of a ziti noodle into his/her mouth without using his/her hands. Their lips do all the work. After mastered, progress to a whole ziti noodle. Do the same with half a veggie straw or 1/3 of a pretzel stick placed between the child’s lips. Always be cautious to avoid choking.
7. Play a game making funny faces in the mirror, i.e., round lips, a smile, wide open mouth, tightly closed lips, etc.
8. Place stickers on the child’s face i.e., above the lips, below the lips, on the sides of the lips, on the cheeks, on the nose, on the forehead, etc. Start with only one or two stickers, then add more and more and count with the child while wearing the stickers. Make silly faces while the child is wearing the stickers, this will heighten the feeling and input into the muscles of the face and mouth.
9. Use different colored suntan lotion, cream, or Halloween face paint on different parts of the face (similar to sticker activity).
10. Place different pureed foods (applesauce, peanut butter if not allergic, etc.) on different parts of the child’s lips for him or her to lick off (on bottom lip, on top lip, in the corners of the lips, above the upper lip, below the bottom lip, etc.).
11. Have your child imitate, as well as make different sounds with his/her lips and tongue such as popping, kissing, clicking, raspberries, animal sounds, etc.
12. If your child can handle solids (typically by 2 ½ years old) try chewing different textures and flavors i.e. gummies, gum, etc. Be careful to avoid choking.
These ideas are just a few of the many ways to encourage lip and tongue movement, tolerance of stimulation or touch to the lips, tongue or face, acceptance of a greater variety of foods, and the production of more sounds and words.
Enjoy these activities, while being cautious and vigilant at all times to avoid choking or accidents. It is dangerous to allow your young child to participate in these activities without appropriate adult supervision and guidance. Children who are developmentally functioning below 18 months (i.e. your child may be older yet lacking the typical skills of a child that age) should not engage in these activities without guidance from their therapist, nurse practitioner or pediatrician.
These suggestions, combined with your playful creativity and attention to safety will help you open the door to oral motor empowerment, confidence, and social success for your child.
Dr. Renai Jonas is a widely published and nationally respected Speech and Language Pathologist for over 38 years and a recognized expert in pediatric intervention with a specialty in Autism and Apraxia.
Renai Jonas Ed.D.,CCC-SLP, [email protected]
See also My-COMMUNICATION How to Teach a Child with Autism to Talk written by Dr. Renai Jonas
Oral motor therapy links
Oral Motor Dysfunction; Exercises and Therapy for Autism and Apraxia
And in addition to appropriate oral motor therapy -please don’t underestimate NV original as well to help in this area too! Look at the before and after videos of Jake for just one example.
For more information including the new member document please visit our document page
Dr. Renai Jonas Featured by FLASHA (Florida Association of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists)
Both speech-language professionals in our state as well as those with special needs should be thankful that Dr. Renai Jonas decided to migrate to sunnier skies here in South Florida some thirty years ago where she has spent the predominate portion of her thirty-six year career working with children with diagnoses from autism to Moebius. Nothing gives Renai more pleasure than running into these individuals once they are grown adults and seeing the fruits of her labor. Not only has she been a significant asset to these children, but has, in many cases, inspired their parents to join the profession of speech therapy or other related fields. Renai recalls one of the more memorable of these circumstances: “I worked with a toddler with a diagnosis of Autism (who) later became a Physicist. I treated him up until the age of 4. He would then return once or twice a year for a social skills tune up. At the age of five he returned and he told me about a letter he wrote to the President of the United States as part of a Kindergarten project. He developed a plan to incinerate trash in an environmentally safe manner by digging a hole into the center of the earth and having a chute to pass the garbage through.”
It is always flattering to be noted as an expert in one’s field. Renai recalls the experience that she classifies as her “once in a lifetime” opportunity. She was asked to join with professionals from all over the country to be involved in the task of classifying Childhood Apraxia as a disorder. The Social Security Administration asked her to be a speaker with other highly acclaimed individuals and presented on the evidence on how different speech, language and hearing diagnoses and conditions may be considered disabilities.
When asked what her favorite therapy technique was, Renai answered this question by discussing her therapeutic philosophy: “Over the years I have found that there is not one technique that helps any one child.” Renai likes to mix and match methodologies in order to create an individualized approach to therapy. Sometimes she may use up to ten or more methods within one session. She also adopts techniques from other related disciplines such as sensory, behavior, motor, nutrition, educational, etc.
After such a long and successful career, Dr. Jonas is happy to provide tips for up and coming professionals in the field of speech pathology. She mentions that if a therapist notices that a child is not progressing, they should assess what they are doing in the therapeutic process that can be modified rather than think it is the child that is not able to learn. All children can progress is her motto. Contributing to her therapeutic success is her philosophy that intervention must focus on the entire child including the family. She recommends that therapists work with every individual involved with that person in order to maximize the gains. Another belief that guides Renai is the understanding that one never stops learning. She cautions new as well as veteran therapists to make sure that they stay as current as possible on techniques and methodologies within our field especially when it comes to technological advances.
Though Renai has had a wonderful and successful career, she has also encountered her own share of professional challenges. One of her biggest obstacles has been getting parents, teachers, and other professionals to believe in the special child. She feels that having a label often prejudices the person against society’s values. Expectations may fall short and opportunities for growth may be less than they should. Renai attempts to encourage professionals who work with special needs individuals to deal with their self-esteem in addition to the skills that they are trying to teach.
We are so blessed to be able to have such not only a wonderful therapist, but also a teacher of life’s most valuable lessons with us to enlighten us along our own path.
Jonas Therapy Associates
Location
Jonas Therapy Associates
130 Pine Circle
Boca Raton, FL 33432
United States
See map:Google Maps
Contact Name: Dr. Renai Jonas CCC SLP
561 361 0307
[email protected]