Oral Motor

Oral motor tools facilitate the development of muscle tone in the mouth, breathing patterns, speech and language, eating, and are tools to calm and regulate us.

Children who have sensory processing and/or developmental challenges frequently have low muscle tone. This can impact breathing muscles. This means, rather than using the diaphragm for breathing, the individual breathes shallowly in their upper chest. This puts the whole body on alert, make it difficult to attend and focus.

Good breathing can improve the clarity of speech. Certain sounds are based on the ability to grade respiration and breathing is essential for putting the ending sounds on words. Breathing can make the difference between speaking in short phrases and speaking in full sentences.