In this video you will see one of our speech language pathologists completing “gum massage” as an oral motor stimulation exercise with a young client. Oral stimulation is used as a way to increase awareness of the articulators which are used for feeding and speech (i.e., lips, cheek, jaw, and tongue). Children with low oral muscle tone tend to have decreased sensitivity to tactile input in and around their oral area. This may also be the case for children who exhibit aversions or defensiveness towards certain food, tastes, or textures. Gum massage, as shown above, is one way of introducing new sensations to a child’s mouth by stimulating the gums with a massager, such as a Nuk brush, along a child’s gums. This can be performed with varying degrees of pressure, as well as with a variety of textured tools (i.e., bumpy, smooth, ridged), depending on the child’s sensitivities. It is always important to consider the child’s level of comfort before introducing new textures or increasing pressure. Activities, like the one shown above, prepare the mouth for additional oral motor and speech activities.
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