Oral motor therapy facilitates the movement (range of motion), strength, stability, sustainability, and dissociation of the jaw, lips, and tongue. There are six areas in which oral motor techniques are helpful in facilitating an overall desired outcome:
1. Articulation/Phonological Therapy: Here, we are focused on improved oral function, allowing a client to produce better speech sounds, and sequencing these sounds for traditional articulation therapeutic needs to create increased intelligibility during connected speech.
2. Myofunctional Therapy: Here, we are focused on improved oral function for those clients demonstrating tongue thrust secondary to structural and functional causes, as well as a reverse swallow. A tactile approach to oral motor therapy is necessary for those clients who do not respond to traditional articulation therapy.
3. Dysphagia: Here, we are focused on improved oral function for eating and swallowing secondary to injury, neurological insult, or a diseased process.
4. Developmental Feeding Therapy: Here, we are focused on improved oral function for those clients who require oral exploration for facilitating vocal play, eating, and swallowing. A sensory and tactile approach to oral motor therapy is necessary when the normal developmental process is compromised by congenital factors or delays.
5. Neurodevelopmental Therapy: Here, we are focused on improved oral function for inhibiting abnormal reflex activity, while facilitating normal movement throughout the whole body.
6. Sensorimotor Integration Therapy: here, we are focused on improved oral function for processing and organizing any sensory information, in order to emit an adaptive response such as eating and speaking.