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Oral Motor for Speech and Feeding Issues

devilinguccidevilingucci
in Special Needs

AJ has recently started services through the county.  He is receiving speech 2x and special ed 3x weekly.  He is only about 2 weeks in.  While we love his SEIT, I have already had to have his speech therapist replaced once.  When she came into the house, she was filthy and started yelling his name (the IFSP clearly states that he doesn't respond to his name)... I had to tell her numerous times that he wasn't deaf, he just didn't respond when called.  

Apparently it is very difficult to place with speech therapists in my county as they are extremely limited.  AJ also has feeding issues so the speech therapist must also have a feeding background.  I received a call from a new speech pathologist last night.  She does have some availability (although I will have to shorten AJ's naps in order to make the days / times work).  She has experience in feeding, some PROMPT, but she said that she has limited oral motor.  I have always been told that AJ must have oral motor due to his weak jaw, low oral tone, inability to chew properly, etc. but this therapist's opinion is that oral motor therapy doesn't work with speech delayed children.  Meanwhile during his eval, I was told numerous times to make sure the speech therapist had oral motor.

Any thoughts?  I am so new to this and I don't want to keep bringing therapists in and out and wasting time...  For those of you who have had children with speech delays, what types of therapy did you find helped? 

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Re: Oral Motor for Speech and Feeding Issues

  • JustinloveJustinlove member
    There is a lot of research out there that says that oral motor exercises do not do much to improve speech delays.  HOWEVER, since your child has oral motor issues, you will want someone with experience to help the feeding.  All speech therapists have feeding training, but not all speech therapists have specialized in feeding therapy.  Your other option is an OT.  They also focus on oral motor and feeding.  The key is to find one who specializes in it.
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  • cranberry27cranberry27

    Totally agreed.  An OT might be able to help if you have no better options.  An SLP is usually more knowledgeable about the actual function and structures of the mouth and has the specific training.  OM itself can be a very controversial issue.

    Sometimes service coordinators get so desperate to find a therapist that they will just give you somebody who doesn't perfectly fit your needs.  I have had service coordinators flat-out lie that there are no feeding issues (or extremely mild ones) just to get me in the door.

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  • TriciaJoyTriciaJoy member

    Robbie's OT did most of his oral motor work, though that was never really his area of weakness (he had a feeding aversion, not an oral aversion)

    Can you ask your CW to send some resumes of the therapists available? The first couple of IFSPs we had, they just sent someone, but then we got a new (good!) CW and she actually would send me a stack of bios of the therapists, I would pick three, number them in order of preference and she would try to work it out.

     

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