Oral Motor Exercises

Last Updated on Friday, 20 February 2009 03:42 Friday, 20 February 2009 03:22

Mouth and tongue exercises for your child:

• Make funny faces in the mirror (stick out tongue, move tongue to one side, open mouth wide, pucker lips, sad face, surprised face, mad face).
• Have your child count his teeth with his tongue.
• Blow bubbles.
• Drink through a straw.
• Blow a whistle.
• Play a kazoo or a recorder.
• If you feel your child can handle it have him eat a watermelon with seeds and spit the seeds into a bowl.
• Have a food game where your child has to stick his tongue through a fruit roll-up wall, balance a raisin on his tongue, and knock down a cracker tower with a straw help in his lips (not in teeth).
• Have him lick an ice cream cone and suck on a popsicle.
• Have your child eat a peanut butter sandwich with lots of extra peanut butter.

Oral-motor excercises are helpful for some children especially those with a limited variety of sounds.