{"id":345483,"date":"2022-10-27T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-27T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/speech-therapy-oro-facial-massages-and-mouth-exercises\/"},"modified":"2022-10-27T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-10-27T09:00:00","slug":"speech-therapy-oro-facial-massages-and-mouth-exercises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/speech-therapy-oro-facial-massages-and-mouth-exercises\/","title":{"rendered":"Speech Therapy: Oro-Facial Massages and Mouth Exercises"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As part of treating <strong>dysphasia or dyspraxia<\/strong>, a speech therapist may recommend daily massages to stimulate or desensitise the mouth area. Here are a few examples of oro-facial massages and mouth exercises you could try with your child, in a fun way&#8230;<\/p>\n<h2>What is oro-facial function?<\/h2>\n<p>Oro-facial functions cover <strong>all the motor, sensory, and secretory activities<\/strong> located in the skull and face. Arranged in a hierarchy, they develop <strong>over the course of a person&#8217;s growth<\/strong>, in order of importance for survival: breathing, sucking-swallowing, chewing-swallowing, phonation, and articulation.<\/p>\n<p>The development of oro-facial functions directly influences the development of the muscles, bone growth, and the facial nerve network. <strong>When disrupted<\/strong>, certain abnormalities can appear, such as swallowing or phonation disorders. These stem either from <strong>dysfunctions<\/strong> (malformations, illnesses, accidents&#8230;) or <strong>parafunctions<\/strong> (teeth grinding, biting objects, thumb-sucking&#8230;).<\/p>\n<p>In cases of <strong>dysphasia<\/strong>, which affects spoken language development, or oro-facial <strong>dyspraxia<\/strong>, which affects swallowing, a speech therapist may provide or recommend oro-facial massages.<\/p>\n<h2>A few examples of oro-facial massages<\/h2>\n<p>Here are a few examples of oro-facial massages you could try with your child. In all cases, try to <strong>make them fun and enjoyable<\/strong>: it&#8217;s a moment to connect and listen to them, a special time to savour together.<\/p>\n<p><strong>On the outside of the mouth<\/strong>, these oro-facial massages involve:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Tapping firmly around the lips;<\/li>\n<li>Massaging from the bridge of the nose down to the mouth with the index finger;<\/li>\n<li>Massaging the cheeks and temples in circular motions;<\/li>\n<li>Massaging the chin in circular motions;<\/li>\n<li>Pressing gently on the chin to trigger swallowing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>On the inside of the mouth<\/strong>, these oro-facial massages involve:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Massaging the upper and lower gums;<\/li>\n<li>Massaging the inside of the cheeks;<\/li>\n<li>Massaging the tongue;<\/li>\n<li>Massaging the palate.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>A few examples of mouth exercises<\/h2>\n<p>Improve the tone of the area with some mouth exercises! It will strengthen the tongue, cheeks, and lips &#8211; which will certainly <strong>improve their articulation<\/strong>. Again, approach this daily work in a fun, enjoyable way&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Here are <strong>a few examples of mouth<\/strong> exercises:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Stick the tongue out downwards, then to the right, then to the left;<\/li>\n<li>Try to touch the nose with the tongue, then place the tip of the tongue on the palate, before tucking it into the cheek;<\/li>\n<li>Lick the upper lip, then the upper teeth, and touch the molars with the tongue;<\/li>\n<li>Puff out both cheeks, then one at a time, before clicking the tongue;<\/li>\n<li>Suck the cheeks in, turn the lower lip out, and give a big smile with the mouth stretched wide;<\/li>\n<li>Push the lips forward, give a lopsided smile, and bite the upper lip with the teeth.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Of course, our <a href=\"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/online-speech-therapy\/\">speech therapists<\/a> &#8211; <strong>available online on the Ora-Visio platform<\/strong> &#8211; can guide you towards the most suitable exercises to address your child&#8217;s difficulty. Don&#8217;t hesitate to reach out to them!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As part of treating dysphasia or dyspraxia, a speech therapist  [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":345484,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[339],"tags":[386],"class_list":["post-345483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-speech-therapy","tag-speech-therapy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}