Oral-Motor skills refer to the integrity of the sensory and motor systems of the oral structures that are important for speech and feeding. These include the face, checks, jaw, tongue, lips, palate and velum (soft plate). Children may present with varied diagnosis from CP, cleft-lip and/or palate, sleep apnea, tongue-tie or Down’s syndrome in addition to various other medical conditions. Oral-motor deficits are also present in typically-developing children, although oftentimes we see children with a history of reflux, food allergies/intolerances and/or digestive issues.
Early Signs and Symptoms of Difficulty with Oral-Motor Skills:
1. Marked difficulties with strength, speech and accuracy of articulatory movement.
2. Imprecise or weakly targeted consonants.
3. Imprecise or weakly targeted vowels, especially those which involve spreading intrinsic tongue muscles, such as /i/, /ai/, /ei/, oi/.
4. Weak vocal quality (lack of respiratory support).
5. Hypo or hypernasality.
6. Weak articulatory contacts.
7. Rapid or slow speaking rate.
8. Speech clarity gets worse as length of utterance increases.
- may be due to lack of breath support or muscle fatigue
- may resemble apraxia of speech
9. Weak articulatory targets, especially for / r, s, l / and vowels.
10. Generally weak, mushy, garbled, imprecise speech.