OROMOTOR EXERCISES... PROMPT... NDT



I would love to share the attached video of Lori Overland, a renowned Speech Therapist who specialises in children's oral motor, feeding and speech difficulties.

In my previous post, I mentioned the reasons for the lack of success in oromotor therapy for some children. I also added that in addition to oromotor tools, PROMPT and NDT approaches are often used in my treatment of articulation difficulties (may it be muscle-based difficulties or motor-planning difficulties).

This video captures exactly what I am trying to say:
  1. Lori Overland (the featured Speech Therapist) assessed Nathan (the featured child) using Talktools and Ark's oromotor tools. She looked into jaw strength and gradation, as well as lip-jaw and tongue-jaw dissociation.
  2. She also assessed the child's feeding skills, despite the lack of strong evidence in the link between feeding skills and speech. Lori's feeding assessment showed that Nathan does have feeding problems (his feeding skills are functional but not age-appropriate). (This is where we need to think about evidence-based practice versus experience-based practices. When we look at normal development, does a child not first have good feeding skills before clear speech develops?)
  3. After her oromotor review, Lori moved on to speech practices (I believe that Lori would have prescribed oromotor exercises, but it does not stop here; speech practices followed). During the speech practices, Lori used PROMPT which was really effective in showing Nathan how to produce the sounds/words.
  4. Where does the NDT approach come in? Do you see that Nathan is seated upright? Not just upright, but his trunk is active. He is not slouching. Also, his head, neck and back are always aligned. His knees are 90 degrees and feet are firmly on the ground. His elbows are also rested on the table at 90 degrees. These are embedded NDT principles. This provides stability for jaw dissociation (and speech work). 
I am really happy to see Lori and Nathan's parents sharing this video. Do not just keep doing oromotor exercises... always transit it to speech practices as soon and as much as possible (or feeding practices with food if the child has feeding issues but is safe for oral feed).

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For additional information:

About Lori Overland
http://www.alphabetsoupomtherapy.com/therapists.htm

Tools Commonly Prescribed for Oromotor Exercises
http://www.talktools.com/therapy-essentials/
http://www.arktherapeutic.com/oral-motor/

The PROMPT Approach - Analysing the level of breakdown of the speech system
http://promptinstitute.com/index.php?page=what-is-prompt3

NDT Approach - Looking at the whole body while working on speech
https://www.ndta.org/

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