Development of oral facial muscles is important for a child to accurately produce speech sounds. Poor coordination and strength of articulators can adversely affect skill development for speech sound production. When looking at oral development it is important to ensure the child is provided a variety of movement opportunities to build a variety of oral skills. Movements should include movements of the jaw, tongue, and cheeks to build strength and coordination.
Below are sample activities to do at home to increase oral awareness and movement
- Gather two sets of 5 items varying in size, texture, shape, and temperature. For example; ice, a tongue depressor, straw, teething toy, and straw. Encourage your child to use each of the objects in oral-exploratory play. Imitate your child’s movements and comment on what your child is doing and how it makes the mouth feel.
- Mirror play! Have your child sit with you in front of a mirror. Explain that you will be playing a “clown” game. Feel free to dress up in silly hats or clothes to play the game! Instruct your child that you will be taking turns making silly faces in the mirror and copying each other. With your models, make sure you do a variety of tongue movements. Stick your tongue out, move it side to side, lift up the tip up to touch your nose. Have your child practice the movement 2-3 times before it is his or her turn to put the clown hat on.
- Play musical “chairs”. Choose objects around the house that include a target sound. For example if the target sound is “b” you could find a book, bear, bottle, bread, and bowl. Place pieces of paper on the floor, with the item on the paper, in a circle. Have the child walk from sheet to sheet until the music stops. Once the music stops, have your child say the target word they land on. You can also write the word on the pieces of paper to increase print sound awareness.
- Cut an egg carton in half lengthwise, turn it upside down, and color or paint each of the 6 protruding sections a different color. Next, find a puppet or an animal with a large mouth. Find small “food” items to feed the puppet. These could be marbles or pretend food. Tell your child that you are going to sing silly songs to help feed the very hungry animal! Model a sequence of three sounds varying in intonation tapping the egg cartons to pace each sound as they are sung. Different intonation patterns can include rising/falling pitch or increase/decreased loudness on individual sounds. For example, “ ba BA ba”. Think of the NBC studio signature tone. Once the silly song is imitated you can feed the hungry animal! Using rhythm and a singsong voice has been proven to help facilitate speech output.
These activities will encourage oral motor development in a fun and exciting way. Your child will be learning and exploring and improve his oral awareness in the process!
