I don’t know about you guys, but I have quite a few preschoolers on my caseload with oral-motor difficulties (many times as a result of prolonged pacifier use). In addition to working on jaw stability, tongue retraction I’m always looking for fun ways to practice appropriate resting tongue posture.
After establishing an understanding of what an appropriate resting tongue posture should be..here are a few ways to put it into practice in order to create that muscle memory…
1. Hum a Tune : Have the child maintain resting tongue posture while humming a quick song. Take turns having the child be the teacher too while you hum .
2. Read a Story: While reading a story, make sure the child is assuming an appropriate RTP.
3. Watch a Video: While watching a video, make sure the child is assuming an appropriate RTP.
4. Play games on the iPad: While playing a game make sure the child is assuming an appropriate RTP.
5. Roll and Color: Get a color by numbers and make the sure the child is assuming the appropriate resting tongue posture the whole time he/she is coloring in the numbers.
Keep your intervals short at first, then increase once you find yourself giving less cues overall. You can also use interval timers depending on the child. For data points, I put on an interval timer to see how many times during x amount of time, the child was as to maintain appropriate RTP.
Do you have any good ideas to use for promoting appropriate resting tongue posture??? Let me know!!
Stay well,
