Bonus System: Oral Motor System
The phrase, “oral motor system” may be new to you! You may also hear “oral motor skills.” These terms are often used interchangeably. The oral motor system is not one of our eight senses, but rather a combination of senses. It is the interaction among the senses within the mouth involving the muscles and movement of the tongue, lips, jaw, mouth, and hard palate. All the senses interact to create oral motor input influencing the development of oral motor skills necessary for feeding, eating, and speech and language. Think about chewing gum. Chewing and biting provide proprioceptive input to the muscles and joints within the oral cavity, texture of the gum provides tactile input, and the taste and smell of the gum stimulate the gustatory and olfactory senses.
Oral motor skills include the muscle tone, muscle strength, range of motion, speed, coordination, and dissociation of the muscles within the mouth. They lay the foundation for feeding enabling us to lick, bite, chew, crunch, and suck. Furthermore, oral motor skills play an important role in facial expression and speech articulations.
The development of this system starts in the womb and is fully developed by age three. Primitive reflexes support the development of oral motor skills and are present at birth. Primitive reflexes are involuntary movement patterns designed to keep newborns alive and help with development throughout infancy which includes oral motor skills needed for feeding. The reflexes develop during the third trimester (28th-37th week of gestation) therefore if an infant is born within these weeks, their oral motor skills may not be fully developed and higher level of support for feeding may be required. Primitive reflexes are needed for higher-level learning and development and they are not meant to be present forever. They should disappear by being integrated into our central nervous system by 12 months, however, some are closer to 24 months. For more information about primitive reflexes click here.
A child with sensory processing disorder may have challenges with processing oral motor input or have difficulty with oral motor skills. Similar to the eight sensory systems, the oral motor system may be over-responsive (hypersensitive) or under-responsive (hyposensitive). Over-responsivity means one has a larger than expected emotional or behavioral response to sensory input. It takes little input to produce a sensation. On the other hand, a child may be under-responsive where the child has low arousal where they don’t notice the sensory input and it takes a lot of input to produce a sensation. A child with sensory processing disorder may also seek intensive oral motor input.
Oral motor skills are needed for important tasks within our day, such as eating and speaking, however, oral motor input can also help with optimal arousal regulation and organizing our nervous system in order to complete activities to the best of our abilities. Some kiddos while they are writing, will stick out their tone, bite their lip or display drooling. These signs may indicate difficulty with a task and/or their system demonstrating difficulty processing the sensory information while simultaneously cognitively processing and completing the tasks. Providing the child oral motor strategies, we can help their body regulate and organize for increased attention and performance.
Therapeutic Tool Highlight: Chewelry
Chewlery can be worn around children's neck or wrist as an easily accessible tool to provide oral motor input for those with oral seeking behaviors (biting, sucking, licking, ect.) to help calm and organize their nervous system.
We hope this blog was informative and gave you insight into the oral motor system. If you have questions or need more information, let us know! We are here to support you!
Check out our sensory system handouts you can purchase individually or as a bundle on our website! A great resource to learn about sensory processing disorder and each of our sensory systems. BONUS: print them off and hang them on the wall for all who pass by to view and learn or share with family, friends or teachers for them to have insight into your child’s sensory system.
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Baby: https://www.babycareadvice.com/blogs/bottle-feeding/how-long-should-bottle-feeding-take