Oral-Motor Exercises Today!

Here are all of the oral-motor exercises we did today. They are fun & exciting for my Miss Pretty! We are supposed to spend 10-20 minutes 2-3 times a day. Today we had 2 sessions. The first was just Emily & Mommy. We spent probably 15 minutes making faces & playing our new whistles & silly noise makers. She carried the slide whistle around for half the morning blowing on it! Our 2nd session was this afternoon. Alex & Hunter joined us as well. The pictures below are from our afternoon session. We probably spent a good 40 minutes "playing" at the table. We all had so much fun.

Lizard

Emily loves to watch Signing Time while eating breakfast. She asks every day! I think we are watching "Leah's Farm". It has a ton of animal signs & a silly song about turtle rock. I have found that music is another way that Emily is able to connect with speech! When it is a song on a movie or TV show she really pays attention. She tries to say some of the words in the song. If she is unable to say any of the words she at least picks up on the sound & tone fluctuations.

Peanut Butter Therapy

We have been working hard everyday (usually 2 or 3 times a day) on our oral-motor exercises. This is definitely one of our favorites! Spread peanut butter all over your lips & can only get it off by licking your lips with your tongue. No cheating by using your hands or teeth (or even rubbing your lips together)! The boys also had a blast doing this with her. She is also holding a silly straw (crazy shapes). We use those to blow tissue across the table at each other. The more bends & twists the straw has the hard you have to blow. Emily doesn't like this exercise as much but will do it when the boys join us.

Apple Sauce Sucking

Yum! We love to drink anything thick through a straw. Oral-motor exercises are a kids dream come true. They get to play with their food essentially! Drinking apple sauces, milk shakes, yogurt & pudding through straws. We get to pick up Cheerios's off the table with our tongues. We get to eat hard chewy candy & gum. I am hoping never to hear a complaint about oral-motor therapy ever!

Silly Faces

At 3 making silly faces is what life is all about! We get to do for therapy!! Silly faces is probably our favorite oral-motor exercise so far. Why... because we can do it anywhere we go. Everyone is laughing & having fun. Who doesn't love to stick out your tongue & try to touch your nose or chin?! Who doesn't like to wiggle your tongue from side to side & top to bottom?! I tell you, if Emily knows anything it is how to be super silly!