Oral Motor Exercises
I recently published a new video: Exercises for the Mouth and Face | Oral Motor Exercises. This new video is my second follow along video that focuses on the muscles of the mouth and face. If you are like most people, you are probably wondering a few things:
Do we actually have muscles in our mouth and face?
What in the world are Oral Motor Exercises?
Well, today I am going to answer both of your questions. Are you ready to dive in?
Muscles of the Mouth and Face
Believe it or not we have a bunch of muscles in our mouth and face that work just like those in the rest of our bodies like our quads and biceps. The muscles in our mouth and face allow us to do really important things like
chew our food
swallow our food and drink
talk
make facial expressions.
And just like our quads and biceps the muscles of our mouth and face need to be strong enough in order to carry out these important tasks.As children develop they strengthen the muscles of their mouth through practice. Babbling, making silly faces, and trying to mimic other kids and adults is their “workout”.
In addition to strength, children have to learn how to coordinate these muscles together. The tasks of chewing, swallowing, and speaking are really complicated. They require using multiple muscles together with varying amouts of speed and force. The ability to coordinate muscles in this way is not easy and takes a lot of time and learning to master. That’s where Oral Motor Exercises come in.
Oral Motor Exercises
Oral Motor Exercises are designed to help improve the strength, control, and coordination of muscles in the mouth. And unlike many other exercises, oral motor exercises can be a lot of fun. If you are looking to try out a follow along version of this type of exercise try one of these videos:
If you would like to try some games on your own consider this list of fun:
Have fun making funny faces and blowing bubbles!
Dr. Heather, DPT
