Good luck with everything and let us know if you still need our help! He is not yet ready to work on elevation. He still needs help with tongue retraction and lateral movement before working on elevation. I look forward to hearing from you and helping any way I can! If you’d like to send a quick video clip doing some stimulation of his tongue I may be able to see something.Īll questions that may help us get a “why” answer and maybe a plan! Also, if you haven’t already, you should read this article by Sara Rosenfeld-Johnson about Moebius Syndrome. Have you done the Jaw Grading Bite Blocks so we know that he has adequate jaw stability as well? Can he drink from a straw with tongue retraction? (Or does he protrude his tongue forward)Ĥ. Can he chew on his back molars and hold the food there? Do you see his tongue move toward the food as he chews? Does this look easy for him?ģ. Does your son get any lateral movement? If so is he getting lateral movement to both sides? What activities do you see this movement in?Ģ. If you are unsure of any of the terminology let me know!ġ. When we are looking for tongue tip elevation we need to know first if he has jaw stability, tongue retraction and tongue tip lateralization skills first these are prerequisite movements we look for. Here are some questions that may help us think about why he may be having difficulty. My question is: how can I help my son improve tongue movement? He has twelfth cranial nerve palsy, and his tongue has become so much stronger with therapy, but tongue tip elevation is still so hard for us. We do a lot, from the Z-Vibe to Chewy Tubes to the horns! We have him try to follow the Z-Vibe with his tongue, but I can’t get his tongue to lift up. We have been doing TalkTools therapy for years and love it. My six-year-old son has Moebius syndrome and recently had facial reanimation surgery. I was wondering if you could possibly help me. She works through her own private practice Elizabeth Smithson Therapy, LLC in the home setting and in the TalkTools® office in Charleston, SC.īite tube hierarchy bite tube set bite tubes bubble blowing bubble hierarchy bubble therapy down syndrome horn blowing horn hierarchy horn therapy tongue protrusion tongue retraction tongue thrust z-vibe Read more → Liz works with clients with a wide range of disabilities including Cerebral Palsy, Down Syndrome, and Spinal Muscular Atrophy. She has received specialized training in Oral Placement Therapy, Speech, Feeding, Apraxia, Sensory Processing Disorders, and PROMPT©. Liz is also a Level 5 TalkTools® Trained Therapist. She earned her Master of Speech Pathology at the University of South Carolina. Please let me know if you have any other questions.Įlizabeth Smithson, MSP, CCC-SLP is a Speech-Language Pathologist who has over 10 years of professional experience working with infants, children, adolescents and adults. The more you can work on the retraction the better. All of this will encourage tongue retraction in the mouth. I would add bubble blowing, horn blowing and chewing on the back molars (with cubes of food if able, z-vibe and the bite tubes). Everything you are already doing sounds great. It sounds like you have been working really hard with this patient to address the tongue retraction. Pediatrician and ENT have no concerns about size of tonsils I have not observed them myself yet. Mom sits in on sessions and carries over at home. What else can I do? I only get to see her one time per month at this point. I can prompt her to retract her tongue at rest but it comes right back out. As soon as she attempts to control the puff with her tongue or swallow, her tongue pushes forward again. She retracts her tongue when I place a straw in the corner of her mouth, place a puff on her molar ridge (and will maintain tongue lateralization for a short period), and when I place the elephant jiggler in her mouth. Almost as if she is intentionally pushing it all the way out. Her tongue is ALWAYS out of her mouth, far. I have a 13 month old with Down syndrome who has a significant tongue thrust swallow pattern and tongue protrusion.
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