Pam Marshalla, MA, CCC-SLP

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Again: What Does Oral Motor Therapy Have To Do With Speech?

01.24.07

I want to take another run at this question because it arises so often. Consider:

• Phonemes emerge when a child's oral-motor control is immature. Think about [b], [d] and [g]. These early voiced stops emerge when a child is about 6 months of age. That means that the oral movements used during their production are primitive. These primitive movements refine over time.
• From an oral-motor perspective, we can say that all phonemes have three forms in development:
  1. An "Emergent Form" - This is the way a phoneme is produced when it first emerges
  2. A "Maturation Form" - This is the way it sounds as oral-motor skills mature
  3. An "Adult Form" - This is the way a phoneme sounds when it is produce with full motor maturation
• The Consonant Chart and Vowel Quadrilateral have been constructed based upon the Adult Form. After all, it was adults who were studied when these tools were created.
• BUT CHILDREN DO NOT PRODUCE PHONEMES WITH MATURITY UNTIL THEIR MOTOR SYSTEM REACHES MATURITY. Until then, their phonemes are made with oral-motor immaturity. That is what makes the way a toddler says R, L, S and other phonemes so adorable.
• Some of our clients speak with immature speech patterns because their oral movement system is still immature. Many of these clients demonstrate immaturity in other parts of the body too.
• Other clients speak incorrectly because their oral movement system is impaired due to structural deficit or neuromuscular disorder.
• The oral-motor analysis reveals the level of oral movement maturation. It also reveals incorrect oral movement that impacts speech.
• Oral-motor therapy is designed to mature the oral-motor system so that phonemes can be spoken with mature oral movements.