MYOFUNCTIONAL THERAPY JETER

Therapy Group

Where does your tongue live? Do you breathe through your mouth or nose? How does dentition affect your ability to say certain sounds/words or chew foods? Does your vocal quality decrease as the day goes by? These are some of the questions I began to ask clients during evaluations as a speech-language pathologist provider since there seem to be more dysregulated children coming in for evaluations that do not sleep, breathe or eat well. In turn, I began to look at more research so we could better understand and serve these clients which lead me to studying more about orofacial disorders and becoming a myofunctional therapy provider.

Hanson (1982) defined OMDs as “abnormal resting labial-lingual posture of the orofacial musculature, atypical chewing and swallowing patterns, dental malocclusions, blocked nasal airways, and speech problems.” Orofacial myofunctional therapy focuses on the muscles of the mouth and face in order to re-educate or retrain clients on how to swallow, breathe, speak, and have proper tongue posture. Orofacial Myofunctional disorders affect all