Oral Motor Exercises
Lip exercises
Smack lips together
Gently close your lips together and make a "pop" sound by smacking your lips together
Strengthen the muscles around the lips and improve the ability to close the lips tightly, which improve speech articulation
Drink through a twisty straw
Help with lip strength and coordination
Lollipop Squeeze
Hold and squeeze the lollipop with your lips for a few seconds
Strengthen lip muscles
Cheek exercises
Blow bubbles or feathers
Improve the strength and coordination of the cheek muscles
Drink from a straw
Use lips and tongue to create suction and draw liquid up a straw
Strengthen the muscles in the lips, cheek, and jaw
Jaw exercises
Chewing candy
Chew a piece of candy slowly, use your jaw muscles to move the candy around the mouth and the tongue to control its position
Helps to stimulate your face and throat muscles
Stretching
Open your jaw wide and hold for a few seconds
Increase the range of motion and mobility of your jaw muscles
Tongue exercises
Licking food from sides of the lips
Place a small amount of food, e.g. chocolate, on the side of the mouth and use your tongue to lick the food from the corner of the lips
Strengthen and coordinate the muscles of the tongue
Tongue clicks and popping sounds
To make tongue clicking sounds, place your tongue on the roof of your mouth and pull it down quickly
To make tongue popping sounds, create a small pocket of air between your tongue and the roof of your mouth and release it quickly
Strengthen and coordinate the muscles of the tongue, lips, and jaw to improve speech production
